Read Online Kate Berridge by Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax - Free Book Online Page A

the day. Equally fashionable were the showman scientists, who tended to make monkeys of the people who paid up only to find themselves duped by such fraudulent ‘philosophical’ and ‘mechanical’ demonstrations as the telepathic and magnetic presentations of Mesmer and Cagliostro.

    Paul Butterbrodt, the gigantic man employed to publicize the waxworks
    Even distinction through ill fortune was turned to profit, although it is debatable how much male sympathy there was for The Virile Boy, a four-year-old of precocious sexual maturity and ‘beyond the finestproportions in the virile organ’. If the crowds were pleased to see him, it was because of his inability to conceal his pleasure in seeing some of them–especially pretty girls: ‘It is especially at the appearance of a woman that his virility manifests itself.’ Unusual human forms were almost commonplace on the commercial circuit, and Curtius is said to have employed the vast-girthed Paul Butterbrodt as a barker. Equally intriguing was The Boy Who Could See Underground, who made such an impact that he came to the attention of the academicians, who accredited his talent in learned journals. But if the subterranean talent spot had been taken, this was no problem for the man who won the highest praise for his demonstration of walking on water: ‘St Peter himself could not have done better, perhaps with no more grace, nor with more assurance.’ These were the sights Marie saw, and the people she moved among.
    The Boulevard du Temple was much wider than the maze of dimly lit medieval streets around it, and every inch of space was occupied with the commerce of pleasure. To be seen more easily, street performers erected tréteaux , boards raised on trestles by way of simple stages, on which animal-based entertainments offered as much variety as their human competition. The stars of these miniature variety shows were duelling fleas, somersaulting birds and funambulist rats. Marie clearly liked the performing fleas, for she featured a flea circus in her own bill of entertainment at a later stage. Before billposters became more common, live action advertising was popular for theatrical entertainment. In this form of commercial trailer, actors on the theatre balconies that faced the street above the crowds treated passers-by to a taste of the fun they could have if they went directly to the ticket office. But by far the best description of the scope of the fun to be had on Marie’s doorstep is that of a contemporary eyewitness: ‘There are chairs set up for those who want to watch and for those who want to be watched–cafés fitted up with an orchestra and French and Italian singers; pastry cooks, restaurant-keepers, marionettes, acrobats, giants, dwarfs, ferocious beasts, sea monsters, wax figures, automatons, ventriloquists and the surprising and enjoyable show of the wise physicist and mathematician Comus.’
    The neighbourhood was thronged with peddlers, ticket touts, conjurers and conmen. There was a constant crush of people as well ascarriages trying to pass through. The pedestrians, like eddies around rocks, would gather in greater numbers as a balladeer suddenly struck up with the last words of a newly executed criminal, and there would be a spontaneous singalong. But the magic of the area was the seemingly inexhaustible supply of new things to see. In this colourful community Marie witnessed daily the art of spin, as the public were persuaded to dip into their pockets and pay up to be amazed, amused or abused by a scam. Although as an adult she cultivated an image that conveyed a refined sensibility and emphasized respectable connections, in reality the tough and edgy street culture where Curtius built up the family business had exposed her from an early age to the harsh realities of life. The Boulevard du Temple was even nicknamed the Boulevard du Crime because the constant crowds made it a pickpocket’s