in this dark chamber, Horrors beyond your imagination look in the shadows.
They are not your usual monsters they aren't even human
they are the wax Prometheus's of the art world and they will fool the mind and the eye.
You can never be too sure if these models are real as if a madman had
crafted them from unfortunate human beings.
Watch your back and be warned
Welcome to Madame Tussauds chamber of horrors!
[Music]
The Haunt Industry is bustling but where did it all start?
From Cutting Edge, Knott's Scary Farm, to Hollywood Horror Nights
those attractions would not be what they
are today without Philippe Curtius and Madame Tussaud.
You have seen inspirations of their legacy on the screen
in The Mystery of the Wax Museum from 1933
House of Wax from 1953
One of my personal favorites. Hello, Vincent Price!
and, of course, the gore-tastic remake: House of Wax from 2005
which, funnily enough, had the entire set made from wax
hmm
Madame Tussaud would have been very impressed
Before she was Madame Tussaud she was Anna Maria--or Marie--Grosholtz.
In 1761, Marie grew up in Switzerland where her mother was a housekeeper for the
physician and wax modeler, doctor Philippe Curtius.
In those days wax models
were used to study anatomy
but, well...
as finding cadavers or corpses was quite difficult...
We all know what happened in Frankenstein!
Haha!
Just kidding
but corpses decay whereas wax is a little bit more preservable
just beware of open flames
In 1765, Curtius was encouraged to retire from his medical
career and Marie and her mother moved with him to Paris to focus on wax
modeling as an art form rather than an anatomical guide
this is when he began
working on his first official exhibition which was shown in 1770.
Phillippe took Marie on as a pupil and apprentice.
As Marie's skills improved, Curtius opened a
second location in the Boulevard du Temple in 1782, where he housed
The Cavern of Thieves, a precursor to the famous Chamber of Horrors.
In 1777, Marie created
one of her first notable wax figures,
a model of the late French writer, Voltaire
she was fortunate enough to be able to cast him two months before his death
talk about good timing
but they couldn't get good casting for Ghost in the Shell
that's weird
hmm
In 1789, the French Revolution turned the tide and the
public's opinion on their wax works as they believed them to be royal sympathizers
this belief nearly got her beheaded by the guillotine during the
Reign of Terror but someone had a good head on their shoulders and
employed too so to create death masks of anyone
of importance
who had been beheaded
including the famous Marie Antoinette
and yes it's just as
horrific as you can imagine it to be
a freshly severed head in her lap only to be forever preserved in wax
some would later dub her the Decapitation Artists
Don't worry, don't worry.
Madame Tussaud wasn't putting actual bodies
into the wax like Professor Henry Jerrod played by Vincent Price
but
the wax models heads were soon put on pikes and put on display so the
populace could see the evil oppressor had been brought to justice
whoo
these heads were soon put on display in the Chamber of Horrors along
with a real guillotine from the French Revolution Tussaud herself purchased as
it was believed to have been the same blade that beheaded Marie Antoinette
Tussaud was aware of dark tourism and sensationalism which made the Chamber of Horrors
one of the most popular exhibitions of the time
we'll get back to that momentarily
Remember uncle Curtius?
Well, Marie's skills impressed
him so much so that when he died in 1794 he left his collection to her as well as
his entire estate
from then on Marie would own her own waxworks business
Marie had grown up in a family of executioners, a fact that she had done
her best to hide as families of executioners usually always marry in
families of executioners
After the Revolution, her worries about her
family's reputation were a thing of the past
when Maria married François Tussaud
but the misfortune didn't really end as
François was a bit of a greedy money-hungry husband there's other
titles for that but it's not appropriate for this channel
In 1802 she decided to
start a new life in England with her eldest son to start a travelling waxworks museum.
She was on the road for 36 years and once hit a bit of a snag
When on her way to Ireland she became shipwrecked and had to swim to shore
sadly losing a big chunk of her inventory
I wonder if she used any of the arms
to, you know, get around?
it's another question I have for you.
There was no problem, however, as Tussaud was very brutal with her figures and changed
out their heads sometimes by chopping them off if the news changed such as a
new celebrity couple or they were no longer in the limelight off with their
heads after those 36 years Madame Tussaud and
Sons decided to make a stable location in the now famous Baker Street location in London
Tussaud would use revolutionary methods of marketing to get her business
out there which has helped her legacy remain alive to this day and I'm pretty
sure some of those methods inspired some social media stuff to this day
There, the Chamber of Horrors remained active until 2016 when the entire exhibition
was shut down due to multiple incidences
you can guess what that means
Including castmate injuries
Ummm...
This
information
destroyed
any of my dreams of going to the Chamber of Horrors, by the way,
because when I was a kid I had a
book called Places to Know and inside the book it was the Chamber of Horrors
and I thought that's pretty fascinating. I would like to go there someday and
during the research of this episode I found out all of the locations have been shut down.
So
personal anecdote
Thought I'd put that in there...
RIP
The Chamber of Horrors took on
a more haunted house feel in the 70s with actors and special effects and it
was a popular Halloween attraction it housed many wax models of famous
criminals terrifying historical figures such as
Vlad the Impaler
famous murderers and even a snazzy torture chamber
Yes, they had a nice rack!
They even showed the historic moment of Madame Tussaud herself seeing the executed bodies
during the Revolution
How historic!
I have reached out to Madame Tussauds London location
but have not heard back about what happened to the many spooky
wax models from the chamber of horrors
I have been told that at least one figure
was saved due to historical significance
I would figure that they have saved the
guillotine that Marie purchased all those years ago
but
just because the
Chamber of Horrors has come to an end that does not mean Madame Tussauds does
not embrace Halloween
different locations have
well, they hold various events.
Which I have been told as of this episode airing that some events are
still under wraps however the New York location still holds its Madame Tussauds
after dark event where they closed the museum early and the entire wax museum
becomes a haunted Wonderland
Also, the Hollywood location is holding a whole
new event called Illusions of Horror, an immersive, selfie-centric
larger-than-life abstract installation starring many of our favorite classic
monsters including Dracula, Frankenstein, and even
the Mummy
keep your eye out for the upcoming events on
well, watch out for abandoned wax museums or any abandoned suburban areas
and let me know in the comments below what your experience at the late
Chamber of Horrors was like
and don't forget to subscribe and check out
PopNerdTV.com for articles reviews and more
you can also check us out on Patreon and Teespring
I am your host, Cierra Caballero, and stay spooky my fiends
[BLOOPER]: Madam Tussauds' Chamber of Horrors!
[Cierra and every one on the crew start singing the Jump Scare Intro Song]
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