Through the keyhole: a tour round museums devoted to film stars

Let us begin our journey with a spin round Bruce Lee's Hong Kong townhouse which, it was announced this week, is to be transformed into a museum dedicated to the man. Sadly it remains a work in progress and has not actually opened yet. So walk through that gate now and you shall have dogs set on you. Next year (fingers crossed) it will all be very different Photograph: AFP

Next stop is the official Will Rogers Memorial Museum, built in honour of the fabled cowboy, comedian and all-round renaissance man who crashed his plane in Alaska. The statue represents Will in happier times, riding the horse in search of bandits or to pick up his groceries Photograph: PR

No doubt the Memorial Park has wetted your appetite for still more Will. So follow us down to the official Will Rogers Dog Iron Ranch & Birthplace Home. This, as the name suggests, was the actor's birthplace, and his childhood home, and the ranch where he once ironed dogs for a living (20 cents for a little one; $1.50 for a Great Dane). These days the dogs have been replaced by cows. Progress, they call it Photograph: PR

No mistaking this one. It's the Jimmy Stewart museum, right across the street from the hardware store once owned by the actor's pop. Those streetlights light up the night like Jimmy lit up the world Photograph: PR

Inside the Musee de Jimmy. While the man himself is no longer with us, some of his co-stars thankfully still are. Here is Harvey (star of 1950's Harvey) reminiscing with Stewart devotees Chuck and Bernie Snyder. "They don't make 'em like Jimmy no more," says Harvey, who has no truck with today's megastars Photograph: AP

Arguably the highlight of any tour is a visit to the Buster Keaton museum, nestled in the heart of picturesque Piqua, Kansas. Buster himself proved that pictures can speak louder than words, so we'll end the blurb here and sit for a spell in quiet contemplation Photograph: Public domain

Legend has it that John Wayne strode fully-formed out of the American west. In fact he was once a little baby who was born right here, in this very house. Back then, of course, he had no Hollywood airs and graces and was simply known as plain old Marion Photograph: PR

Some 30,000 John Wayne fans travel to his Iowa birthplace every year. Inside they may feast their eyes on what is unofficially known (by us) as The Great Wall of Wayne. It contains all manner of pictures. Of Wayne Photograph: Getty

What becomes of movie stars who enrage the US authorities and get drummed clean out of Hollywood? More often than not they settle in places like the Manoir de Ban in Switzerland, now made over as a museum in honour of its onetime occupant, Charlie Chaplin. We envisage it as being a bit like Napoleon's Elba, except with more display cases containing canes and hats Photograph: AP

It's opening day at the Judy Garland museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesotta! Here Margaret Pellegrini and Clarence Swensen, two of the original Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, share their experiences with anyone who'll listen. And that impressive jawbone on the wall? Could it really have come from Ms Garland herself? Photograph: AP

No tour of celebrity museums would be complete without a swift visit to Graceland. Elvis's former home is officially the second-most visited building in America, after the White House. Once, legend has it, the King sat in those armchairs and urinated into that fireplace; composed at that piano and decomposed in the nearby bathroom. Relive it all, and reclaim that magical era Photograph: Getty