MADAME TUSSAUDS Every visitor to London knows who

MADAME TUSSAUD’S

Every visitor to London knows who Madam Tussaud is – or was. And almost every visitor has seen her an old lady of 81, standing at the entrance of her own exhibition. She is made of wax, like all the models of people in this museum.

Marie Tussaud, born Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761– 1850), was born in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. 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. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris. Following the doctor's death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to François Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show: Madame Tussauds. In 1802, she went to London. By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum.

There a lot of halls in the museum. The first room is the “Garden Party”. Beneath a star-spangled sky, under an oak-tree, figures from the worlds of sports and the media enjoy a friendly drink and chat. There are statues of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elizabeth Taylor and others there.

Tom Thumb, born Charles Stratton (1838 -83), was better known in his day as 'General Tom Thumb'. An American of only 40 inches in height, he was put on show by circus impresario Phineas Barnum (of Barnum and Bailey fame), touring the USA and Europe. He liked to dress as Napoleon and accordingly his figure, originally exhibited in 1845, wears a replica costume acquired by Madame Tussaud's. Jean Paul Marat (1743 -93), celebrated French physician, scientist and journalist, abandoned Establishment causes in 1789 to join the French Revolution. He suffered from a debilitating skin disease, eased only by almost continual immersion in a warm bath: it was in this position that he was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a staunch royalist. This death mask was moulded by Madame Tussaud herself, and is an important reminder of the origins of the exhibition. “ 200 Years” room covers the history of Madame Tussaud’s over the last two centuries, and shows the developing of new technology during that time.

Elvis Presley The Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Sylvester Stallone, Eddie Murphy Michael Jackson Marilyn Monroe There also other rooms, such as: “Legends and Superstars”, rooms with popular music singers, the members of royal families and military leaders.

Newgate Prison Joan of Arc The Torture Wheel The Guillotine Guy Fawkes The French Revolution There is the “Chambers of Horrors” which amuses visitors very much.

Elizabeth I sits on her throne at the start of The Spirit of London William Shakespeare The Plague Sir Christopher Wren “The Spirit of London” is a magnificent journey through London’s history. The cabs travel past the figures of William Shakespeare, Sir Christopher Wren, who directs the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

This is the place that is worth while visiting.