GRIM STORY OF TUSSAUDS

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 96, 26 April 1939, Page 13

GRIM STORY OF TUSSAUDS

London’s Famous Rendezvous

r» LL Australians and New Zealanders ** know 0 ( "Madame Tussaud's," •ven those who have never visited London. For "Tussaud's" in Marylebone Road is not only an exhibition, but a public institution, writes Jean Cherlton In the Sydney Morning Herald. It would be difflcult to find a Londoner who has not been there more than once, and the same could be said e>{ almost all visitors Irom abroad, even tt they don't admit it. Perhaps the popularity of the waxworks is attributable to their combination of humour with horror, as well as their very real historical interest.

Reign of Terror. Models of many victims were demanded, and w’ho could do these as well as the clever young woman at Gurtius's Cabinet de Cire? She was compelled again and again to work and take impressions of the dead features of many who had been her friends in the happy Versailles days. One terrible memory was the sight of the mangled head of the beautiful young Princess de Lamballe, brought to her with a brusque order to copy it. She pleaded in vain that it was impossible for her to do so, but was forced to comply. Madame Tussaud. For a time she was thrown into prison, sharing captivity with Josephine de Baeuharnis, afterwards Napoleon’s first wife. Eventually she was released, Monsieur j Curtius had died in 1795, and Marie Gerholz married Francois Tussaud. As Madame Tussaud, she took the opportunity afforded by the Peace of Amiens and left France to journey to England in 1802. bringing with her many moulds and effigies from her uncle’s exhibition, including his "Caverne des Grands Voleurs,’’ the original of the presentday “Chamber of Horrors.” Madame Tussaud lived to the great age of ninety, and a list of the distinguished people from Royalty downward who have visited her exhibition would epitomise the Victorean era to the present day.

The original "exhibition" In London was displayed at the old Lyceum Theatre In 1802. Later, it toured the most important towns of the provinces. Coming back to London in 1835, it settled in Baker Street, until in 1884, it was transferred to its present site, adjoining Baker Street station. In 1925 it was destroyed by fire. In an hour, nothing was left, except the contents of “The Chamber of Horrors,” which, curiously enough, was little damaged. Happily, the priceless moulds of the ilgurei were saved, and reconstruction was possible. "Tussaud's Exhibition" rose again npon its old site, and reopened its doors en April 28, 1928. One realises how the modellers must have worked to bave achieved this in the space of time ftwo years), for the exhibits were even Snore numerous than formerly. Interesting Origin. It was In 1762 that John Christopher Curtlus. on the invitation of the Prince de Condi, left his native town of Berne, in Switzerland, to live in Paris. He was a very skilful modeller in wax, and his talent won him great success. His studio In the Hotel Aligre, an old mansion In the Rue St. Honore, became the rendezvous of all those distinguished in fashionable and intellectual life in the French capital. Voltaire, Diderot, Jean Jasques Rousseau, Mirabeau. and the famous American Ambassador Benjamin Franklin, were amongst its habitues. His niece and pupil, made her home with him, and this girl, Marie Gresholz. showed such extraordinary proficiency in modelling that she soon outrivalled her master She made models In wax, the fashionable craze of the day. Later on, Madame Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI , Invited her to take up her residence at Versailles, and give lessons to the ladies of the Court. In these Royal surroundings, she spent nine years of her life. Meanwhile, Monsieur Curtius, in addition to his collection of portraits of celebrated persons, which he exhibited in the Palais Royal, opened another on the Boulevard du Temple, which he called 'The Caverne des Grands Voleurs," and filled with portraits of criminals, and other notorious people. Curtius, becoming alarmed at the storm clouds gathering over France, and alive to the danger that might threaten his niece at Versailles, recalled her from her perilous position to the safety of his own home. Nevertheless, it was there on the 12th July, 1879, that she experienced her first sight of mob violence. An angry crowd came surging to their very doors, demanding, with threats, efilgies of its heroes to carry In rioters' procession through the streets of Paris. In the tragic years that followed, Marie Gresholz was destined to pass through many painful experiences. riots, revolution, and the

“Tussaud’s” has always been a family affair. To-day, John Tussaud is a director and he is the great-grandson of the original Madame Tussaud. Bernard Tussaud, who is now the chief modeller, is a great-grandson. Three Misses Tussaud (great-granddaughters) are also connected with the business. It interested me to learn that the figures have real hair, each hair being inserted in the head seperately. Heads and hands are renewed every three months, and between-whiles the hair is shampooed and the faces carefully washed.

As you enter the exhibition you pass through a most awe-inspiring entrance foyer, upstairs, to the general hall. One passes several attendants on the way up, and the difficulty is to find which are real and which are wax. I watched one, who remained as still as a model till people were right upon him and then he gave out instructions in a loud voice. The result was that several people nearly jumped out of their skins.

However, in the end he had the worst of it, for even as I watched a little old gentleman, coming from the side, poked him in the back with an umbrella and made him jump. In the main hall in a little niche to themselves are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, both somehow much shorter than one imagined, otherwise the likeness is exceptionally good. The main exhibition is given over to figures of hundreds of Royal and famous persons, past and present, and there are many realistic tableaux. Downstairs is the Chamber of Horrors. Frankly, I found this not so terrible as I had imagined, though I quickly passed that gruessome exhibit, “Torture of the Hooks,” with plenty of blood about —too unpleasant to take more than a peep at.

The murderers left me quite unmoved. They seemed such mild ordinary, uninteresting looking men. But Mrs. Dyer, the strangler of babies entrusted to her care, had a ghastly face, and I hastened upstairs and back to normal again.