Madame Tussaud’s Leather Museum to Open with Clint Eastwood as Inaugural Sculpture
London, England – Looking to branch out from its wax sculpture roots, Madame Tussauds Museum announced today that they will soon be opening a new Leather Museum and that a figure of actor Clint Eastwood would be its inaugural sculpture.
The figure, which will be made completely out of top-grain rawhide leather, will be an exact replica of Eastwood from when he played Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan in the 1971 movie “Dirty Harry”. The figure will also feature an exact leather replica of Callahan’s famous Smith & Wesson Model 29 double-action revolver chambered for the .44 magnum cartridge.
There will also be a motion-activated speaker made completely from leather that will play the lines “I know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking, ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Now, to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?” when someone walks past the figure.
Chester Dunham, who is the President of Development for Madame Tussauds originally had the idea to branch out into leather figures after watching the movie “City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold”. In the movie, Jack Palance plays Duke Washburn, the rough and tumble twin brother of the late Curly Washburn [also played by Jack Palance].
“As soon as I saw the rough and worn look that Jack had in that movie, I knew replicating similar characters in wax would never do them justice. Nope, it would have to be done in leather.” Dunham said. “So I brought it to the museum’s Board of Directors and they loved it. They gave me the go-ahead and said that they wanted a huge star to be the inaugural figure, and while Palance was indeed leathery, we decided to give the nod to Clint because of his lifelong commitment to leatherness.”
The announcement also coincides nicely with the release of Eastwood’s newest film “Gran Torino” in which Eastwood plays a racist, leathery Korean War veteran who befriends a neighboring Hmong family [He also directed the film]. The museum is hoping that the popularity of the movie will also help them gain exposure for their grand opening.
The museum has also invited Eastwood and his family to be the guests of honor for the sculpture’s unveiling and hopes that they will be able to attend the historical event.
