We are familiar with Madame Tussaud's famous, almost-200-year-old wax museum, but who was she, and how did she become a renowned "exhibitionist?" Hard work and talent, for sure, but Marie Grosholtz was also in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the public's fascination with celebrities -beginning with a morbid fascination for dead celebrities. Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1761, Grosholtz's mother worked for an anatomist who sculpted in wax. Young Marie learned his art at the time the French Revolution provided plenty of celebrity executions. The public was keen to see those celebrities, and sculptures made from their actual death masks was the key to authenticity.

The work required equal comfort in palaces and in prisons, and a certain ease with the grotesque: in her memoirs, Tussaud claimed that she sat “on the steps of the exhibition, with the bloody heads on her knees, taking the impressions of their features.”

Success in waxworks involved not only artistic skill and patience, but an ear to the ground and fast feet: when Charlotte Corday murdered the radical Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub, Marie got to the scene so fast, the killer was still being processed by law enforcement as she started work on Marat’s death mask.

Madame Tussaud eventually moved to England and opened her museum. You can read her story at Atlas Obscura.

What could be more tempting than to startle a news anchor or reporter, especially when they've been primed by a spooky report already? It happens every Halloween, and it's recorded on video for posterity.

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News Be Funny has a mega-compilation of newspeople who couldn't stay calm and cool while reporting on Halloween shenanigans. There are also clips of pranks and silliness and unexpected weirdness that happens when you do Halloween live on the air.   

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

The official title of what was to become (probably) the most beloved of Abbott and Costello's 30-odd films is actually Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein or Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein. These were the titles on the posters and lobby cards, as well as the film's opening credits. No matter, to millions of Abbott and Costello fans as well as millions of horror film fans, it will forever be known, even if incorrectly, as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The original, planned title was actually The Brain of Frankenstein, but this was changed to make it sound less like a standard horror film, as well as to cash in on A&C's box office appeal.

Lou Costello wasn't exactly thrilled when he read the movie's original screenplay. "No way I'll do that crap," he complained, "My little girl could write something better than this." A $50,000.00 advance in his salary, plus the inclusion of  Charles Barton, who Bud and Lou both loved, as the film's director, helped change Lou's mind. (Bud and Lou were to be paid a final salary of $105,000).

Made on a shoestring budget of less than $800,000, production began on February 5, 1948.

L. Frank Baum wrote 14 books about the land of Oz, but the movie was just a dream. Was MGM convinced that adults would consider movie more believable that way? Apparently the thought of a sequel never crossed their minds. Movies (and TV shows) often alter the details of the original source, whether it's a novel or a true story. The reasons vary, but often it just comes down to making things more exciting for the viewer. For example, Sarah Paulson showed off some serious acting chops in the O.J. Simpson miniseries last year.

And so did Marcia Clark in the courtroom. She acted professionally, while Paulson acted emotionally, because that's what the script demanded for each of them. I had wondered how I ever forgot that topless picture detail, but now that's all cleared up. Read two dozen ways that movies (and TV shows) were different from the original source at Cracked.

Ozzy Man (Ethan Marrell) is known for his hilarious video narratives that feature overly-excited non-stop Australian-style blue language. This one is different, in that the profanity is pretty minimal, relative to his other videos. That said, it does contain some NSFW language.

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He has something to say about every character in the new trailer for The Last Jedi, the porg more so than anyone. We find out where Poe Dameron's name probably came from. And he says what the rest of us were thinking about that last bit. -via Tastefully Offensive

The three figures you see here are on display at Toronto Pearson International Airport. They are examples of inuksuit, stacked stone markers that are a traditional part of the Inuit culture. When one represents a human figure, it's called inunnguaq. The shape of each inuksuk has a specific meaning, and were often used to give information to travelers. These inunnguaq were commissioned for the Toronto airport to welcome travelers to Canada with native art.   

As the CBC reports, the federal government commissioned these particular artworks back in 1963, from an Inuk artist named Kiakshuk. Save for a brief stint in storage, they’ve been standing near Terminal One since then, in these same positions. The concern about them is new, and was spurred when CBC Nunavut posted photos of the statues on Facebook, prompting a near-immediate response from Inuk readers. (“That kind of inukkuk/inuksuk signifies a bad [omen], a place of horrible death,” one, Jessie Kaludjak, wrote.)

That's the last thing you want to signal at an airport! How did it happen? Atlas Obscura has updates on the story with an explanation. It's cautionary tale that reminds us how easy it can be to misinterpret traditions from cultures we don't know enough about. In another example, the article has many links to the CBC. In an early CBC report, the works are called inukshuks, while a later story uses inuksuit, the proper plural of the Inuit word inuksuk.    

(Image credit: George Socka)

DoodleChaos spent a month creating a music video for Edvard Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King" using the app Line Rider. Yes, it was all drawn by hand. You know the song, so you can anticipate how it builds to a chaotic frenzy and goes completely off the rails -literally, in this version.   

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Synchronizing the drawings to the music was a painstaking job, and DoodleChaos says he/she never wants to hear the song again. I understand, but it's worth it for the many folks who are enjoying it now. -via reddit

(Image credit: Duncan Cook)

Imagine walking into a business and having to cross this floor! You might be surprised to learn it's easy, because the floor is perfectly flat. Just keep your eye on the door at the other end of the hall. This optical illusion is the entrance to the showroom at Casa Ceramica, a tile company in Manchester, UK. The floor helped them win a design award recently.

They are actual tiles pic.twitter.com/7HvTqz9jHP

— Casa Ceramica (@casaceramica) September 22, 2017

Each tile was custom cut and numbered to produce the illusion. That has to impress customers coming into the showroom, once they understand it's not really falling in! -via Digg

It's been a while since we've had a new video from Cyriak Harris. He's done some unspeakable things with farm animals like cats and sheep, and more cows than you can shake a stick at. This one is all about a goofy dancing horse. Or dozens of them, but it's all the same horse that multiplies by fractals.  

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The video is for the song "UFOholic" by the Japanese band Denki Groove. -via Laughing Squid

In the 1976 film Taxi Driver, we watched Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle's descent into madness. It was a disturbing film, one that stayed with you long after the credits rolled. It didn't help New York City's reputation with tourists, either.

The change was that the colors of the final shootout were muted, so the blood did not look as red. There are no existing prints of the film with the original color. See the rest of the illustrated facts about Taxi Driver at TVOM.

Here's a love story that belongs in a museum. Redditor krysxvi took his girlfriend to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. What she didn't know is a special artwork was hanging there, illustrating his proposal that didn't happen until they got to that exhibit.

He tells the story here.

Story: In September we took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As we walked the aisles of art from ancient times and contemporary alike, they happened upon a room of Picasso's art (Marybeth's favorite). My brother and sister in law were able to then hang the painting I had made of himself proposing to Marybeth wearing the red polka dot dress next to a Picasso. After I was given the signal I brought my girlfriend to the painting where she began immediately began crying when she realized that the painting was of what was about to take place. I bent the knee and she nodded yes as tears traveled down her rosy cheeks. Her cousin, who had been undercover waiting for them to arrive at the museum, beautifully documented the moment through her photography. Soon after I rose back to my feet, we were greeted by a less than happy guard who told them to remove the painting from the wall and suggested that we leave. After a few more quick photos, the gang left the building and the rest is history or should I say...art history.

I knew she'd be wearing that dress because I had her mom buy it a few weeks in advance for her and then convinced her to wear it that day. Also I had asked a few other small museums for permission to do this and none obliged so I just said f it and decided I just do it at the biggest museum I could think of and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

We also found out he did not remove any art for the stunt, and he used a Command strip in order to leave no damage. Some commenters thought it was a horrible thing to do to the museum, while others thought it would make a good movie.

That will be a drawing they'll both cherish forever. -via reddit

In this video from Dublin, a cat named Jas will not put up with an empty bottle next to him when it's so much fun to knock it off. His humans are getting a kick out of it, too.

 
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Oh yeah, this video is cute and all, but making it a game is showing the cat how much you love him knocking things off the counter. He might end up doing it the rest of his life just to please you. However, he is a cat, so "pleasing you" won't be his main agenda. -via Tastefully Offensive

The second full trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi just dropped during Monday Night Football, and now we all have it. Rey is training, Luke is tired, General Leia is concerned, and Kylo Ren is pissed off. Just as we would expect.

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There's some colorful battle sequences and space flight, and otherwise we really don't find out much about the story. But it does make us want to buy some advance tickets.

Eyes are the window to the soul. It's no secret that humans respond to eyes, real or artificial, because they tell us so much. The slightest movements relay what the person behind them is thinking, what they are paying attention too, and how they feel. Even stripped down to two simple black dots on two white orbs, we recognize them as eyes because they are that important to us.

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Helsinki designer and filmmaker Lucas Zanotto constructed several kinetic sculptures that use simple shapes and movements to show us something we are infinitely familiar with: googly eyes. When artificial eyes act in familiar ways, we know exactly what's going on. When they act goofy, we find it delightful. Enjoy Zanotto's eyes moving in lots of different ways. -via Metafilter 

The host of The Action Lab (previously at Neatorama) makes entertainment out of the properties of Polyethylene glycol. It's a substance made of long stringy molecules that cohere so well that they defy gravity. A good basic video of this property is at Geeks Are Sexy. In this later video, he tests those properties in Robert Boyle's self flowing flask. Can he make a perpetual motion machine out of the goop and the flask?

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Well, perpetual motion devices have enemies: inertia, gravity, air, friction, and some other laws that creep in if you ever defeat the big four. Polyethylene glycol is no miracle substance, unless you're severely constipated. But it can be fun to play with.