Madame Tussard's
Madame Tussaud's waxworks has long been one of London's top attractions. Visitors can meet, touch and be photographed with some of the most famous faces in the world. There are life-like models of celebrities and stars
from the movies, politics and royalty.
During the French revolution, Marie Grosholtz, who later married Franyois Tussaud, prepared death masks for guillootine victims. She spent 33 years touring Britain before settling at a museum site in 1835 not far from the present building. The Chamber of Horrors harks back to the grisly beginnings of the museum and uses wax figures to recreate gruesome crimes and murders. The grand finale is the 'Spirit Of London', an electric ride with commentary.
Near by, the fictional character Sherlock Holmes untangled many a tricky crime while living at 221 b Baker Street, as told by the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sherlock Holmes Museum recreates his home, complete with
an actor playing the detective's loyal friend, Dr Watson.
History
Marie Tussaud (1761–1850) was born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art
of wax modelling. In 1765, Curtius made a waxwork of Marie-Jeanne du Barry, Louis XV's mistress. A cast of that mould is the oldest work currently on display. The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770, and attracted a large audience. The exhibition moved to the Palais Royal in Paris in 1776. He opened a second location on Boulevard du Temple in 1782, the "Caverne des Grands Voleurs", a precursor to the later Chamber of Horrors.
Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous people she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of waxworks to Marie. In 1802, she went to London. As a result of the Franco-English war, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. For a time, it was displayed at the Lyceum Theatre. She established her first permanent exhibition on Baker Street in London in 1835 (on the "Baker Street Bazaar").
One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Marie appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Tussaud herself still exist. In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum.
The museum moved to its current location on Marylebone Road in 1884. In 1925 a fire destroyed many of the figures, but the moulds survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade.Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in London, incorporating (until recently) the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Berlin, Las Vegas, New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Washington DC, with an additional location scheduled to open in Hollywood in 2009. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers. Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a leisure company called Merlin Entertainments, following the acquisition of The Tussauds Group in May 2007.
In July 2008, Madame Tussauds' Berlin branch became embroiled in controversy when a 41 year old German man brushed past two guards and decapitated a wax figure depicting Adolf Hitler. This was an act of protest against showing the ruthless dictator alongside sports heroes, movie stars, and other historical figures.
