For sale - waxy faces of waning stars
PUBLISHED: 09:50 24 January 2008 | UPDATED: 08:49 13 July 2010
IT must be one of the most damning indictments that your star status is waning rather than waxing.
For while the world of celebrity may be considered vulnerable and artificial, spare a thought for their waxwork incarnations - the pretend people whose demise is evidence of a flagging career, or worse.
The latest victims of a clear-out at Yarmouth's House of Wax Museum have been plucked from the world of sport, politics, movies, music and the military for an auction of not-so-famous fakes at Aylsham next month.
Among those who look vaguely familiar are Adam Ant, Princess Diana, Barry Sheene, Robin Cousins, George Best, former prime minister Harold Macmillan and ex-US president Jimmy Carter - all bearing an uncanny likeness in their day, but who now just look simply uncanny.
The disembodied heads are among 75 going under the hammer at Keys in Aylsham on February 12 and 13 for between £50 and £80 each.
Faces in the sale include Prince Charles, Bob Hope, JR Ewing, Jackie Stewart, Gordon Richards, Derek Jameson, Jimmy Savile, Acker Bilk, Harry Secombe, Shirley Bassey, Kevin Keegan, Harvey Smith, Starsky and Hutch, Tom Jones, Larry Grayson, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew, Diana Dors, Ted Heath and Barry Manilow.
Some of strange-looking heads are unrecognisable and may have come from the museum's chamber of horrors or are long-forgotten eminent Victorians.
The tourist haunt gained a cult following after it became the butt of an internet joke circulated through email mocking the models for looking little like their stars.
National newspapers then jumped on the bandwagon, poking fun at the attraction, which has been in owner Peter Hayes's family for more than 50 years and is still "unfailingly popular".
Mr Hayes said: "Some of them are too old and they do not resemble their subjects any more and obviously some visitors are far too young to remember them.
"We do sell them off from time to time and there are some very nice ones, and I would say Princess Diana is the prize of the collection.
"We have not been able to trace an identity for some of them because the makers did not put names on them, presumably because at the time it would have been obvious to all.
"What puzzles me is why people buy them and what they do with them. But I suppose it's not the sort of thing you get up for sale every day."
Buyers are expected to range from specialist collectors and theatrical agencies, to diehard fans - and individuals who simply want to share their living room with someone
famous.
For more information call Keys at Aylsham on 01263 733195 or visit www.keys24.com