Madame Tussauds Pt. 2 and Grauman's Chinese Theater

More Hollywood adventure pics! 

Madame Tussaud herself...in wax that is!

Madame Tussaud was the French daughter of a physician who was skilled in wax modeling in the early 1700's.  She learned the trade from her father and inherited his workshop and life's work.  She would create "Life Masks" of decapitated citizens during French Revolution.  The molded wax heads would be carried through the streets on pikes as a form of protest.  She eventually opened a wax museum with her creations depicting gruesome scenes of torture.  She gained fame and soon began to create masks of living celebrities and over the preceding ages, the art form and fame have continued, still carrying her name.  There are nine Madame Tussauds wax museums throughout the world!   

 A copy of the actual death mask of Madame Tussaud herself

At the Hollywood Madame Tussauds there is an exhibit featuring the step by step process in making a modern wax model.  The recreated celeb in the exhibit was the singer Beyonce.  There was a video and items to illustrate the process.

 The basic armature

 Rubber casts of body parts

 A refined sculpture made from the cast of the person's head.

 A selection of eye balls and teeth!

Hair samples.  They place by hand, strands of hair into the wax scalp...creepy and cool!

Here is a bisected example of Beyonce's body, showing all of the different materials used.

So, if you ever wondered...that's how a wax model is made!

After the Wax Museum, we strolled over the the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater!  We spent a few good minutes walking around and comparing our own hands and feet to those of celebrities who have been immortalized in cement right in front of the theater. 

I just love the colored lights!

We saw lots of hand and footprints.  See anyone's you recognize? 

Across the street from Grauman's Chinese theater is another iconic Hollywood landmark, the El Capitan Theater.  Guess what?  While we were there, they were filming a movie!  It was to be exact a NEW Muppet Movie!  How cool is that!?!  I wasn't allowed to get to close with the camera but I did snap a few pics before I was shoo'ed away! 

 The El Capitan, the film crew and the large crowd watching the action.

Okay, you have to trust me on this but to the right, behind all those people are actual Muppeteers with actual Muppet Penguins!!

Giant light box used to illuminate the night sky!

The Marquis, all lit up like Christmas!

After all that we headed back to the car and from there, 1/2 a block down the road to an In N' Out burger where we finally got to eat some food!  It was a great Hollywood adventure!  I don't make it to LA very often so it was good fun to do some touristy stuff!