Madame Tussauds, which had operated the longtime wax museum at Fisherman's Wharf for the last decade, has permanently closed up shop, and this staple attraction of the Wharf for several generations is no more.
No longer can you go see a barefoot and hoodie-clad Mark Zuckerberg made of wax, or a smiling figure of former Mayor Willie Brown, or pose with Steph Curry or a shirtless Tupac Shakur. Madame Tussauds actually closed the museum two months ago, on August 3, but the media is just now taking notice — with the Chronicle and KTVU covering it in the last 24 hours.
The museum's website encourages fans to visit the still open Madame Tussauds locations in Hollywood and Las Vegas.
The famed wax museum chain took over the museum in 2014, after longtime operators the Fong Family closed what was formerly called the Wax Museum of San Francisco. SFist reported at the time that the barefoot Zuckerberg figure was going to be a brand new, star attraction at the new Madame Tussauds, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Rihanna.
In 2018, inexplicably, the museum also displayed a frightening figure of President Donald Trump in a replica Oval Office, which was on loan from a Madame Tussauds in Florida. And as the Chronicle noted at the time, the sculptor, seeking to replicate Trump's odd, wispy mane, did so using yak hair. "Poor yak," said one museum visitor from Denver.
The museum had a megaphone sitting on the Oval Office desk with a sign that said, "Sing your praises or SHOUT YOUR GRIEVANCES!"
Madame Tussauds San Francisco may be another casualty of the pandemic, or it could be that wax museums aren't really so popular anymore outside of Vegas?
Thomas Fong originally opened the wax museum in what was, formerly, a chicken feed warehouse on Jefferson Street in 1963, and became a prime attraction at Fisherman's Wharf in the late 1960s and 70s as the area blossomed into the tourist detination it's become.
The place grew to have four floors and hundreds of wax figures, and helped the Fong Family establish a major piece of real estate on the property. The building closed for a major remodel in 1999, and reopened in 2000 in a new building that was also home to a Rainforest Cafe and the offices of erstwhile Kmart e-commerce startup BlueLight.com.
The Rainforest Cafe space is now home to the candy store IT'SUGAR's flagship.
The building was also home to the San Francisco Dungeon, an interactive, spooky history attraction, which closed in 2022. That is now home to Escape Room San Francisco.
Top image: Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry poses with his wax figure made by Madame Tussauds San Francisco located on Fisherman's Warf on March 24, 2016 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Beck Diefenbach/Getty Images for Madame Tussauds San Francisco)
