{"id":11404,"date":"2011-03-17T08:44:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T14:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=11404"},"modified":"2020-06-19T23:08:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T03:08:49","slug":"madame-tussauds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=11404","title":{"rendered":"Madame Tussauds (Hollywood)"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s plenty of books in publication on the life of Marie Tussaud. Two I’ve downloaded recently are: Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax<\/em><\/a> and Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tussaud was a woman way ahead of her time. Born December 1, 1761 in Strasbourg — it was by fate that she ended up working with wax. Her father was killed before she was born and to survive, her mother started working as a housekeeper for a Swiss physician: Dr. Philippe Curtius. It was Dr. Curtius who introduced Marie to wax modeling (as a hobby he began to do individual portraits and eventually hired Marie as an apprentice).<\/p>\n

By the time she was 19, Marie showed so much talent that she was regularly invited to sculpt the faces of famous historical figures — both living and dead (her death masks from the French Revolution<\/a> at Tussaud’s in London are very well known). The technique she perfected is still used today.<\/p>\n

Below are some of the wax figures found at the Hollywood Tussaud Museum. You can pose with, touch, and caress the statues — as long as you don’t gouge their eyes out or take souvenirs. <\/p>\n

Why would someone take the eyes from a statue, you ask?<\/em> <\/p>\n

I’m not sure, but Samuel Jackson’s eyes went missing the day before I visited the museum.<\/p>\n