Editing Madame Tussauds (section)

===Origins===
[[File:Madame Tussaud affiche 1835.jpg|thumb|Poster for the Tussaud wax figures exhibition, [[Baker Street]], London, 1835]]
By 1835, Marie Tussaud had settled down in Baker Street and opened a museum.<ref name="History">[http://www.madametussauds.com/london/about/history/default.aspx "The History of Madame Tussauds"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013114506/http://www.madametussauds.com/London/About/History/Default.aspx |date=13 October 2013}}. Madame Tussauds.com.</ref> One of its main attractions was the [[Chamber of Horrors (Madame Tussauds)|Chamber of Horrors]]. The name is often credited to a contributor to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' in 1845, but Tussaud appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.<ref name="Berridge">{{cite book |last=Berridge |first=Kate |title=Madame Tussaud: A life in wax |url=https://archive.org/details/madametussaud00kate |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |year=2006 |page=4 |isbn=978-0-06-052847-8}}</ref> On its impact on the public, Oliver Smith of ''The Telegraph'' writes, "Londoners flocked to see the likes of [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]] and Sir [[Walter Scott]], but the highlight was undoubtedly the Chamber of Horrors, where Tussaud displayed models of murderers."<ref name="Telegraph"/> Other famous people were added to the museum, including the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], [[Henry VIII]], and [[Queen Victoria]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Timbs |first1=John |title=Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis, with Nearly Sixty Years' Personal Recollections |date=1868 |publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer |page=819}}</ref> 

The early commercial success of Madame Tussaud's saw it establish itself as a brand, and the museum became a pioneer in innovating various forms of publicity when the advertising industry was in its infancy.<ref name="Berridge"/> The Hall of Fame attraction exerted great influence among the public of Victorian London, and inclusion in it was definitive proof one had attained celebrity status.<ref name="Berridge"/>

{{Quote|In these days, no one can be considered positively popular, unless he is admitted into the company of Madame Tussaud's [[celebrities]] in Baker Street. The only way in which a powerful and lasting impression can be made on the public mind, is through the medium of wax. You must be a doll in Baker Street before you can become the I-dol(l) of the multitude. Madame Tussaud has become, in fact, the only dispenser of permanent reputation.|"The Tussaud Test of Popularity", ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', 1849.<ref name="Berridge"/>}}

[[File:Street Advertising (5795814747).jpg|thumb|upright|left|Advertising man pasting a bill for Madame Tussaud's [[Chamber of Horrors (Madame Tussauds)|Chamber of Horrors]], London, 1877]]

Other businesses in Baker Street profited from being within close proximity to Madame Tussaud's, and in 1860, [[Charles Dickens]] hailed the museum as one of London's most popular entertainments, writing in ''[[All the Year Round]]'': "Madame Tussaud's is something more than an exhibition, it is an institution".<ref>{{cite book |title=All the Year Round Volume 2 |date=1860 |publisher=Charles Dickens |page=250}}</ref> A waxwork of Dickens appeared at the museum in 1873, three years after his death.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Litvack |first1=Leon |last2=Vanfasse |first2=Nathalie |title=Reading Dickens Differently |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |page=213}}</ref> Some sculptures still exist that were made by Marie Tussaud herself. The gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925 coupled with bombs during [[the Blitz]] on London in 1941, severely damaged most of such older models. The casts themselves have survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade, and these can be seen in the museum's history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of [[Madame du Barry]], the work of Curtius from 1765 and part of the waxworks left to Grosholtz at his death. Other faces from the time of Tussaud include [[Robespierre]] and [[George III]].<ref name="Telegraph"/> In 1842, she made a [[self-portrait]], which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep in London on 16 April 1850.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Scott|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA762|access-date=30 November 2017|date=16 September 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476625997|page=762}}</ref> 

[[File:'Madame Tussauds' in London..jpg|thumb|right|Entrance sign in London]]
By 1883, the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson Joseph Randall to commission construction of a building at the museum's current location on [[Marylebone Road]]. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success.<ref>Pilbeam, ''ibid''. pp. 166, 168–9.</ref> But Randall had bought out his cousin Louisa's half-share in the business in 1881, and that plus the building costs resulted in his having too little capital. He formed a limited company in 1888 to attract fresh capital but it had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders. In February 1889, Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen led by Edwin Josiah Poyser.<ref>Pilbeam, ''ibid''. p. 170.</ref> Tussaud's great-grandson, [[John Theodore Tussaud]], continued in his role as the museum's manager and chief artist.<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |title=In pictures: The curious history of Madame Tussauds |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/madame-tussauds-history-in-pictures/ |access-date=11 April 2024 |work=The Telegraph}}</ref> The first wax sculpture of a young [[Winston Churchill]] was made in 1908; a total of ten have been made since.<ref>Pamela Pilbeam ''Madame Tussaud: And the History of Waxworks''. P.199.</ref>