MADAME TUSSAUD’S.

Putaruru Press, Volume III, Issue 96, 27 August 1925, Page 2

MADAME TUSSAUD’S.

A ROMANCE STORY. Madame Tussaud’s, in Marylebone Road, London, was the wonder show of the world. As an exhibition it was unique an 1, surrounded by the glamour of romance, was linked in an intimate way with the entertainment life of London. Visitors from abroad and “country oousins” did not consider they had “■done” London until their tour had included a visit to the famous waxworks show. Madame Tussaud, the founder, was the niece of John Christopher Curtius, a sculptor, who lived in Paris during the time of Louis XVI. Her uncle took her to Paris a few years before the Revolution, and instructed her in the art of modelling in wax, which was then a fashionable craze. Marie Grosholz—as she was then—became instructor to Mme. Elizabeta, sister of the King, and afterwards witnessed all the scenes of the Revolution and the succeeding Reign of Ter-» ror. Two days before- the storming of the Bastille two busts she had made of Necker and the Duke of Orleans were seized by the mob and carried in procession after the prison had been stormed. Her connection with the Court led to her being imprisoned by the Jacobins; in the same prison with her was Mme. de Beauharnais* who afterwards became wife of Napoleon. During her imprisonment she was called upon to take the death masks of the King, of Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Marat, Robespierre. Her most awful task—which she was compelled to perform—was taking a cast o£ the mangled remains of the Princess de Lamballe. It was owing to ker skill as a modeller that she escaped the guillotine. In 1795 she married Francis Tussaud. Before he left for Egypt Napoleon ordered her to take his mask for his wife Josephine. After the signing of the Peace of Amiens in 1802 Madame took the opportunity to come to England. She brought her collection of models and opened her first exhibition in the old Lyceum Theatre—then known as the English Opera House. After .showing in London for about a year, she toured the provinces, and continued to travel for many years through all parts of the kingdom. On one occasion she and her models were wrecked while crossing the Irish Sea, and many valuable properties were lost. During the Reform riots in Bristol, in 1831, her exhibition was marked for destruction by the rioters. But a stalwart negro door-keeper kept them at bay until the military arrived, and the collection was saved.

Finally, Madame Tussaud took her exhibition to a permanent home in Condon. In 1833 she took the Portman Rooms, in Baker Street, and there the collection remained until 1884, Mrs Siddons, Sir Walter Scott, Mali.bran and other notabilities were also modelled from life. She died in 1850 at the age of 90. Madame Tussaud left two sons, Francis and Joseph, who carried on the exhibition, which afterwards came under the care of Mr Theodore Tussaud, her great grandson, the present manager. Mr John Theodore Tussaud is a director of and artist to Mme. Tussaud and Sons’ Exhibition. “Mr John” was born in 1559 in Kensington. He studied modelling and sculpture under liis father when he was ’in his very early teens, and succeeded his father to the important post of artist to the great Show. Some hundreds of the portrait models destroyed by fire recently were the handiwork of Mr John Theodore Tussaud. He has exhibited at the Royal Academy. He has also made several contributions to,current literature, notably articles on the French Revolu-. tion and the Napoleonic Period. Since the war he published a very interesting work, ’“The Romance of Madame Tussaud’s.” Mr J. Tussaud says that Sir Hebiy Irving was an ideal sitter. While'hid model.was being made the conversation turned on the question of insuring Madame Tussaud’s against fire. Irving remarked that money would be a very poor consolation for the lose of an irreplaceable collection, especially the Napoleon relics, and the heads of the French revolutionaries. The original idea of a Chamber of Horrors came from a Cambridge don. When Madame Tussaud took her waxworks to Cambridge in ISIS, figures of criminals stood in the same rooms as those of statesmen, churchmen and other celebrated people. The don suggested to Madame that this was “indecorous,” and she adopted His idea, placing her “criminals” in a separate chamber, which, it is said, is often visited by the relatives of the murderers whose images it shelters.— Daily Chronicle.