Madame Tussaud's
Created | Updated May 22, 2002
Marie Gozholtz
Madame Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in 1761, her name was Marie Gosoltz.
Her father was a soldier who was killed in the seven-year war, two months before Marie was born.
She and her mother lived alone; her mother was a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe
Curtius, a skilled wax sculptor.
Marie became his assistant and soon she was allowed to make the wax masks of many famous people including king Louis XVI and the American statesman Benjamin Franklin.
She served the French royal court for many years.
Marie and the French revolution
During the French revolution she and her mother came very close to being executed themselves. They shared a cell for a while with Josephine de Beauharnais, who after the revolution married Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and became Empress.
Marie made the death masks of Louis XVI and the queen of France, and many other accused criminals who were executed by the guillotine in the French revolution. These death masks are still on display, with the guillotine blade used to execute them.
Marie begins touring
When dr. Curtius died, he left Marie his entire wax sculpture exhibition, which already had become quite famous in France.
The exhibition then showed many famous people from the time; Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, King George IV and the death masks of the French royals.
The same year (1795) she married Francois Tussaud and had three children one daughter (who died) and two sons.
Eight years later she moved to England, with her oldest son and began touring the British Isles.
During the touring through the British Isles the exhibition survived many perils, for example, in 1822 a ship carrying the exhibition to Ireland hit a rock, but most of the sculptures were saved.
In 1835, Madame Tussaud’s wax cabinet settled in London, Baker Street.
Madame Tussaud in London
In 1835 when the exhibition settled down, many new sculptures could easier be made, and the expansion of the cabinet with “The separate room” or today “The chamber of horrors”.
In that, many of the worlds' most dangerous criminals and murderers were stored along with their victims and their dead bodies.
Marie Tussaud died in 1850; eight years earlier she had completed her greatest work, a remarkable self-portrait that still can be seen on display today.
Her grandsons continued the work and in 1884 they moved the exhibition to its current location at Marylebone Road.
The exhibition has survived many accidents along the years.
In 1925 an electrical failure caused a heavy fire, and when the fire brigade arrived many of the sculptures had already melted, but many of the head moulds were saved, so the irreplaceable death masks of amongst other Robespierre which were destroyed in the fire could be remade.
In 1939 with the beginning of the Second World War England and naturally London, was heavily bombed.
On the 8th of September in 1940, the first night of the London blitz, Madame Tussaud’s was hit by a bomb which inflicted heavy damage.
Over 325 head moulds were destroyed beyond repair. Also the cinema, which were added after the fire in 1925 was completely destroyed (today that is the London Planetarium).
Madame Tussaud’s Today
Today, Madame Tussaud’s is built in six different sections:
The garden party, which is an exhibition dedicated to the different stars from around the world.
The grand hall, which is dedicated to the greatest of the greatest, royalties, presidents, prime ministers and so on.
200 years, which is meant to show how much Madame Tussaud's has changed since it began touring in 1802, this exhibition shows sleeping beauty, the original death mask of Robespierre and much more.
Superstars, which shows the biggest, stars from television, news, cinemas and the 20th century in general, including Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando.
The chamber of horrors, which shows us the most terrifying people of the last 200 years. There you can see Joan of Arc being burned at the stake, Dracula, Hitler, a scene of Marie Tussaud making death masks of the guillotine victims' severed heads and John Reginald Halliday Christie taking the drop, and many other criminals.
Spirit of London, a ride thru different scenes of London history over the past 400 years in small London cabs, which begin with a model of queen Elizabeth sitting at her throne.
Conclusion
Madame Tussaud, was a remarkable character in so many ways, she was a successful business woman in the 19th century which there were not that many of.
And for the second, she worked all of her life, which is very rare even today.
She gave Madame Tussaud's a reputation which cannot be destroyed, as long as the workers who still work in her spirit do everything they can to protect this history of perfection which Madame Tussaud's stand for even today.
