SUMMER S'QUATCH NOT A VEGETABLE IN THE NORTHWEST

"There's nothing like the smell of Sasquatch in the morning. It's the smell of Discovery" - Anonymous

The East Coast may have its Skunk Ape, but the Pacific Northwest claims home to the grandaddy of Cryptozoology, the hairy, stinky, elusive critter that goes by many names . . . including Sasquatch. My recent stroll through the WAX WORKS "A Living Museum", in Newport, Oregon, proved this out as the star of the regional section of the exhibit (beating out even Lewis & Clark) was Bigfoot.

Pictured are the unsuspecting lumberjacks going about their work, while the rarest of all wild beasts of the forest lurks just out of sight. Is S'Quatch just curious . . . or . . . hungry?

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MIDNIGHT IN THE WAX MUSEUM

One wouldn't expect to see full-size classic movie monsters "in the flesh" in a small central coast town in Oregon. But there we were, as they say, and there they were.

The town is Newport and the place is THE WAX WORKS. My wife and I were on vacation and I had noticed one of the flyers that seem to pop up in the brochure racks of every store, restaurant and motel in existence.

So, we paid the fee and entered. The first thing I noticed was that it was very dark. I suppose it was so that the hot lights wouldn't melt the wax figures?  I found out soon enough that it was really to obscure the -- I'll say it -- rather disappointing renditions of virtually every character in the place.

I came upon the monsters rather quickly into the self-guided tour of THE WAX WORKS. Dracula was posed next to a dumped over trash can, I'm guessing to give the impression that he was lurking about in some alleyway. Frankenstein was next and, as usual, bore more of a resemblance to Boris Karloff than did Dracula to Bela Lugosi.

The other "monsters" in this House of Horrors were Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator, Director Alfred Hitchcock, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Unfortunately, this place didn't hold a wax candle to the excellent work tthat was seen at the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, CA (now closed) and the Hollywood Wax Museum on Hollywood Boulevard. But, still, it was an unexpected experience, and how could you not have fun when it comes to monsters?

Uh-oh! There's more to come?

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