Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax

The record of Madame Tussaud's early years in France, other than the dubious one of her own hand, is scant to non-existant. In this absence, the author documents what is known with an analysis of popular "entertainments" of the time and the role of the Curtius waxworks in it. The theme of popular culture carries through to Madame Tussaud's time in England, although at this time there would have been more biographical record to draw upon. In short, while in part a biography, this book is more the story of Madame Tussaud's role in the development of popular culture. This book was enlightening for me. In the US we think of PT Barnum as THE pioneer in marketing popular entertainment. Berridge demonstrates, without making the direct analogy, that this marketing phenomenon was happening on both sides of the Atlantic. Both Barnum and Tussaud latched on to an idea who's time had come. Berridge contrasts how Madame Tussaud's "edu-tainment" provided accessibility in contrast to public institutions of the time such as the British Musuem. Interesting here are the stories of Barnum (who would like to buy her out but does not succeed) and Dickens (who has discovered his own niche in popular culture). Unlike these two men, Madame Tussaud bears extra burdens. Despite being, essentially, a single mother, she prevails against the sexism of the time, an exploitive partner and a ne'er do well husband. Madame Tussaud learned her craft and entrepreneurship from her mother's employer, Curtius, who may have been her father. In the 8 years that she would have us believe she was living at Versailles as a tutor to a French princess, what was she actually doing? Is there a reason, besides her marketing needs, that she wants to refashion these years? What were her actual experiences during the French Revolution and did they inform her decision to leave her mother and one young son (we can easily guess why she would want to leave Mr. Tussaud) to embark on a speculative venture in England? The author does not describe how Madame Tussaud developed her wax images--- how long they took--- how she got their clothing --- how she moved them in her touring days --- how she traveled with the infant, later child and adolescent she toured with. How many horse driven carts did she need? How did she procure space? Set things up? How did she cope with the many men who had never worked for a woman before? The author stays with the theme of Madame Tussaud as a pioneer in popular culture. She analyses how she met the needs of the crowd in visual display, content, and visitor expeience. We learn how she analysed the competition, selected her venues, marketed to different groups, sold souvenir programs (upsell) and adjusted hours, prices and content to attract an audience. As a book on the Madame's role in popular culture this really succeeds. In some places, the prose is so intriguing that it cannot be put down.

Contrary to "Avid Reader" (above), I did NOT find this book dry or lifeless. I did find it a bit repetitive in passages where the author wants to place emphasis on a particular point or issue. This is a wonderfully written and researched narrative about an intriguing period in European history as well as an interesting biography of Madame Tussaud. Also, contrary to "Avid Reader", I think the author did show empathy for her subject. Were we reading the same book? If you like "A Life in Wax", you may also enjoy Dominic Smith's more fictional book, "The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre", set in a similar time period.

If the name of Madame Tussaud sounds familiar, just think of the House of Wax to get the association: House of Wax museums exist across the country and even in London and Asia - and her name is on each museum marquee. Despite this, relatively little has been written about her life, until now: writer Kate Berridge uses Tussaud's memoirs, British and French historical archives, and interviews with her descendants to reconstruct her life and times from birth to her business associations. She was the first to bring art and entertainment to newfound middle-class and working-class groups and her influence extended far beyond the wax museum cult, as MADAME TUSSAUD: A LIFE IN WAX proves. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Though the focus is on the woman who brought wax figures of blood and gore to the forefront in the late eighteenth century this terrific biography also showcases the era. The concentration on Madam Tussaud's life also contains an interesting underlying theme that seems apropos today and perhaps can be generalized as a human condition that the macabre of "if it bleeds, it leads" especially if a celebrity is involved. This has always fascinated mankind. Born in 1761, to a teenage cook, Madame Tussaud using chutzpah that PT Barnum later adopted learned her trade from a traveling showman before turning to the French Reign of Terror to recreate wax scenes of the guillotining of King Louis XVI and Robespierre. She was a businesswoman first and foremost, but also was a wonderful artist and a terrific reader of the human condition as her work, which moved from Paris to London became part of the pop culture of the first half of the ninetieth century and remains a fixture today (movies like Waxworks). Biography readers will enjoy this fascinating look at a competent female whose life in wax still fascinates people over a hundred and fifty years after her death as her "name" Madame Tussaud brings up interesting gruesome images. Harriet Klausner

In the London Underground system, at different spots a helpful recording will tell riders that they have reached a stop for some particular tourist destination. There is only one commercial attraction mentioned in this way. Whey you arrive at the Baker Street station, the speaker suggests: "Alight here for Madame Tussaud's". And people do, millions of them, and they have been visiting Madame's collection since it has been there in 1884, with plenty having seen her traveling exhibit in different British cities before that, and even that was only after she had been exhibiting in Paris. There are Tussaud branches now in Amsterdam, New York, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong, and Shanghai has just opened. Kate Berridge in the fine, comprehensive biography _Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax_ (William Morrow), introduces her work with a charming vision: "This is a story about a queue which started in Paris in around 1770 and still snakes around cities all over the world." Madame Tussaud would not be surprised at her continuing success; she was a supremely canny businesswoman, to say nothing of artist in wax. She was born Marie Grosholtz in 1761, and her mother became the housekeeper of Philippe Curtius, a Swiss medic who made wax anatomical models. He recognized that Marie had prodigious talents for wax modeling, and she became his apprentice, starting with modeling fruit and flowers and eventually including the secret formulas for the skin tones that were Curtius's signature skill. Curtius opened his waxworks exhibit in Paris, capitalizing on royal glamour and adding to this revolutionary gore, themes that are still prominent in the current halls. After Curtius died, leaving Marie all the waxworks, she married a failed and feckless engineer. She may well have wanted to get away from him as well as to capitalize on British interest in the past revolution and in the current Napoleon and Josephine. She left for Britain in 1806, never to return. For twenty-seven years she toured her exhibits around Britain, trying to elevate her show above the Punch-and-Judy men and the flea circuses. Moral crusaders did not want the riff-raff clogging museum rooms, nor did they want them attending fairs; Madame Tussaud was careful to span the gap between the two entertainments. Even if we discard Madame's self-aggrandizing account of her life (she was, after all, in show business), this is a great story of a woman making her way independently in a business world stacked against her. It includes rascally swindlers, absent parents, loving sons, untrustworthy partners, and real encounters with royalty. Significantly, there are no meaningful friendships described here; Madame was too interested in making money, and she seems to have preferred her waxworks to real people. Berridge has included lots of important facts and atmosphere concerning French royalty, the French Revolution, and the internal commerce of Britain, so that the many roles that Madame Tussaud playe