Celebrities with missing heads
PUSSSYKATT
N.Y. Daily News Feature Writer
Woody Allen is gazing warily from a bench. Whoopi Goldberg is ready to greet
the crowds with a beaming smile. Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford are posing hunkily
in their respective corners.
But some of the other celebs just don't seem to have their heads screwed on —
literally.
Allen, Goldberg, Pitt and Ford are some of the nearly 200 wax figures being
prepared for the opening of Madame Tussaud's New York in mid-October. Long one
of the biggest tourist attractions in London, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum is
about to become part of the new 42nd St.
As early as the final years of the Koch administration, efforts were made to
bring the sophisticated waxworks to New York. Construction finally began in
August 1999 for the 85,000-square-foot, five-story building, whose cost is
estimated at about $50 million.
Visitors will begin their journey on the top of the building, where they can
survey the new Times Square. Then they will walk down one floor to a party full
of celebrities, "hosted" by RuPaul.
The guest list includes Tony Bennett, Cher, Larry King, Bette Midler,
Christopher Reeve, Barbra Streisand, Patrick Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and many
others, all standing in a Spanish-style courtyard.
Then comes a gallery full of famous people, including Jack and Jackie Kennedy,
Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Salvador Dali and the most
popular figure in the London museum — Princess Diana.
After that, visitors will go decade by decade through popular culture of the
last century, from Babe Ruth in the '20s right down to the Spice Girls (whose
wax-museum outfits were made by the designer who does their real costumes).
Many of the outfits the wax figures wear were donated by their real-life
counterparts. Last summer, for example, Chelsea Clinton visited Madame
Tussaud's in London and told her guides that her father would never wear a tie
like the one they had given him. A few weeks later, she sent them one of her
father's ties. (No, not the yellow one.)
It generally takes six months to create a figure and a month alone to do the
hair, which is inserted strand by strand into the scalp. Happily, in the case
of RuPaul, his own makeup man contributed one of the drag performer's wigs.
Every day, a maintenance team has to survey each of the figures for wear and
tear and provide touchups, since visitors are allowed to touch the famous
figures. The only ones who are off-limits are members of the British Royal
Family, though of that group, only Diana will be on display in New York.
The public's ability to cozy up to the figures is important, says Tony Peluso
of The Tussaud's Group USA: "I love it when I hear people stand next to a
statue and say, 'I thought he was a little taller than that. I thought he was
heavier.' "
Finding people who can create the sculptures is not easy, Craig notes, because
art schools, oriented toward abstract and conceptual art, devote less time to
teaching what used to be basic — sculpting the human form. Many of the
employees in the London studio come from Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, where these
skills are still taught.
For now, there are no plans to build a "factory" in New York. The figures are
built in London and shipped here or to the branches of Madame Tussaud's in Las
Vegas, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
There may be additions to the list of museums, but, Peluso stresses, "There
will never be a Madame Tussaud's on every corner. We're not a franchise
operation."
The celebrity-filled galleries are something of a contrast to the life of
Tussaud, who was born Anne Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France.
Her career began when, as a young woman, she was sent to Paris to live with her
uncle, Philippe Curtius. A doctor and wax modeler, he had opened his own wax
museum in 1770.
Before the days of tabloids, TV and even photography, a wax museum was a way
for the public to get its celebrity fix. Wax statues were a form of both
sculpture and portraiture, and Curtius taught his niece how to make them. An
adept student, she was invited by the sister of King Louis XVI to tutor her in
art at Versailles, where she lived for nine years.
In 1789, her uncle invited her back to Paris, where he had become friendly with
people who wanted to overthrow the regime. During the Reign of Terror, she was
asked to make wax death masks of some of the guillotine's victims — including
her former employers King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. (The museum includes
a life-size replica of the killing machine, which will lop off heads on a
regular basis.)
"She literally saved her head by making copies of those who were not so
fortunate," says Peluso.
During the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, she emigrated to England — bringing,
among other possessions, a portrait she had made of Benjamin Franklin, whom she
had known in Paris. Franklin's statue in New York is made from her original
mold.
During her early years in England, Tussaud took her show on the road before
opening a permanent museum in London in 1835.
"Very often, her figures were the first time people in the provinces had ever
seen a likeness of famous people," says head artist Judy Craig, who supervises
the construction of the models from a four-story building in London.
One of the exhibits in the New York museum shows the workings of this very
studio. A model of Craig's husband, who is one of her sculptors, will be seen
modeling an unfinished statue of Al Roker.
By the time visitors reach this exhibit, they will have seen the finished
statue of Roker, along with his colleagues from the "Today" show, Matt Lauer
and Katie Couric. Not far away is another TV star, Larry King.
Peluso was pleased with King's reaction to that last statue. "It's not a
likeness," the CNN host said.
"It's an exactness."
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<20000930114858...@ng-cl1.aol.com>...
>By HOWARD KISSEL
>N.Y. Daily News Feature Writer
>
>Woody Allen is gazing warily from a bench. Whoopi Goldberg is ready to
greet
>the crowds with a beaming smile. Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford are posing
hunkily
>in their respective corners.
>
>But some of the other celebs just don't seem to have their heads screwed
on —
>literally.
>
>Allen, Goldberg, Pitt and Ford are some of the nearly 200 wax figures being
>prepared for the opening of Madame Tussaud's New York in mid-October. Long
one
>of the biggest tourist attractions in London, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
is
>about to become part of the new 42nd St.
FOAF of the week: Someone I know has a housemate who works for Madame
Tussauds in London and she said everyone shakes Mel Gibson's hand so much, a
finger worked loose. They have to replace the whole hand when this happens.
So they now have Mel Gibson's finger.
Hehe. Gotta be a story there.
Jax
LuvSuni
>>prepared for the opening of Madame Tussaud's New York in mid-October.
I loved the one in London. I know whenever I go back to London, I'm heading
back to Maddam Tussaud's.
Suni (AKA Suni Spice, keeper of Danny Elfman and knower of stupid trivia)
7 months to go before graduating. University of Iowa class of 2001.