Tom Cruise Becomes Jesus In Hilarious Cost Saving Measure

Mansfield Ohio is not the world’s most popular tourist destination. While you might enjoy a stroll through the Kingswood Center Gardens, or take a look at some famous shooting locations from The Shawshank Redemption, you might also find yourself curious to visit the BibleWalk Museum. It’s an attraction that not only draws biblical enthusiasts, but also those interested in seeing the hilarious, awkward, and often comically out of place wax figures that populate the attraction.

The BibleWalk Museum can’t really be blamed for cutting a few corners with their dioramas of biblical scenes. Original wax figures, especially ones designed to look like a specific individual, cost thousands of dollars, and they never end up looking that much like the real deal anyway. Pastor Richard Diamond of the Diamond Hill Cathedral learned about how new figures were prohibitively expensive when he set out to create The BibleWalk Museum. He made an incredibly thrifty decision to find discarded wax figures, from Tom Cruise to Elizabeth Taylor, from celebrity wax museums including Madame Tussauds. All they needed to do was DIY some backdrops and costumes. They did however bring in a professional hairdresser to sort out the wigs —  probably the greatest expense in dressing the scene.

Their thrifty decision also had the unintended benefit of increasing foot traffic. Although the museum continues to be tight-lipped about where they got their figures, the word is out. Now, people don’t only come to take a walk through the non-denominational BibleWalk for the biblical scenes, but also to see Tom Cruise dressed as Jesus or John Travolta as King Solomon. And while the museum chooses not to advertise this fact, in order not to “take any of the glory away from God,” it’s also true that the BibleWalk Museum has upwards of 40,000 guests a year, and while it might be impossible to say how many of those are there to see celebrities transplanted into biblical scenes, it’s probably that the cost-saving measure was accidentally a cash-raking one too.