LOS ANGELES, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Spoony Singh, who founded the Hollywood Wax Museum in 1965, has died at 83 of congestive heart failure, his grandson told the Los Angeles Times.
Singh died Wednesday of congestive heart failure, two days short of his 84th birthday, Tei Sundher told the newspaper.
Singh got the idea for the museum in 1964. He noticed that celebrities were rarely seen on Hollywood streets, but tourists were drawn to the footprints of movie stars in concrete in front of the world-famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
"So, I thought, let's bring the stars back to Hollywood Boulevard," Singh once said. "Let's allow people to get close and look into the eyes of their favorite entertainers."
Singh said he was not sure the concept would work, the Times said, but his family still operates the business more than 40 years after it opened.
The museum has featured figures of stars from Hollywood's "Golden Era" such as Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow -- as well as pop stars such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and the Beatles.
Singh opened a second Hollywood Boulevard attraction, the Hollywood Guinness World Records Museum, in 1991.
