Wax statues of famous personalities: the saint, the genius and the jester

Albert Einstein: the iconic man of science was regarded as a genius after publishing the Theory of relativity. The discovery that brought him the Nobel Price in 1921 was that of the law of photoelectric effect, used in today’s video and photo cameras. Einstein was born in a Jewish family in Germany and never spoke until he was four years old. He was already a world celebrity when he was forced to emigrate to the United States, after 1933, when Hitler rose to power. His public letter warning the American president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, about the nuclear ambitions of the Nazis is considered among the elements that pressed for the discovery of an atomic bomb, though he personally was not involved in the Manhattan Project. He refused the position of president of newly created state of Israel in 1952, offered by David Ben Gurion, but remained a supporter of the labor (socialist) Zionist movement. He died at the age of 76. Though his views on religion were not traditional, Einstein was convinced that God manifests Himself through the harmony of a world governed by His mysterious laws that are only in a small part discovered through science.

Charlie Chaplin is considered by many the most important comedian in the history of cinema. His character, The Tramp, with a black costume, round hat and clown shoes has grown to be identified with the actor himself. This vagabond life was a destiny that had to be surpassed by Chaplin, who was born in England in a broken family of vaudeville singers. His mother’s origin makes Chaplin probably the most famous Gypsy of all time, an ancestry of which the actor was quite proud. Charlie Chaplin acquired great success working in America mainly in the silent movie era. “Charlot” continued to make this kind of movies years after the advent of the motion pictures with sound, reaching a global audience from all cultures and using his enormous mime talent.

Masterpieces like “The Gold Rush”, “A Dog’s Life”, “Modern Times”, “City Lights” are a combination of gags and sentimentality, played and created by Chaplin after endless repetition of various scenes. The first movie with sound for Charlie Chaplin was “The Great Dictator”, filmed during the second world war, in which he portrays a funny Hitler, with the famous mustache he used when playing The Tramp. During his 88 years of life, Chaplin, who won 3 Oscars, acted for 75 years and had 11 children with several women.