MADAME TUSSAUDS

Madame Tussauds (UK: /tuːˈsɔːdz/,

US: /tuːˈsoʊz/) is a wax museum
founded in 1835 by French wax
sculptor Marie Tussaud in London,
spawning similar museums in major
cities around the world. While it
used to be spelled as "Madame
Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no
longer used. Madame Tussauds is a
major tourist attraction in many
cities, displaying the waxworks of
famous and historical figures, as
well as popular film and television
characters.
Biography

Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in

1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother
worked for Philippe Curtius in Bern,
Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax
modeling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of
wax modelling beginning when she was a child.
He moved to Paris and took his young
apprentice, then only 6 years old, with him.
• Grosholtz created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of Voltaire. At the age of
17, she became the art tutor to Madame Elizabeth, the sister of King 
Louis XVI of France, at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution
, she was imprisoned for three months and awaiting execution, but was
released after the intervention of an influential friend. During the
Revolution, she made models of many prominent victims. She married
Francois Tussaud in 1795 and took his surname. She renamed her show as
Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor,
a lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his
show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare particularly well
financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits.