LONDON WAX MUSEUM
St. Petersburg Beach, Florida
OPENED: March 2, 1963 - CLOSED: January 15, 1989
Tussaud's London Wax Museum opened its doors to the public on a beautiful March day in 1963. Located at 5505 Gulf Boulevard, in the heart of stunning St. Petersburg Beach, Florida the attraction quickly became one of the most popular sights along Florida's Gulf Coast. The museum was a huge success and would feature more than 120 life-sized wax figures in fancy elaborate scenes portraying the famed of History, Horrors and Hollywood.
The London Wax Museum was originally developed and opened by T. Alec Rigby, a Canadian partner in the Ripley's Believe it or Not! museums, and the man behind the Louis Tussaud's English Wax Museums in Atlantic City and Niagara Falls.
Opening with a collection of "Josephine Tussaud Wax Figures" (produced by GEM's of London) the collection was very similar to several other museums opened under the "London Wax Museum" (ie. Royal Wax Museum, Royal London Wax Museum, Royal Pacific....etc.) brand.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: eventually the museum would be rebranded as LOUIS TUSSAUD'S LONDON WAX MUSEUM and would fall under the banner of Ripley's International. Many new figures (not featured in this particular guidebook) were created by the legendary studio of STUBERGH WAX FIGURES and installed. But that would only last a few short years.
In 1978, John "Ted" Stambaugh, the town's former mayor, bought the museum from the Ripley's Corporation. He tried to update the museum by adding figures of Rambo, Freddy Krueger and Michael Jackson (created by artists Peter Carsillo and David Cellitti, respectively). Despite numbers slowing due to the pull of tourists to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and (the recently opened) EPCOT Center, the museum still was doing well.
But development was in the air in St. Pete Beach (they dropped the "rsburg" in 1994). Sadly, it would lead to the unplanned and unexpected closure of this spectacular place.
It had been announced in the Fall of 1988 that the London Wax Museum would close at the beginning of the next year so the property could be redeveloped as the BAYSIDE VILLAGE MARKETPLACE. The plans called for a new version of the wax museum to open as the major anchor of this new concept. But after months and month of delays, mainly over the recreation of the Wax Museum's iconic "Big Ben" sign, the beautiful Gulf Coast winds were blown from Ted Stambaugh's sails.
The London Wax Museum was closed and would never open again.
Eventually he would sell a vast majority of the collection to the White family, which at that time had recently bought most of Potter's Wax Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. The combination of those two collections (plus a few new figures added here and there) now make up what can currently be seen in "America's Oldest City" at Potter's Wax Museum.
Here for your enjoyment is shared a vintage LONDON WAX MUSEUM Guidebook, courtesy of the personal collection of Timothy Randall.
(click the pictures for full-sized High Definition images)
Enjoy this trip through time and down memory lane? Want to see some of what was once on display at the sadly closed LONDON WAX MUSEUM? Well, Hemingway, Hitler and Honest Abe can be seen at
POTTER'S WAX MUSEUM and Al Capone and his Gangster Friends are stirring up trouble at the
AMERICAN PROHIBITION MUSEUM in Savannah, Georgia. Just tell them WAXIPEDIA sent you!
(Hemingway THEN and NOW)
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