Eiffel Tower phonograph and wax figures (when?)

[AllenKoe]

Hi,

As I rev up my engines for the next article in AP, I find that a question has arisen, about the 3 wax figures at the top of the Eiffel Tower (itself completed in 1889, for the Universal Exposition).

The 3 "wax" manikins (in costume) are: Thomas Edison (the inventor), Gustave Eiffel (whose firm designed it), and Claire (Eiffel's daughter).

The Grenet-cell Phonograph (pre-Class M Perfected) is real enough and was gifted by TAE to Eiffel personally on Sep 10, 1889, when they all had dinner in Gustave's sky-high apartment. There is even a (recorded) cylinder or two...

But when were the 3 figures actually added to the Tower scene? I assume at some time after the phonograph...

Thanks!

Allen

[TinfoilPhono]

I don't know when they were put there, but I would imagine it was in relatively modern times. I first saw them in the late 1990s. I wish I had a better photo of the phonograph table. It's a gorgeous piece, made with a lower shelf with two circular wooden frames to hold two Grénet cells securely upright.

Here's a photo of the wax figures with the phonograph Edison gave to Eiffel on Sept. 10, 1889. Also the back of a place card from the luncheon that Eiffel hosted, with autographs of Edison, Eiffel, and composer Charles Gounod, who just happened to be having lunch (by himself) at the same time as the huge Edison event. Afterward, when Eiffel invited Edison and a few others up to his apartment on the top floor of the tower, he saw Gounod and graciously invited him along. Just how gracious becomes clear when you learn that Gounod had been a fierce critic of the tower in the lead-up to construction. Like many others, he changed his mind about it once it was completed.

I know of one other such autographed souvenir that survives, with the same signatures.

[gsphonos]

I believe the first time I saw these figures was long before 1989. I was there for the 200th Anniversary of Bastille Day, back in 1989, and know they were there then. This was way before I actually actively started collecting phonographs--which was in 1996. My family took groups of high school students and adults, to Europe, from the early 70's to the late 90's. We always went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and those figures were actually there for as long as I can remember. From the picture Rene posted, the figures are actually of much better quality than I remember them! I would have to dig out slide carousels to actually find the first time I photographed them. That is one of those projects I have been planning to get to for years (digitzing my slide collection).

Mike Sorter
Riverside, CA

[Babillard]

The French magazine Sites et Monuments n° 91 (July/August/September 1980), informs us that the living room of Gustave Eiffel is being restored. Here is the translation of this short article:
The Eiffel Tower was visited in 1979 by about 3.5 million people. Aged 91-year, the old lady currently undergoes
a rejuvenation cure; the restoration of the small Eiffel living room, on the 3rd floor, is nearing completion, we will see Eiffel there talking to Edison.

Julien

[AllenKoe]

Thank you, Julien,

... for this date (1980), for the creation of the 3 "wax" figures. Perhaps this information implies that the Edison/Spectacle Model phonograph was already on display (by itself)?

Has the sound on the wax cylinder(s) ever been played? Charles Gounod just "happened" to be passing by?

Claire (the young lady) was Gustave's first born child/daughter and was 26 years old in 1889 when she is 'shown.' She was married the year before, but often helped her father. Eiffel himself lived to be 91, dying in 1923 (listening to a disc record). Many may (also) remember him as the designer of the interior of the Statue of Liberty.

Best
Allen

[Babillard]

It appears that the phonograph has always remained in the tower’s apartment and that it was not exhibited until 1980, after the reconstitution of Gustave Eiffel’s office.
Charles Gounod was hostile to the construction of the tower. Yet, according to Sylvain Yeatman-Eiffel, author of a biography about his ancestor, he was won over by the charm of the monument. On the invitation of Gustave Eiffel, he improvised a kind of "cantata at the Tower" on the piano of the apartment. Unfortunately, this improvisation was not recorded.
The cylinders recorded by Eiffel in February and March 1891 and early 1898 reproduce, in addition to his voice, that of Ernest Renan, astronomer Jules Janssen, other personalities and his children or grandchildren. The cylinders are at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Listen to the voice of Gustave Eiffel: https://www.phonorama.fr/eiffel.html

Julien