The Mystery of the Stooges Wax Museum

Can anyone tell me if a 'Stooges wax museum' actually exists, (in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti I think) or did exist? or was it some kind of hoax? anyone else even heard of it?

I've come across references to it recently while reading various Ron Asheton tributes online..couldn't really believe it, sounds bizarre!! but there was one thing about lighting candles for Ron if you wanted to in the museum, with a warning to be careful in case you set fire to the 15 ft high model of a wah pedal or something ...

That sounds bizarre.

And if it exists I really, REALLY wanna visit it! Sounds like the perfect way to pay tribute to The Stooges

Seems like it would have fit Ron's sense of humour perfectly.

I found this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/immane/2819838437/

I thought it sounded really weird.
that thing about not burning the model of the wah pedal...apparently something like that happened the last time, I mean when candles were lit for Dave...maybe I'll have to find the source again, it was some blog

G, F#, E wrote:

I found this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/immane/2819838437/

yeh, saw that too...would've liked to read the motorbooty article

Hehe, this must be a joke or something... Sounds insane! Are there supposed to be wax figures of all the stooges or something?

I remember this from year's ago. The Flicker photo is of the MC5 house or the one next door. Hate to say it but there is no Stooges wax museum. I live in Michigan and grew up down the street and it's a myth that I really wish was reality.

this story was started in a feature in motorbooty magazine. as stated above the whole thing was a hoax.

dynamite boogie wrote:

this story was started in a feature in motorbooty magazine. as stated above the whole thing was a hoax.

kinda glad to have that confirmed...I was starting to have dreams about that giant wah pedal

yeah. a 15 foot high wah wah pedal does seem somewhat unbelievable.

dynamite boogie wrote:

this story was started in a feature in motorbooty magazine. as stated above the whole thing was a hoax.

think so too,many stories in motorbooty were jokes like this story of detroit cable tv showing a stooges show on tv or i wanna be your dog being stolen from i wanna be your hog by the hogs whose singer was killed in nam

I would've liked to read that article

I was taken in by this one

Might have mentioned it before when I first joined, but I went across the states in the late 90's with my sister, a whistle stop tour checking out the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Boston, Niagara Falls, New Orleans etc.

Detroit was the one selfish most music related stop off (although New Orleans I had wanted to catch music like the sort you see in 'The Big Easy' but didn't find it, partly because we had no idea where to look!).

It looked like a war zone to us! Even the roughest parts of our cities in the UK look ten times more civilised and less desolate, no offence

We went out at night when we got there, went on a metro train of some sort - there was no-one around, it didn't feel right. I remember a big manmade pool, and seeing the Cobo Arena and almost drawing comfort from it, thinking "Bowie played there!", but still didn't feel much safer with the fact the whole place was empty. We just got the train back to the hotel early, and I diald up to watch the Beavis and Butthead film (new at the time) on pay-per-view.

The next morning was our trip to Ann Arbor.

At the hotel reception the next morning, I asked about getting a Greyhound there. They said get a taxi to the bus station. Mindful of keeping costs down, and having a little time in hand, I asked "how far is that?". "About a quarter of a mile" I was told. "Ah, we'll walk" I answered..."Don't. Get a taxi"!

The taxi came...we were not let in by the driver, which was different to other times I've taken a taxi, and when we got to the bus station, we were not encouraged to pay through the window, but through a slot in the shield between the back seats and the driving compartment!

At Ann Arbor, I found the town (well, city, as I've found out thru reading Paul Trynka's excellent book on Iggy) centre very green, and erm, arbrous, appopriately. At the record shop, I asked about the Iggy and the Stooges Wax Museum - a flyer had been included in some Iggy goodies I'd ordered by post once, and this was the point for me of the Detroit / Ann Arbor stop off.

"oh" said the guy behind the counter, "it's a joke! But if I had one dollar for every time I've been asked...."

I did however get a nice original vinyl of Fun House there, in the gatefold cover with the great Stooges on the carpet pic, and for a lot less than I would've got it in the UK too...

Yeah, I remember the article in Motorbooty (Winter 1990 issue). It also featured some mock pic sleeves singles that didn't actually exist (if I recall, a 7" for Wet My Bed was one). I think the idea back then was to poke fun (relatively good-naturedly) at the Stooges obsession that was particularly prevalent amongst Swedish and (particularly) Aussie bands and fans at the time. Motorbooty did actually sell Stooges Wax Museum t-shirts, my friend Kevin has one, wish I did. I remember the Mudhoney dudes jokingly referencing the Wax Museum in interviews and such back then, too. Obviously, the guy who took that photo on Flickr was fooled.

If I remember it rightly there was also a single with the 1971 line-up on the front, and the text written in what looked to me at the time like hebrew (if anyone still has it I'd love to know what it translates as).

There was also a bit about how you could buy Iggy shaped salt & pepper sets, you shook him and it came out of the slashes in his chest.

Those people were funny!

I still have that copy of Motorbooty somewhere!!!
Seem to remember something about Australian bands playing live in the cellar .

Some chick ran off with Iggy's wax penis.

[quote="jerrythebarman"] Motorbooty did actually sell Stooges Wax Museum t-shirts, my friend Kevin has one, wish I did. I.[/quote]

lol..would have liked to see one of those.

My shirt had the Stooges logo (with the first 2 albums type) Wax Museum, Ann Arbor MI.


there was an iggy statue/ bust type thing under it. the shirt fell apart long ago, but i'm sure i have a photo of me wearing it. i'll look tonight.

Yeah, that's the one. Dunno if Kev still has his, he lost everything in a fire around '93-4.

I have some flyers with it somewhere.

The peanut butter jar from the Cincinnati Pop Festival was supposedly on display there as well. I had that issue of Motorbooty (put together by a couple of the Necros/Big Chief guys) & thought it was probably a hoax, especially when discovering it's address was the same as the White Panther headquarters as printed on the gatefold of 'Kick Out The Jams'. Nevertheless when I was in Michigan in 1991 visiting family I had to find out for sure & drove out to Ann Arbor to discover that some sort of health centre was occupying the site.

I, too, gave this a shot in the summer of 1993. The address did have the same building that was pictured in the Motorbooty article. I banged on the door and no one answered. TI went around to the back (kitchen) door and I found a guy washing dishes. He said that yes, it was a hoax. He also said that at least I didn't come all the way from France like a couple of guys the previous week! I came from Texas. Steve

Sounds like quite a few people were taken in..
thanks for the stories!