Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
by Stacy Conradt - August 17, 2010 - 3:12 PM

q10

There’s a certain creepiness to wax museums. That’s probably why I’m drawn to Madame Tussauds whenever I’m in a city that’s home to one. I know they’re cheesy tourist traps, but I just can’t seem to help myself. If you’re like me and love odd attractions with a certain aura of spookiness, you’ll love these 10 facts about Madame Tussauds.

1. Madame Anna Maria Tussaud (AKA Marie) was a real person. She was serving as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius who made wax models to help illustrate anatomy. She picked up the trade she would become famous for from him. You can see Madame Tussaud in her own museum: she did her own portrait in wax just eight years before she died at the ripe old age of 88.

2. She ended up becoming more famous for her work than he did – her work was so well-known that she was invited to be part of the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette so she could teach art to the king’s sister. The sad part? Madame Tussaud ended up making her former employers’ death masks after they were executed in the French Revolution.

3. Just this year, Ozzy Osbourne posed as himself and scared unsuspecting visitors when they sat down to get their pictures with the “wax” Ozzy. Check it out:

4. In 1940, Madame Tussauds of London was hit with a bomb. More than 350 head molds were destroyed.

5. In 2008, a German man rushed past security on the opening day of the Berlin Madame Tussauds and ripped Hitler’s head off. A sign asked people to refrain from posing with or taking pictures of the statue, but didn’t specify that decapitation was prohibited as well. “It disturbs me that Hitler should become a tourist attraction,” said the attacker.

6. Madame Tussauds wanted to make a figure of Mother Teresa, but she told them no – one of the only people to ever do so. She insisted that her works were more important than her physical being.

7. It takes about 150 measurements for the artists at Madame Tussauds to create a good likeness of the person they’re portraying. And sometimes famous people sit for measurements more than once – Queen Elizabeth, for example, has modeled for 17 different poses over the years.
8. All figures are made two percent larger than the person really is. That’s how much the wax is expected to shrink throughout the entire process.

9. The smallest wax figure Madame Tussauds has ever made is Tinkerbell. They do occasionally do figures of fiction – other than Tinkerbell, they’ve also made wax figures of Shrek, the Burger King (why?!), and the Incredible Hulk.

10. I have to include this fun fact for my own peace of mind. The grammar geek in you might wonder why I didn’t refer to it as Madame Tussaud’s with an apostrophe, and I’ll be honest… at first, I did. But Merlin Entertainments Group decided that since Madame Tussaud no longer actually owns the franchise, there’s really no need for the possessive-indicating apostrophe. So they simply got rid of it. Kind of like Dr Pepper with no period after Dr., I guess.

Who would you like to see Madame Tussauds replicate in wax? Or if you’ve been to a wax museum, who were you ridiculously excited to pose with?

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Comments (25)

  1. I was happy to pose with the Rat Pack and Sylvester Stallone at the Madame Tussauds in Vegas. I didn’t realize Rocky/Rambo was so short. My wife was oddly excited to snuggle up to Hugh Hefner there, who was reclining smugly on a round bed, complete with silk pajamas and a drink in hand. Who’s next? I’d love to pose with Simon & Garfunkel.

    posted by Gus on 8-17-2010 at 3:19 pm

  2. When I was a teen (some thirty years ago), I went to a wax museum in the Niagara Falls area. The only figure I can remember seeing is Raquel Welch — only because you could clearly see her exposed nipple.

    posted by Mark on 8-17-2010 at 3:20 pm

  3. When my best friend and I went to the Niagra Falls museum we were so creeped out by the figures we didn’t pose with any of them! They’re just unpleasent, frankly.

    posted by Lisa H on 8-17-2010 at 3:53 pm

  4. Oh my god…a wax Burger King is the stuff nightmares are made of.

    posted by Caitlin on 8-17-2010 at 4:02 pm

  5. I’d love to see Keanu Reeves. He’s so stiff in real life I bet his wax would be a dead-on match! :)

    posted by Anowscara on 8-17-2010 at 4:18 pm

  6. I really enjoyed the museum in London, but have since been to the NY one a couple of times and find that version to be a horribly cheesy and over priced knock off.

    posted by Gussiebuns on 8-17-2010 at 4:18 pm

  7. The logic behind “Dr” and “Mr” and so on without periods is that they’re internal contractions and don’t require them, though it’s more a style choice.

    posted by Max Pinton on 8-17-2010 at 4:24 pm

  8. I posed with Johnny Depp in NYC, it was awesome.

    posted by ftssoad on 8-17-2010 at 4:35 pm

  9. Must have Rod Blagojevich

    posted by Mike on 8-17-2010 at 4:47 pm

  10. Samuel L.Jackson in NYC. His statue looked so good everyone thought it was really him, even though all the other pictures of celebs were obviously wax.

    posted by waawaawaa on 8-17-2010 at 4:50 pm

  11. I’ve been to the London one. Their Hilter portrait is tucked in a out of the way hallway in a plexiglas box because until they did that, it is their most vandalized display.

    posted by Lewen on 8-17-2010 at 5:10 pm

  12. The Brad Pitt portrait is horrible btw. Did he have a cold when they measured him? His nose looks weird.

    posted by Lewen on 8-17-2010 at 5:12 pm

  13. I read something online the other day that stated the Dr. Pepper logo USED to have a period, but was dropped sometime in the 50′s or 60′s when they switched to a font that had a round piece as the top part of the ‘r’ in Dr. Since it would have looked like Di: Pepper, they lost the period, and it never came back.

    http://www.nownthen.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/img_0034.JPG

    Lower part of the photo, behind the funny shaped sign seems to be the culprit.

    posted by Bert on 8-17-2010 at 6:23 pm

  14. Stacy! I love that you used a picture of SRK getting measured! He is so awesome!

    posted by Kristine on 8-17-2010 at 6:24 pm

  15. That Ozzy video is hilarious! I wish more celebrities would join in the fun!

    posted by Katie Rose on 8-17-2010 at 6:25 pm

  16. haha they should make one of sad keanu!

    posted by ufluffed on 8-17-2010 at 6:36 pm

  17. When I visited the one in Vegas, I remember saying beforehand that I hoped Lucille Ball was there. I have a picture of me right as I turned the corner and saw her. It was like seeing her in real life.

    posted by Sarah on 8-17-2010 at 6:41 pm

  18. I can see why they used Ozzy to scare people. That guy is kinda creepy as it is.

    posted by Ben on 8-17-2010 at 7:42 pm

  19. My aunts Amy, Becky, and my mother went to the one in NYC. Amy got her picture taken with Bill Clinton. (She’s pointing to his manhood.)

    posted by Sara in Al on 8-17-2010 at 11:07 pm

  20. I visited in London back in June and it was pretty kitschy, of course. Some of the figures looked very lifelike (Julia Roberts) and others did not (Brad and Angelina looked kind of sweaty). I took a self-portrait with the figure of George W. Bush with an obvious look of disapproval on my face!

    posted by Marty on 8-17-2010 at 11:15 pm

  21. I was just at Madame Tousseau’s in NYC this past April. The one person I’d like to see in wax is Jim Henson.

    posted by Chris on 8-18-2010 at 10:09 am

  22. The best wax museum is definitely Madame Tussaud in London. The worst wax museum I have ever been to is Wax World of the Stars in Cavendish, PEI. It’s so bad, it’s worth the price of admission. Some of the figures were unrecognizable.

    posted by Carolyn on 8-18-2010 at 10:25 am

  23. Movieland in Niagara Falls Ontario is probably the worst wax museum I have ever seen. Some of the figures are not even remotely close (Christopher Reeve’s Superman for example) and some of the figures are obviously just recycled from old displays. I guess the likenesses are so far off that we won’t notice that Boss Hogg is not a bartender. It has a few good ones. Jack Nicholson’s Joker is very good.

    Madame Tussauds up the street and around the corner is much better.

    posted by Ken Turner on 8-18-2010 at 11:17 am

  24. I went to the one in Las Vegas. It was awesome!! I have this great picture of my mom and I with Judy Garland. She was so short compared to us! Also, I got to meet Buffy the Vampire Slayer (who’s way cooler than Sarah Michelle Gellar any day!) Also, there was this weird blonde singer. I think it may have been Jessica Simpson but I can’t be sure. It was awesome!

    posted by PoGo on 8-19-2010 at 9:46 pm

  25. I was also at the one in Vegas and we spent the whole time doin crazy poses with them, it was hilarious! Hugh Hefner creeped me out and it was fun standing next to short little Prince and humongous Shaq!

    posted by heathann on 8-21-2010 at 6:34 am

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