GRIM HALL OF DUNGEONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3615, 19 March 1927, Page 4

GRIM HALL OF DUNGEONS.

THE NEW TUSSARD’S, THE 500 FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS. Dungeons more grim than any used in the French or Russian revolutions or in the time of the Inquisition are to be opened in London at the end of this year. They will make London’s most bloodcurdling acre. They will occupy the whole of the lowest basement of the new Madame Tussard’s in Marylebone-road, W., which it is hoped to open before Christmas, and they will be the home of the gallery of famous murders and other criminals. In the new building that is to rise on the ashes of the one which was almost destroyed by lire in March 1925 more than 500 wax figures are to be shown in surroundings more appropriate than used to be employed. When a London Daily Mail reporter saw Mr John T. Tussard working on the head of Mussolini recently the artist turned from his work to say that the public expected another Chamber of Horrors. He prefers the more difficult task of modelling people who are worthily famous. “We even have to hunt for Greek medals to help us in getting perfect likenesses,” he said. “The greatest help has been that all the casts were preserved, some of them having been kept more than 100 years. To them, however, we are adding Mussolini, “Tim” Healy, Mr Cosgrave, Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr Thomas Hardy, Sir James Barrie, Hindenburg, the Empire Premiers, Mr E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr Jerome K. Jerome, Mr H. G. Wells, Mr Gerald du Maurier, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and many more. MUSSOLINI MODEL. ‘ ‘ln many cases we have to work from photographs, but we do not run the risk of a photograph telling a lie.” He indicated scores of different pictures of Mussolini and a pile of books with illustrations of the famous Italian. The model which had grown from clay in four hours was a likeness based on all the pictures, and not a copy of only one. “We are not attempting any new methods of dressing the exhibits, or any now process of making them,” said Mr Tussard. “Wax modelling is the oldest art, being practised by the Egyptians, and we use the old methods.” The new Tussard’s is to have a cinema to seat 2000, a giant organ, a res-

taurant for 600, and a device whereby the orchestra can be automatically raised to the livel of the stage to give selections, and then lowered again. Yet Mr Tussard looks sad when lie recalls that money cannot buy back the Napoleonic relics lost in the live.