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Wanna buy a president? Start the bidding

GETTYSBURG - In this historic town saturated with shops hawking Civil War artifacts, a collection of odder-than-usual relics beckons the odder-than-usual souvenir-seeker.

George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson are among the wax figures for sale by the Hall of Presidents and First Ladies museum, which closed in Gettysburg after nearly six decades and a million visitors.
George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson are among the wax figures for sale by the Hall of Presidents and First Ladies museum, which closed in Gettysburg after nearly six decades and a million visitors.Read moreED HILLE / Staff Photographer

GETTYSBURG - In this historic town saturated with shops hawking Civil War artifacts, a collection of odder-than-usual relics beckons the odder-than-usual souvenir-seeker.

The Hall of Presidents and First Ladies museum, which closed in November after nearly six decades and a million visitors, is sending to auction 44 life-size wax-figure American presidents, scale models of their wives, and assorted Americana.

Would a 6-foot-2 George Washington work in the living room? A 6-foot-3 Thomas Jefferson ("missing one hand," the catalog cautions) in the foyer?

Downsizing? How about a 5-foot-7 John Quincy Adams? Or a 3-foot-10 Michelle Obama, resplendent in her silk chiffon 2009 Inaugural Ball gown?

Here's your chance.

"We're selling everything, down to the brass railings, and don't want to discourage anyone," said museum owner Max Felty. "My hope is that people who purchase these items give them respectful display, and they are not going to a Halloween store."

Previews at the museum on Baltimore Street - an 1890s brick Victorian to which pillars and a coating of white paint were added to evoke the White House - are noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The auction begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14, at Gettysburg's 1863 Inn.

Although a company called Goin' Postal is available for shipping, winning bidders can take their new companions with them.

"They are not that heavy, but they are awkward," said Felty. "To keep them balanced and upright is the tough part." (Which, when you think about it, could be said of real presidents, too.)

Felty, 31, whose Gettysburg Heritage Enterprises also runs battlefield tours, said waning interest forced the museum's closure. Presidential election years typically were good for business, but even the bare-knuckle battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton didn't punch up ticket sales.

When it opened in 1957, the museum had 34 presidents, including incumbent Dwight Eisenhower, who made his home in Gettysburg. The models, with prosthetic-quality glass eyes and accompanying audio tracks that made them seem to have voices, were high-tech in their day. But over time - as the museum changed hands, landing in Felty's in 2012 - the dusty-wigged mannequins, posed stiffly under spotlights on low stages, proved ill-equipped for an animatronics world.

'Old Billy Boy'

For visitors of a certain age, the dimly lit museum's eight rooms evoke the way history was taught in the era of malt shops and sock hops.

Exhibit materials are a throwback, too. Heads are made mostly of liquid plastic vinyl, torsos of fiberglass and Styrofoam, and flexible appendages of hinged wood.

The first group of presidents was produced by Krewson Wax Figure Studio, of St. Louis. The John F. Kennedy-through-Bill Clinton figures were created by the late Pittsburgh sculptor Ivo Zini.

Zini "was not a fan of old Billy Boy," said Felty, "so the head had to be sent back several times" for adjustments.

The latest two, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, were made by Dorfman Museum Figures, of Baltimore, whose clients include historic houses and Las Vegas casinos.

Rather than being custom-made for the museum, the Obama figure was "a kind of floor model" that had toured the country, Felty said. The discounted price for a used president: $5,000 to $6,000. "They cut me a deal."

'They age, they crack'

Felty's favorite is Teddy Roosevelt. "I think he looks jolly and happy," with walrus mustache and wire-rimmed glasses, he said. "Woodrow Wilson is a pretty good representation. Some take to makeup and hair better than others. I think maybe they overaccentuated Nixon's features."

Of all the first ladies, Felty is "partial to Jacqueline." Her outfit and the others' were assembled by local seamstresses, based on Smithsonian Institute records of what they wore to the Inaugural Balls. Felty said he isn't sure why the better-halves are scale-model munchkins next to their large-as-life presidential spouses, but he suspects that the high cost of producing them, and limited space to display them, stunted them.

Over the years, he said, various heads and hands of museum denizens have had to be replaced, period garments repaired. "They age, they crack, people steal, people break."

He estimated that "several hundred thousand dollars" were invested in the collection and in renovations to the building.

Felty didn't venture to guess how much the auction, with no minimum bids, might bring in.

"It could be very interesting," he said, "or not interesting at all."

Felty said he has had feelers from libraries and universities. He reached out to the fine arts program of the University of Missouri, attended by the late artist Charles Morgenthaler, who in the 1960s helped restore Paul Philippoteaux's famed Cyclorama in Gettysburg.

Morgenthaler canvas-on-plywood murals, depicting the creation of the National Parks, the building of the Washington Monument, Admiral Peary at the North Pole, and other highlights of history, are part of the auction.

The museum's collection also includes miniatures carved by retired Gettysburg artist Charles "Chuck" Caldwell, 93. There's Bill Clinton in an Arkansas sweatshirt, Ronald Reagan in blue jeans, Woodrow Wilson in cap and gown, Gerald Ford with a football. Two years ago, when Felty's company closed Gettysburg's Soldiers National Museum, another of its holdings, its Caldwell miniatures brought about $200 apiece at auction.

Felty is hoping to get at least that much for the presidents and first ladies, but being "so unique," he said, "there is really no precedent market."

Stacked in one corner of the shuttered museum are wooden boxes, about the size of milk crates, labeled "Pack head in this box."

Felty has received expressions of interest in some less popular presidents, including William Howard Taft and William Henry Harrison, which he guesses are motivated by family connections.

Also unexpectedly, interest is running strong for Edith Bolling Wilson, Woodrow Wilson's second wife, who cared for him after his stroke in 1919.

"We've gotten a lot of calls about her," said Felty. "And we believe that's because when [President Wilson] got really sick, she helped make a lot of the decisions in Washington on his behalf."

There is a museum dedicated to her in her birthplace, Wytheville, Va., and a book suggesting she was a shadow president.

For now, her 3-foot-10 likeness, in a black velvet gown and white above-the-elbow gloves, is perched side-by-side with the first Mrs. Wilson, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, who died in the White House in 1914.

Not to worry, said Felty. "They get along just fine."

mmatza@phillynews.com

215-854-2541@MichaelMatza1

For more information, contact Pa. OnSite Auction Co. at 717-451-5999