In 1883, the restricted space of the originalBaker Street site prompted Tussaud's grandson (Joseph Randall) to commission the building at its current London location onMarylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success. Madame Tussaud & Sons was incorporated as aprivate limited company (Ltd.) in 1889.[5]
A majortourist attraction in London since the Victorian era, Madame Tussauds displays the waxworks of famous and historical figures, as well as popular film and television characters played by famous actors.[6] Operated by the British entertainment companyMerlin Entertainments, the museum now has locations in cities across four continents, with the first overseas branch opening in Amsterdam in 1970.[7]
Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 inStrasbourg, France. Her mother worked forPhilippe Curtius inBern, Switzerland; he was a physician skilled inwax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling when she was a child; when he moved to Paris, Marie and her mother followed.[8] Grosholtz created her firstwax sculpture, ofVoltaire, in 1777.[9] At 17, according to her memoirs, she became art tutor to Madame Elizabeth, the sister of KingLouis XVI. During theFrench Revolution, she was imprisoned for three months, but was subsequently released.[8] During the Revolution, she made models of many prominent victims.[10]
Left: Waxwork ofMarie Tussaud (sculpting a waxwork) and right: her memorial plaque at the wax museum she founded in London
Grosholtz inherited Curtius' vast collection of wax models following his death in 1794. For the next 33 years, she travelled around Europe with a touring show from the collection. She married Francois Tussaud in 1795, took his surname, and renamed her show as Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she accepted an invitation fromlantern andphantasmagoria pioneerPaul Philidor to exhibit her work alongside his show at theLyceum Theatre, London. A wave of creativity was in vogue in London the year Tussaud arrived in the city, with newWest End stage plays which included the first to be called a melodrama, the first appearance ofJoseph Grimaldi in hiswhiteface clown character, and poetWilliam Wordsworth's poem "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 3 September 1802" describing London and the Thames.[11] Adding her own creativity to the mix, Tussaud brought with her all her death masks, wax faces and busts.[11] Complaining that Philidor failed to promote her, Tussaud then decided to go into business alone.[12]
Unable to return to France because of theNapoleonic Wars, she travelled throughoutGreat Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection and made her home in London. From 1831, she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side ofBaker Street, Dorset Street, and King Street in London).[13] This site was later featured in theDruce-Portland case sequence of trials of 1898–1907. This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.[14]
Poster for the Tussaud wax figures exhibition,Baker Street, London, 1835
By 1835, Marie Tussaud had settled down in Baker Street and opened a museum.[2] One of its main attractions was theChamber of Horrors. The name is often credited to a contributor toPunch in 1845, but Tussaud appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.[4] On its impact on the public, Oliver Smith ofThe Telegraph writes, "Londoners flocked to see the likes ofNelson and SirWalter Scott, but the highlight was undoubtedly the Chamber of Horrors, where Tussaud displayed models of murderers."[15] Other famous people were added to the museum, including theDuke of Wellington,Henry VIII, andQueen Victoria.[16]
The early commercial success of Madame Tussaud's saw it establish itself as a brand, and the museum became a pioneer in innovating various forms of publicity when the advertising industry was in its infancy.[4] The Hall of Fame attraction exerted great influence among the public of Victorian London, and inclusion in it was definitive proof one had attained celebrity status.[4]
In these days, no one can be considered positively popular, unless he is admitted into the company of Madame Tussaud'scelebrities in Baker Street. The only way in which a powerful and lasting impression can be made on the public mind, is through the medium of wax. You must be a doll in Baker Street before you can become the I-dol(l) of the multitude. Madame Tussaud has become, in fact, the only dispenser of permanent reputation.
— "The Tussaud Test of Popularity",Punch, 1849.[4]
Advertising man pasting a bill for Madame Tussaud'sChamber of Horrors, London, 1877
Other businesses in Baker Street profited from being within close proximity to Madame Tussaud's, and in 1860,Charles Dickens hailed the museum as one of London's most popular entertainments, writing inAll the Year Round: "Madame Tussaud's is something more than an exhibition, it is an institution".[17] A waxwork of Dickens appeared at the museum in 1873, three years after his death.[18] Some sculptures still exist that were made by Marie Tussaud herself. The gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925 coupled with bombs duringthe Blitz on London in 1941, severely damaged most of such older models. The casts themselves have survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade, and these can be seen in the museum's history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that ofMadame du Barry, the work of Curtius from 1765 and part of the waxworks left to Grosholtz at his death. Other faces from the time of Tussaud includeRobespierre andGeorge III.[15] In 1842, she made aself-portrait, which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep in London on 16 April 1850.[19]
Entrance sign in London
By 1883, the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson Joseph Randall to commission construction of a building at the museum's current location onMarylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success.[20] But Randall had bought out his cousin Louisa's half-share in the business in 1881, and that plus the building costs resulted in his having too little capital. He formed a limited company in 1888 to attract fresh capital but it had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders. In February 1889, Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen led by Edwin Josiah Poyser.[21] Tussaud's great-grandson,John Theodore Tussaud, continued in his role as the museum's manager and chief artist.[15] The first wax sculpture of a youngWinston Churchill was made in 1908; a total of ten have been made since.[22]
First Mortgage Debenture Stock of Madame Tussaud's Ltd., issued 15 September 1949
In 1926, Madame Tussauds became a limited company. In 1949, the company issued a First Mortgage Debenture Stock with SirArthur Marshall among the signatories. In the 1960s, Tussauds was looking to expand beyond the UK and in 1970 opened their first international exhibition in Amsterdam.[7] In 1978, Madame Tussauds was acquired by S. Pearson and Son, nowPearson plc. The company had been seeking to expand beyond their own attractions before acquiring the group. Chessington Zoo (nowChessington World of Adventures) in southwest London was already owned by Pearson and it became a Tussauds attraction after the buyout. In 1989, the company openedMadame Tussaud's Rock Circus, an exhibition held at theLondon Pavilion celebrating the history of rock and pop music featuring its major figures recreated in wax.[23] In 1997, the museum in London attracted 2.79 million visitors, more than theTower of London.[24] In 1999, the company opened its first US site in Las Vegas. Its success led the company to look for another exhibition location in the US, with the New York site opening the following year.[25] In 1999, after being part of Pearson for twenty years, Charterhouse Development Capital acquired the group. The new company bought in new management and sought to increase profits whilst continuing the company's growth.[24] In 2000, theLondon Eye launched, in which Tussauds had a 33% stake, and managed by Tussauds the site soon became one of the UK's most popular attractions.[26]
In 2005, Madame Tussauds was sold to a company in Dubai,Dubai International Capital, for £800m (US$1.5bn). In May 2007,The Blackstone Group purchasedThe Tussauds Group from then-owner Dubai International Capital for US$1.9 billion;[27] the company was merged with Blackstone'sMerlin Entertainments and operation of Madame Tussauds was taken over by Merlin.[27][28] After the Tussauds acquisition, Dubai International Capital gained 20% of Merlin Entertainment.[29] On 17 July 2007, as part of the financing for the Tussauds deal, Merlin sold the freehold of Madame Tussauds to private investorNick Leslau and his investment firm Prestbury under a sale and leaseback agreement.[30] Although the attraction sites are owned by Prestbury, they are operated by Merlin based on a renewable 35-year lease.[28]
Madame Tussauds logo (spelt without the apostrophe) next to a waxwork ofKate Winslet in London
Madame Tussaud's wax museum has been a majortourist attraction in London since it opened in the 1830s, an era viewed as being when the city's tourism industry began.[6] In 2006 it incorporated theLondon Planetarium to its west wing. A large animateddark ride,The Spirit of London, opened in 1993. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars, and famous murderers. It has been known since 2007 as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe).[31] In 2009, a5+1⁄2 inches (14 cm) waxwork ofTinker Bell (the fairy fromJ. M. Barrie'sPeter Pan) became the museum's smallest figure of all time when it was unveiled in London.[32]
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 depictingAdolf Hitler. This was believed to be an act of protest against showing the ruthless dictator alongside sports heroes, movie stars, and other historical figures. The statue has since been repaired, and the perpetrator has admitted that he attacked the statue to win a bet.[33] The original model of Hitler was unveiled in Madame Tussauds London in April 1933; it was frequently vandalised and a 1936 replacement had to be carefully guarded.[34][35][36] In January 2016, the statue of Hitler was removed from the Chamber of Horrors section in the London museum in response to an open letter sent by a staff writer ofThe Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, followed by significant support for its removal from social media.[37]
Entry of Madame Tussauds inBerlinMadame Tussauds in New York City opened in 2000.Madame Tussauds opened in Washington, D.C., in 2007.Madame Tussauds Hollywood in 2018Madame Tussauds in Shanghai, China, displaying a wax figure of QueenElizabeth II, opened in 2006.
Celebrities have often posed like their wax figures as pranks andpublicity stunts:
On 3 November 2009, the museum's New York City branch was featured in a segment onNBC'sToday in which weathermanAl Roker posed in place of his lifelike wax figure for two hours and startled unsuspecting visitors, who were at first led to believe they were viewing Roker's wax counterpart.[71]
NBA playersCarmelo Anthony andJeremy Lin pranked fans during the unveiling of their statues at the New York and San Francisco museums, respectively.[72][73]
Ant and Dec prankedOlly Murs by tricking him into using a machine that will "scan every part of Olly's face and body to create the most accurate wax figure ever" as a part of their annual Undercover segment on theirITV show,Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.[75]
Madame Tussauds is the focus ofSteve Taylor's song "Meltdown (at Madame Tussauds)", which describes someone turning up thethermostat and causing the wax figures to melt.[76] Taylor wrote the song as "a new metaphor to ask [the] same question" as Jesus, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"[77]
The Sleeping Beauty is the oldest existing figure on display. It was modelled afterMadame du Barry. She appears asleep and a device in her chest makes it seem as if she were breathing.
Madame Tussaud herself at Madame Tussauds in London. Herdeath mask is visible in the background on the left.
^The Law Journal Reports Volume 96. E.B. Ince. p. 328.
^abSmith, Andrew; Graham, Anne (2019).Destination London. The Expansion of the Visitor Economy. University of Westminster Press. p. 6.Whilst London's appeal is based on historical attractions that date back to Roman times, the city's tourism 'industry' arguably dates back to the nineteenth century. In the period 1820–1840 new facilities were established that still provide the backbone of the city's tourism sector: iconic attractions (London Zoo, Madame Tussauds), leisure settings...
^Timbs, John (1868).Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis, with Nearly Sixty Years' Personal Recollections. Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. p. 819.
^All the Year Round Volume 2. Charles Dickens. 1860. p. 250.
^Litvack, Leon; Vanfasse, Nathalie (2020).Reading Dickens Differently. Wiley. p. 213.
McCallam, David (2002). "Waxing Revolutionary: Reflections on a Raid on a Waxworks at the Outbreak of the French Revolution".French History.16 (2):153–173.doi:10.1093/fh/16.2.153..
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