Fame is fleeting for most celebrities. Only a few endure longer than Andy Warhol‘s quotable 15 minutes. For those celebrities and world leaders who survive the initial rush of fame and create life-long bonds with their fans, a place of honor at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum usually results.
It’s hard to believe that the wax figures have been attracting the attention of the common people for a quarter of a millennium. That’s right. In December Madame Tussaud’s celebrated its 250th anniversary. That’s older than the oldest bottle of drinkable champagne ever found.
Think about it. Tussaud and her wax mentor, Swiss doctor Philippe Curtius, were melting and creating lifelike figures before the French Revolution started dropping the guillotine blade down on necks. Before there were paparazzi and National Enquirer, Marie Tussaud was recreating celebrities so the curious could get up close and personal with both the fabulous and the notorious of their day.
Starting as a traveling show, now Tussaud’s has wax museums all across the globe with more scheduled to open. Prospect Magazine’s history of the museum and the woman it is named after is a good read and an excellent musing on the state of celebrity then and now.
