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Alex Miles

Exploring Madame Tussauds

Everyone should know that Madame Tussauds is the best museum ever. It’s very popular because it’s in big cities and has creepy wax figures of famous people from history and famous people that are still alive. I know this even though I’ve been dead since 1850. I’ve seen everything and I’m glad that people continued what I started and my work because I’m the person who started Madame Tussauds. My name is Marie Tussaud. I can tell you all about the Madame Tussauds museums because I have seen what’s inside of them as a ghost. It’s a good thing no one believes in ghosts or the paranormal. If they did I would have scared them. I was born in 1761 in France. I was an artist and loved making wax sculptures. In 1777 I created my first wax sculpture of Voltaire. In 1835 I created a permanent exhibit in London which became the first Madame Tussauds museum. This museum has sculptures of famous people from history. The major attraction was a chamber of horrors. I died in 1850 at the age of 89. I got very sick; today you would call it pneumonia. And that’s how I became a ghost. In 1883 they moved my London museum to a bigger space. Although it was damaged by fire and again by German bombs in World War II, that museum still exists today. They didn’t build another museum until 1970. Today there are Madame Tussauds museums in four continents and in 25 locations. There are 10 in Asia, 7 in Europe, 7 in North America, and 1 in Australia. To my surprise, they still make the wax figures the same way I did 200 years . If the person is still alive, they would come in for measurements. Otherwise, pictures are used. The head and body are molded out of clay. Then a plastic cast is created around the clay. Once dry, the cast is cut and the clay is removed. Hot wax is poured into the hollow cast and allowed to dry. After this, the cast is removed and you have a wax figure. Next, it goes to hair and coloring. They use thousands of strands of real human hair inserted one at a time. The skin is painted with oil paint. The entire process takes four to six months to get the wax figures to look like real life. The Washington DC museum has all 45 US presidents. There are also five first ladies: Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Melania Trump. The museum in Hollywood usually focuses on movie stars. These include classics like Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn all the way up to modern stars. Some examples include Iron Man, Lady Gaga, Zoe Saldana, and Jennifer Lopez. I thought that JLo’s outfit was kind of inappropriate for my tastes. My favorite wax figures are from Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in the New York museum. They have the underground tracks from the New York City subway, the basement of the Aldrige mansion, the lobby of the Mercado Hotel, and the Ghostbusters’ lab. Gertrude Aldridge is a ghost like me. Her painting comes to life and screams. I’m just glad the wax Ghostbusters figures are not real so they can’t suck me into their ghost trap. I’m happy that my name lives on with all the museums around the world. Citations Madame Tussauds Website: https://www.madametussauds.com/ Wikipedia for Marie Tussaud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Tussaud The making of Adele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8J8VWzfYbA