Madame Tussaud

Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London, with branches in Amsterdam, Hong Kong (Victoria Peak), Las Vegas, New York City and Shanghai(open soon). It was set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud.

Madame Tussaud (1761-1850), born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. In 1765, Curtius made a waxwork of Marie Jean 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 Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous persons she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she made wax death masks of prominent victims. She would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of the citizens which the death masks were to depict. 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 with her collection she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland. 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 some victims of the French Revolution and also newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name was given by a contributor to Punch in 1845.

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 the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Hong Kong (Victoria Peak), Las Vegas, and New York City. 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 The Tussauds Group.

Some of Tussauds Wax Figures

 * Adolf Hitler and Adi
 * Amitabh Bachchan
 * Arnold Schwarzenegger
 * Ataturk
 * Benazir Bhutto
 * Beyoncé Knowles
 * Britney Spears
 * Colin Farrell
 * Diana, Princess of Wales
 * Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen
 * Elle Macpherson
 * George Clooney
 * George W. Bush
 * The Hulk
 * Jennifer Lopez
 * Jessica Simpson
 * Julia Roberts
 * Madonna
 * Marilyn Monroe
 * Mahatma Gandhi
 * Nelson Mandela
 * Oprah Winfrey
 * Ozzy Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne
 * Paris Hilton
 * Pierce Brosnan
 * Pope John Paul II
 * Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
 * Tony Blair
 * Salma Hayek
 * Samuel L. Jackson
 * Spice Girls
 * Usher
 * Van Helsing
 * Victoria Beckham
 * Woody Allen

Sports Stars

 * Andre Agassi
 * Arnold Palmer
 * Babe Ruth
 * Dale Earnhardt
 * David Beckham
 * Derek Jeter
 * Evander Holyfield
 * Jeff Gordon
 * Joe Montana
 * Lance Armstrong
 * Michael Jordan
 * Michelle Kwan
 * Muhammad Ali
 * Shaquille O'Neal
 * Tiger Woods
 * Björn Borg

Musicians

 * Ayumi Hamasaki (Hong Kong)
 * Bette Midler (Las Vegas)
 * Beyoncé (Las Vegas)
 * Billy Idol (Las Vegas)
 * Bono (Las Vegas)
 * Britney Spears (Las Vegas)
 * Bruce Springsteen (Las Vegas)
 * David Bowie
 * Dean Martin (Las Vegas)
 * Debbie Reynolds (Las Vegas)
 * Elton John (Las Vegas)
 * Elvis Presley (Las Vegas)
 * Engelbert Humperdinck (Las Vegas)
 * Frank Sinatra (Las Vegas)
 * Gloria Estefan (Las Vegas)
 * James Brown (Las Vegas)
 * Jennifer Lopez (Las Vegas)
 * Jimi Hendrix (Las Vegas)
 * Joey Yung (Hong Kong)
 * Johnny Mathis (Las Vegas)
 * Jon Bon Jovi (Las Vegas)
 * Lenny Kravitz (Las Vegas)
 * Liberace (Las Vegas)
 * Little Richard (Las Vegas)
 * Liza Minnelli (Las Vegas)
 * Louis Armstrong (Las Vegas)
 * Luciano Pavarotti (Las Vegas)
 * Madonna (Las Vegas)
 * Marilyn Monroe (Las Vegas)
 * Michael Jackson (Las Vegas)
 * Mick Jagger (Las Vegas)
 * Neil Sedaka (Las Vegas)
 * Prince (Las Vegas)
 * Sammy Davis Jr (Las Vegas)
 * Stevie Wonder (Las Vegas)
 * Tom Jones (Las Vegas)
 * Tony Bennett (Las Vegas)
 * Tupac Shakur (April 5 2006) (Las Vegas)
 * Wayne Newton (Las Vegas)

Actors/Actresses

 * Aishwarya Rai (London)
 * Michael Caine (London)
 * Robin Williams (London)
 * Arnold Schwarzenegger (Las Vegas)
 * Ben Affleck (Las Vegas)
 * Bob Hope (Las Vegas)
 * Brad Pitt (Las Vegas)
 * Cybill Shepherd (Las Vegas)
 * Elizabeth Taylor (Las Vegas)
 * George Clooney (Las Vegas)
 * George Burns (Las Vegas)
 * Gerard Depardieu (Las Vegas)
 * Julia Roberts (Las Vegas)
 * Nicolas Cage (Las Vegas).
 * Patrick Stewart (Las Vegas)
 * The Rock (Las Vegas)
 * Joanne Woodward (Las Vegas)
 * Jodie Foster (Las Vegas)
 * Judy Garland (Las Vegas)
 * Lance Burton (Las Vegas)
 * Mel Gibson (Las Vegas)
 * Meryl Streep (Las Vegas)
 * Paul Newman (Las Vegas)
 * Sean Connery (Las Vegas)
 * Shirley MacLaine (Las Vegas)
 * Sylvester Stallone (Las Vegas)
 * Whoopi Goldberg (Las Vegas)
 * John Wayne (Las Vegas)
 * Lucille Ball (Las Vegas)
 * Sarah Michelle Gellar (Las Vegas)

Others

 * Bugsy Siegel (Las Vegas)
 * Blue Man Group (Las Vegas)
 * Buzz Aldrin (Las Vegas)
 * Don King (Las Vegas)
 * Elle MacPherson (Las Vegas)
 * Hugh Hefner (Las Vegas)
 * Ivana Trump (Las Vegas)
 * Jerry Springer (Las Vegas)
 * Joan Rivers (Las Vegas)
 * Larry King (Las Vegas)
 * Monsters (Las Vegas)
 * Neil Armstrong (Las Vegas)
 * Oprah Winfrey (Las Vegas)
 * Robert Schuller (Las Vegas)
 * Ryan Seacrest (Las Vegas)
 * Siegfried & Roy (Las Vegas)
 * Simon Cowell (Las Vegas)
 * Wolfgang Puck (Las Vegas)
 * Adrian Wägele (Leutkirch)

World Leaders

 * Benjamin Franklin (Las Vegas)
 * President George W. Bush (Las Vegas)
 * Princess Diana (Las Vegas)
 * President Abraham Lincoln (Las Vegas)
 * President George Washington (Las Vegas)
 * President John F. Kennedy (Las Vegas)
 * First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Las Vegas)
 * First Lady Adrian Wägele (Las Vegas)

In Music
The Christian Singer/Songwriter Steve Taylor created a song entitled "Meltdown (at Madame Tussauds)."

References and external links

 * Madame Tussaud's memoirs and reminiscences of France, by Marie Tussaud, ed. by F. Hervé, London 1838.
 * History of Madame Tussauds. List of dates in Marie Tussauds life, maintained by the museum.
 * Waxing Revolutionary: Reflections on a raid on a waxworks at the outbreak of the French revolution, by David McCallam, French History, vol 16, No. 2.
 * Madame Tussauds Hong Kong