Seeing Stars: Where the Stars are Immortalized
  


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Alas, Movieland Wax Museum closed in 2006, and will be replaced by a new shopping center featuring a Best Buy store and a food court.

However, I'm told that the "Starprint" hand and footprints of the stars will be preserved and incorporated into the new development, along with some of the original wax figures from the museum. The prints will reportedly be scattered along the new center's walkways, while the wax figures will be inside glass cases at the corners of the buildings.

More recently, they announced different plans, to build a Butterfly Pavillion on the site, "an elaborate complex featuring an atrium full of butterflies, a movie theater and more".  No word yet on what will become of the Star Prints.

I'll update this page when the new center opens. Until then, I'll leave this page up, as is, for anyone interested in reading about the way it used to be. But bear in mind that the article below was written while Movieland Wax Museum was still open...

UPDATE OCT. 23, 2016: It's being reported that construction going on outside the old Movieland site might be endangering the star prints in cement.

(See: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1451576461522772&set=o.8040854595&type=3 )

Considering that those historic prints (many of which are from stars who are no longer with us) must be valuable, it would seem foolish for the new owners to simply destroy them.  But I've learned to never underestimate human foolishness, so we'll wait and see if they value the history of Buena Park and Hollywood.

I will add more details when they become available...

UPDATE OCT. 25, 2016:  Word now is that 8 of the 45 star prints were accidentally destroyed by the contractor, but that the remaining prints will be preserved as part of the new Butterfly Pavilion being built on the site.  (No word yet on which prints were destroyed and which survived...)  Thanks to the Buena Park City Council for apparently intervening to halt the destruction.



Everyone knows about the famous courtyard at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, with its renowned footprints of the stars. But few know that a wax museum out in Orange County has created a smaller version of that same basic concept: immortalizing the footprints of Hollywood celebrities in wet cement.

They call it the "Starprint Gallery," and it is a broad strip of sidewalk outside the Movieland Wax Museum (near Knott's Berry Farm), where the owners have convinced dozens of popular TV and movie stars to come and leave their autographs, footprints and handprints embedded in the cement.

As you might expect, the names of most of the stars at the Starprint Gallery aren't as illustrious as those at Grauman's Chinese. Since Movieland only started collecting prints in 1980, there are no Clark Gable or Marilyn Monroe prints here.
But you will find footprints from celebrities as big as Lou Ferrigno and as little as Billy Barty. The collection of prints and signatures includes members of the "Star Trek" crew, the cast of "Roots," and other notables such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Loni Anderson, and Carol Burnett.
If you weren't looking for them, it would be easy to walk right past these star prints without really noticing them. An round gift shop sits out in front of the main entrance of Movieland Wax Museum; a wide walkway extends north from this gift shop, out towards "Po Folk" restaurant.

The stars' prints are located along both edges of this walkway. (There are no footprints on the regular city sidewalk out by the curb.)

Although the museum charges admission to go inside and view their wax figures, this outdoor Starprint Gallery is free.

Among the many celebrities whose footprint's you'll find here are: Dudley Moore ("Arthur"), Dorothy Lamour (who wore a sarong in all those Hope & Crosby "road pictures"), horror master Vincent Price, actress June Allyson, andAnnette'sown Frankie Avalon; there's TV's Bob Newhart, Ed Asner ("Lou Grant" on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Mike Farrell (of "M*A*S*H"), James Doohan & DeForest Kelly ("Dr. McCoy" and "Scotty " of "Star Trek"), pianist/showman Liberace, Jack Klugman ("The Odd Couple), Dennis Weaver ("McCloud"), Adam West & Burt Ward (TV's original "Batman" & "Robin"), singers Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, and Mac Davis, plus Phyllis Diller, Elvira, LeVar Burton, Eva Gabor, and mime Marcel Marceau.

Many of the stars wrote comments in the wet cement: Carol Burnett wrote "My feet are as big as my mouth!"). The late Herve Villechaize (who played "Tattoo" on "Fantasy Island") drew a small caricature of himself in the wet cement. Gene Autry wrote "Angels," for his California baseball team; actor Peter Fonda scribbled "Easy Rider" (the name of his 1969 movie). Persis Khambatta (the bald actress from the first "Star Trek" movie) went barefoot!

For some reason, Movieland seems to have stopped adding new names to the Starprint Gallery in 1984, even though there is plenty of room left on the sidewalk, and even though they have installed many new wax figures since 1984, including Michael Jackson, Tom Selleck, Brad Pitt, and the entire cast of TV's "Green Acres."

(Also see the separate page about Movieland Wax Museum.)

 Getting there: Movieland Wax Museum is located in the Orange County city of Buena Park, just a few blocks from Knott's Berry Farm (about 25 miles southeast of Hollywood). / From Knott's, simply take Beach Boulevard north (less than half a mile) to Movieland; the museum will be on your left (west) side. / From Disneyland, take the Santa Ana (5) Freeway north (about six miles) to the Beach Boulevard exit, which actually lets you out on Manchester Boulevard. Turn right on Manchester, then turn right again on Beach Boulevard. Go south on Beach (a little over a mile) to Movieland, which will be on your right (west) side, 



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