This Bible Museum Features Rejected Celebrity Wax Figures

Keen-eyed tourists paying a visit to the BibleWalk Museum in Mansfield, Ohio may spot some familiar faces. That’s because tucked into scenes of Old Testament miracles and the life of Christ are surprise appearances from celebrities like Steve McQueen and Ringo Starr. 

The founder of BibleWalk, Pastor Richard Diamond, began pursuing his dream of opening a biblical wax museum in the early 1980s. In order to keep costs low, he searched for used figures from different sources, one of which was the Madame Tussaud’s Museum in Arkansas, so many of BibleWalk’s 300 figures are celebrity wax figure museum rejects.

Unsurprisingly, the museum doesn’t like to advertise this unintended claim to fame. They even go so far as to make up the figures in ways that hide their originally intended appearances. But visitors who look carefully will see celebrity cameos from John Travolta as King Solomon, Elizabeth Taylor as the Pharaoh’s wife, and Prince Phillip as an angel of Christ. 

According to one museum employee, the secondhand celebrities haven’t been a distraction for guests—most of them get caught up in the Bible stories while they’re there. Not to mention there’s a reason that these figures were sold for so cheap: the model of Jesus being baptized looks less like Tom Cruise and more like his less-famous half brother. 

[h/t: The Telegraph]