Madame Tussaud's

History and Origins.

Madame Tussaud was born Marie Grosholts in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her father died before her birth, and her widowed mother went with young Marie to Berne in Switzerland to work аs housekeeper to Philippe Curtius, a German-born doctor and talented modeler in wax.

When Dr. Curtius moved to Paris he took Marie and her mother with him, and in 177O he opened an exhibition of. life-size wax figures which was an immediate success. From an early age Mario had been his pupil and by 1778 she was competent enough to model Voltaire whose figure hаs survived to this day. Two years later she was appointed art tutor to the sister of Louis XVI and she lived for the next nine years at the Palace of Versailles.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 she returned to Dr. Curtius in the centre of Paris, and it was during this period that Marie was commanded by the regime the grim task of taking death masks from the decapitated heads of the victims of the guillotine. The terror ended in 1794 the same year that Dr. Curtius died leaving Marie as his sole heir to run the exhibition. A year later she married Francis Tussaud, a civil engineer, and by 1800 she had given birth to a daughter who died and to two sons, Joseph and Francis.

Although the Revolution had ended France was still in a state of turmoil and visitors began to dwindle, Marie, now Madame Tussaud, became concerned for the success of her business and in 1802 she decided to move to England, leaving her husband and France forever.

During the next thirty three years she visited every major town and city in Britain presenting her exhibition in town balls, assembly rooms and theatres, modeling new figures and supervising the lighting and displays. For a middle-aged woman who spoke little English, Madame Tussaud's stamina must have been boundless.

By 1835 at the age of seventy four, she tired of travelling and decided to settle the exhibition permanently in London. Her last work was a self-portrait made eight years before her death in 1850 and the wax likeness of this tiny but indomitable woman still presides over the exhibition. She left the collection to her two sons and in 1884 the exhibition moved to its present site in Marylebone Road, next door to the new underground railway. But disaster struck in 1925 when a major fire destroyed all but outer walls and the basement mould store. Within three years however Madame Tussaund's opened again with many new figures as well as fresh casts from the salvaged moulds, and since then the exhibition has grown in reputation and popularity to become at present Britain's most visited tourist attraction.

Пояснение к тексту

Madame Tussaud`s - Музей мадам Тюссо /Лондонский музей восковых фигур/

Marie Grosholts-

Philippe Curtius-

Voltaire – Вольтер

Francis Tuseaud - Франц Тюссо

Marylebone Road - Марилебон Роуд /улица/

Слова и выражения для активного усвоения

to die — умирать

Housekeepеr – экономка

to move – переезжать

to survive – выжить

to appoint – назначить

grim - страшный, мрачный

to decapitate – обезглавливать

victim – жертва

heir - наследник

sole - единственный

to marry - жениться, выходить замуж

turmoil - смятение, беспорядок

to dwindle - уменьшаться

to supervise- надзирать, заведовать

to destroy - разрушать

Question to the text

1. Where was Marie Grosholtz born?

2. What was Philippe Curtius?

3. What did Marie Grosholtz do when she returned to Dr.Curtius?

4. Whom did she leave her collection to?