In this episode, we uncover the dark history behind Madame Tussaud's wax museum, from its gruesome origins during the French Revolution to its modern-day impact on celebrity worship.
Madam Tussaud
Madame Tussauds is a museum chain for life-size wax replicas of celebrities, royals and historic icons that has 21 worldwide Locations, with its largest museum in London.
Anna Marie Grosholtz, better known as Madame Tussaud made her name during the tumultuous years before and after the French revolution.
Born to a family line dotted with public executioners, and apprenticed to her mother’s employer, an anatomist who sculpted in wax, Marie honed her skills making death masks from guillotined heads during the French Revolution.
Marie was born in 1761. Her mother, a widow, was housekeeper to the famous waxmaker and anatomist Philippe Curtius, who all but adopted Marie
Tussaud was very much part of the royal circle in the 1780s and was once forced to create a cast of the real severed and bloodied heads.
Wax heads mounted on costumed mannequin bodies—became a sort of real-time political commentary for Parisians in salons like those Curtius operated.
And while Curtius was out participating in the city’s political and military life, it often fell to Marie to make death masks of the Revolution’s recently decapitated victims.
Tussaud claimed that she sat “on the steps of the exhibition, with the bloody heads on her knees, taking the impressions of their features.”
Charlotte Corday murdered the radical Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub, Marie got to the scene so fast, the killer was still being processed by law enforcement as she started work on Marat’s death mask.
The Beginning Concept of Celebrity
Tussaud’s Baker Street gallery featured a 5,000-square-foot grand salon, covered in ornate drapery and offering comfortable seating where visitors could take in the sculpture (helpfully flattered by large mirrors on the walls, generously reflecting the figures from every angle).
Madame Marie knew that the public, then as now, would go nuts for two things—royal fever and horror shows—and she gladly provided immersion in both. Insinuating herself with the upper class, Tussaud grew her popularity to the point where she was able not only to model Europe’s elite, but to purchase King George IV’s coronation robes and Napoleon’s own carriage, all the better to ornament displays in the “Golden Chamber.”
In the early 1840s, Tussaud put together a royal display with Albert sliding the wedding ring onto Queen Victoria’s finger; and commissioned (with the Queen’s permission) a precise copy of her wedding gown, at a cost of a thousand pounds.
Chamber of Horrors
The “Chamber of Horrors,” often euphemistically referred to as the “Adjoining” or “Other” room for decorum’s sake, featured grisly recreations of murder scenes so infamous that criminals headed for execution would sometimes donate their own clothing to the gallery in the interest of veracity.
The Chamber of Horrors paid tribute to the Revolution with a working scale-model guillotine, and the heads of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Robespierre—the latter grimly squashed in, to reflect the botched suicide attempt in which Robespierre allegedly shot off half of his own jaw. (A catalog of the gallery helpfully distinguishes “large figures” from “heads.”)
Famous figures in the forbidding salon included an array of British murderers cast from life at their trials
The body-snatchers William Burke and William Hare (Killed 16 people) was one example
Marie cast Burke’s head three hours after his execution in 1829. Hare turned King’s evidence and escaped the gallows, but was modeled from life by Tussaud’s sons, who had by that time joined her in business.
The Isaiah Bass Death Mask Connection
Isaiah Bass, a Black designer, has disappeared after accusing fashion giant Balenciaga of stealing his designs. The case has raised concerns about the fashion industry’s appropriation of the work of designers of color.
According to reports, Bass accepted Balenciaga’s invitation to visit Paris, but he disappeared soon after accusing the fashion house of stealing his creations. There are rumors that Bass’s jacket, which he claimed was taken by the fashion brand, was found on a mannequin in a Balenciaga store window display in Paris.
If you ever google extreme embalming you will see that these corpses resemble wax figures. Who's to say this did not happen to Isaiah Bass and even some of the celebrities in Madam Tussaud museums.
In addition to exploring the history of Madame Tussaud's wax museum, we also discussed the rise of AI and its impact on our lives. From Amazon deploying over 750,000 robots to replace human workers to the increasing presence of autonomous cars, it's clear that AI is becoming an integral part of our society. But is this really what we want? Are we ready to embrace a future where robots and AI dominate our daily lives?
We also touched on some recent news updates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tweet about five states suing Pfizer for concealing the dangers of their vaccine. This lawsuit, involving Texas, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, highlights the growing distrust in big pharma and the potential consequences of their actions.
This episode is packed with eye-opening revelations and thought-provoking discussions. If you're interested in the dark history of wax museums, the rise of AI, or the latest news in the world of conspiracy theories, this episode is a must-listen. So, grab your headphones and join us as we uncover the truth behind these eerie and unsettling topics. Listen here: https://www.therealistthevisionary.com/blackpodcast/episode/787feb7f/episode-238-celebrity-death-masks
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