HOT SPRINGS -- When wax museums became popular in the 19th century, they functioned as precursors to today's virtual reality.
For the price of admission, ordinary folks who'd never get to meet the likes of Queen Victoria or Abraham Lincoln could have fictive close encounters with their waxen effigies. It was possible to travel back in time to look Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great in the eye -- even if it was a glass eye.
Now it's possible to slap on a digital headset and travel by brainwaves to almost anywhere on Earth and beyond. But wax museums, archaic as they may be in our universe of lifelike artificial reality, still manage to stay in business.
There's one in Hot Springs, in the former Southern Club casino building across Central Avenue from Bathhouse Row. It's more interesting than a skeptic might expect, even if some figures do bear only a passing resemblance to the real-life notables they aim to portray.
Barack Obama, a recent addition, looks reasonably like the actual 44th president. Bolstering the reality is a recording that plays an excerpt from his 2008 presidential victory speech.
But George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush, paired in a window display, would be a challenge to recognize without the labels that identify them. The junior Bush could be almost any well-tailored white guy.
Inside, Steve McQueen is prominently displayed in wax to the left of the ticket counter, posed with a motorcycle to evoke his movie role in The Great Escape. He looks drawn and sickly, which might inadvertently remind some visitors of his early death from cancer.
An eclectic mix of characters poses in wax on the defunct escalator that once ran from lobby to second floor. Bottom to top, they are Jimmy Carter, Clark Gable, Mae West, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Louis Armstrong and Pope John Paul II. They'd make a dinner party to remember. The likenesses vary, from pretty close to way off.
Whatever their shortcomings in terms of appearance, the exhibits are clearly labeled. And there are a lot of them. At the top of the erstwhile escalator, Jesus Christ in wax hangs on the cross. Just beyond, the biblical Last Supper features effigies of all 12 disciples as well as their Jesus.
Group tableaux include the Kennedy family (JFK, Jackie, Bobby and Ted), as well as Allied World War II leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and the pesky Charles de Gaulle). Elvis Presley gets a solo appearance, buoyed by the perpetual playing of "Love Me Tender."
One mind-boggling scene brings together British and American luminaries. Prince Philip at far left poses next to Queen Elizabeth II, who is overshadowed by a towering Princess Diana. Prince Charles looks away to shake hands with Richard Nixon, while Pat Nixon stands alone at far right.
Admission to the wax museum includes a visit to the affiliated Southern Club Gambling Museum, tucked away in several rooms at the back of the second floor. The prime artifact here is a gorgeously restored roulette table.
Less striking but open to view is a bathroom said to look much the same as when the casino opened in 1894, down to the marble stalls and antique toilet. Another room displays an array of gambling equipment, including a pair of loaded dice.
A wax sculpture in the gambling museum portrays Al Capone, the most famous (or infamous) regular visitor to Hot Springs during the era of illicit gambling. Encountering this effigy of the scar-faced gangster is no doubt less scary than meeting him in the flesh would have been during the city's heyday.
Josephine Tussaud Wax Museum, 250 Central Ave., Hot Springs, is open 9 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. Admission is $10 plus tax ($7 for youngsters 3-12). For details, call (501) 623-5836 or visit hotspringswaxmuseum.com.
Weekend on 03/17/2016