Madame Tussaud
Madame Tussauds is the name of the wax museum founded in 1835 in London by Marie Tussaud
Madame Tussauds museum also exist in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Shanghai, New York and Washington, DC.
The group plans to open other sites, including Hollywood.
Birth
Marie Tussaud (1761-1850) born in Strasbourg in France followed his mother, widowed during her pregnancy, in Bern where she worked as a housekeeper to Philippe Curtius, a physician converted into artist-sculptor. The doctor took the girl under his wing and training to the wax sculpture. Curtius was called to the court of France in 1765 and produced a portrait of Marie-Jeanne du Barry, mistress of Louis XV. The doctor brought Mary with her mother in 1767 and employed in his many achievements with wax his first exhibition in 1770, which because of its success in 1776 moved to the Palais-Royal. In 1782, it opened a second exhibition named "Cave of Great Thieves" on the Boulevard du Temple, the forerunner of the chamber of horrors.
Marie Tussaud made its own figures from 1777 with that of Voltaire, in 1778 followed by those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin.
Marie will be in the tumult of the French Revolution. She will be sentenced to the guillotine for its relations with the nobility but will be pardoned for his talents. It is then used to make masks of dead beheaded, some of his friends. Curtius bequeaths to his death in 1794 his collection of wax figures to Mary. In 1795 Marie François Tussaud wife and he gives two son. With the establishment of the Peace of Amiens in 1802, she left with her eldest son aged 4 years in England to present his collection, but in 1805 the War of the third coalition, the blocks in England. It then continues its presentations traveling through Britain and Ireland.
The second son of Mary joined in 1822, taking advantage of a relaxation of tensions. In 1835, Mary decided to settle its collection and opens on Baker Street in London on Baker Street Bazaar.
One of the main attractions of this museum was the Chamber of Horrors, which presented in two parts victims of the French Revolution and murderers. The name of this section was given in 1845 by a contributor of the magazine Punch. Other personalities were added to the exhibition as Horatio Nelson and Walter Scott. In 1842, Mary realized that a self is still presented to the museum entrance. Mary died in 1850 at the age of 88 years.
A real tourist attraction
The museum moved in 1884 to its current location on Marylebone Road.
In 1925, a fire destroyed many figurines but the mussels were spared and many portraits of historical figures were Recoules. In 1926, the company is based Tussauds Group to manage the museum Madame Tussauds.
The wax museum took the importance and became a major tourist site in London, including the London Planetarium, located in the west wing of the building.
Over the years the museum opened more locations outside London including Amsterdam, Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong and Copenhagen. The museum took the name of Madame Tussauds (no apostrophe) and controlled by the Tussauds Group.
In 1978, the Tussauds Group, whose only possessions were the Madame Tussauds museum, is redeemed by S. Pearson and Son, then became Pearson PLC. Various acquisitions were made to purchase the park Alton Towers in 1990.
In 2005, the investment fund Dubai International Capital has bought the Tussauds Group for $ 1.5 billion to Charterhouse Capital Partners (£ 800 million pounds).
In 2006, the group announced that Tussauds museum in London would expand the planetarium transforms into an adjoining auditorium with a show designed by the studio Aardman Animations.
In March 2007, the group was bought for 1 billion pounds by Merlin Entertainments, majority owned by investment fund Blackstone Group. The same month, the Museum of London hosts the effigy of the actor Daniel Radcliffe, who at 18 became the youngest artist to have his wax statue at Madame Tussauds.(W3C)
Read also Bagpipes
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