How Madame Tussaud Built An Empire Out Of Wax

Marie Tussaud was shadowed by death and horror her whole life, though it might be more accurate to say she was the one doing the shadowing. According to the Vintage News, citing Tussaud's memoirs, she would often dig through the piles of severed heads that were deliberately left to rot in public squares during the French Revolution – you know, so she could make death masks out of the best ones.

Most people don't deserve to die unpleasantly, but for Tussaud a weird, gloomy death would have been pretty poetic. Instead, though, she died in the most totally boring way possible — in her sleep.

It was only relatively recently that anyone thought to question her sons' account of her death — they said she was still greeting visitors just days before her sleepy demise. Over the years, though, we've learned to be skeptical of the things said by Tussauds.

One of her sons noted symptoms in a letter, and researchers believe they point to cardiorespiratory disease as a cause of death, or a progressive lung disease such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis.Other sources seem to suggest that her final illness lasted a few days, so although she may have actually died in her sleep, it might not have been the peaceful farewell we all hope for. Still, there was no beheading involved, and no pram was required for removing dismembered body parts, so on a scale of one to horrific, Tussaud went pretty easily.

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