"Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White (first published in Pearson's Magazine, December 1930; reprinted in Australian Woman's Weekly, May 25, 1935; included in Crime at Christmas, edited by Jack Adrian, 1988; in Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards, 2015; in Murder at Christmas, edited by Cecily Gayford, 2019; and included in the White collection Blackout and Other Tales of Suspense, 2025; White expanded the story in 1935 for the novel Wax)
Waxworks -- a popular (I guess) touristy haven for the curious and/or the bored -- have been a staple of the crime and horror genre for decades, usually with those creaky museums that feature a house of horrors -- replicas of famous murderers and unspeakable crimes. The first major film about wax museums was the German silent Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurekabinett) in 1924, with Emil Jannings (available on Amazon Prime via subscription). Nine years later, Lionel Atwell starred in Mystery of the Wax Museum, which, along with its remake, 1955's House of Wax, with Vincent Price, are perhaps the two wax museum horror flicks most readers of the blog are familiar with. (The Mystery of the Wax Museum is currently available on Tubi; House of Wax is available on HBO Max and Hulu, both with subscriptions.) Then came a floodgate of cheap, sensational films -- Tourist Trap (1979), Waxwork (1978), and House of Wax (2005), most of which relied heavily on supposed humor, gore, and a flash of cleavage. I won't bother going into the numerous television crime and suspense shows that used the Wax Museum meme. For those who are interested, here's a link to a Top Ten Guide to the best and worst of Wax Museum movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udfjbxN8vf0&t=47s
Ethel Lina White (1876-1944) was a Welsh crime writer whose popularity in the 1930s equaled Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, although her star faded in later years. Today she may be best known for her novel The Wheel Spins (1936) which was made into the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938), and saw one theatrical remake in 1979 and a television remake in 2013; it was also adapted as a stage play and as a BBC Radio program (or is it programme?); it was also serialized in 6 weekly fifteen-minute parts in 2008, read by Brenda Blethyn. After publishing three mainstream novels, White turn to crime fiction with her fourth book, Put Out the Light (1931; also published as Sinister Light). Her next novel, Fear Stalks the Village (1932) helped cement her reputation, and her third crime novel was the best-selling Some Must Watch (1933; filmed in 1946 as The Spiral Staircase, featuring Ethel Barrymore in an Academy Award nominated role. The novel was adapted for radio (with Helen Hayes) before the film appeared; and was adapted for radio once again, with Dorothy McGuire reprising her film role; it was televised in 1961 with Elizabeth Montgomery and Lillian Gish, and then in 1975 with Jacqueline Bissett, and finally in 2000 with Nicolette Sheridan. Among White's other thirteen crime novels were Wax (1935, expanded from the story below), and Midnight House (1942, also published as Her Heart in Her Throat, and filmed in 1945 as The Unseen, with Joel McCrea and Gail Russell -- Raymond Chandler was one of the script writers).
So, "Waxworks."
Sonia Thompson (her last name was not given in the short story; I lifted it from the novel) is a young, talented, and ambitious reporter for the Oldhampton Gazette. The Waxworks Collection of Oldhampton has recently received an evil reputation: a stranger in town had chosen the place to commit suicide by cutting his throat; then, two people had died on the premises due to "heart failure." The first, "had been addicted to alcoholism, and was in very bad shape; the second, a friend of the first, was "a martyr to asthma, and slightly unhinged through unwise absorption in spiritualism." Sonia pitched a story to her editor -- she would spent the night in the Waxworks and record her experience. The editor approved the story. At first Sonia planned her excursion for shortly after Christmas, then decided to spend the night on Christmas Eve. (In England, Christmas Eve is a time often for telling of ghost stories.)
Young Wells, the Sporting Editor at the paper, had taken a shine to Sonia, and she to him. He volunteered to wait outside the Wax Museum the entire evening...just in case. He gave her a torch (which unfortunately had a weak battery) for her to signal him if she felt herself in trouble. He had also asked her to spend Christmas Day with him, something that thrilled her. So, Sonia snuck into the museum and hid when the establishment closed and all the other visitors were escorted out by the porter, who then locked the building. Sonia had stashed some supplies under the clothing of one of the wax models. She had her notebook and the torch. She was ready.
It happened that Sonia had made an enemy of one of the reporters at the Gazette -- a venal and petty man named Poke, who had been the rising star of the newspaper until Sonia appeared. Ho venal was he? He threw his puppy out of the house to die in the street rather than to pay for a license (licence, since this is England). Wells had then rescued the puppy from a certain death and now has a loyal four-legged companion. So we know that Wells is good romantic choice for Sonia.) Poke has been callous and threatening to Sonia since she began submitting all the good stories. Wells had warned Sonia to watch out for Poke, who -- unknown to anyone -- had first thought of spending a night in the Waxworks but was too cowardly to do it. Lately, Poke "had been subject to sudden red rages, when he had felt a thick hot taste in his throat, as though of blood. He knew that his jealousy of Sonia was accountable. It had almost reached the stage of mania, and trembled on the brink of homicidal urge."
The Waxworks was dark and dusty, and, knowing the torch battery was weak, Sonia was hesitant to turn it on. The vague forms did not seem threatening at first, and Sonia jokingly talked to them, chiding some on their appearance. As the evening wore on, so did Sonia. She began to get tired but was determined to stay awake to record her thoughts. Then she thought she saw something move in the darkness. She counted the statues. Was there one extra? She couldn't be sure. While seated against a wall, she thought she felt something touch her arm. Was it just her imagination? She pushed those thoughts aside and tried to think of the next day, of spending Christmas with Wells and his new puppy. And yet, the dark thought kept coming. She counted the waxworks again. Twenty-two, twenty-three... "Twenty-three? If her tally was corrected, there was an extra waxwork in the Gallery."
Then lightning struck outside, a blinding flash of light, which revealed a figure she had previously overlooked. "It was seated in a chair, its hand supporting its peaked chin, and its pallid, clean-shaven features nearly hidden by a familiar broad-brimmed felt hat, which -- together with the black cape -- gave her the clue to its identity.
"It was Hubert Poke."...
An effective, atmospheric tale, well worthy of its Wax Museum melieu.
