Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

When you travel to Las Vegas, you may want to have a visit to wax museums. And when you think about wax museums, first word that comes to mind is Madame Tussauds. First established in 1835 in London on Baker Street, Madam Tussauds work has henceforth been placed around the world in prominent cities. Most of us believe that Madame Tussauds wax museum is only in London albeit the facts are a bit different. They are located in Dam Square, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Berlin, Shanghai and 3 different locations in USA: Washington D.C., New York City and Las Vegas.

The museums are named after Marie Tussaud who was born in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. She learnt her skill from Dr. Philippe Curtius for whom her mother used to work as a housekeeper. She created her first wax figure in 1777 of Voltaire. She was so popular in her initial days that she modelled Benjamin Franklin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau during her beginner years.

She went to visit Great Britain in 1802 but could not return due to the Franco English war. So she decided to travel the length and breadth of the English country and displayed her first collection at the Lyceum theatre. From 1831 she leased Baker Street bazaar which became a permanent home in 1836. Rising cost and restricted space in 1883 caused her grandson to move the museum to its current location Marylebone Road.

The new exhibition started on 14 July 1884 and has been a runaway success since inception. Madame Tussauds museum caught fire in 1925 destroying most of the figures but the moulds survived somehow. The figures were remade and Madame Tussauds wax museum is now the prime tourist location in Great Britain. It until recently incorporated the London Planetarium in its west wing.

Madame Tussauds wax museum houses wax figures of prominent sports stars, movie stars, politicians, royal and historical figures. They are owned by Merlin Entertainments who acquired the Tussauds Group in 2007.