Thursday, April 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MADAME'S SADDAM

Wax figure of ousted dictator elicits strong reaction from visitors to Las Vegas museum

Graham Clouser, 11, of Ohio, poses for a photo with a wax figure of Saddam Hussein at Madame Tussaud's, located at The Venetian. Photo by John Gurzinski. Lisa Maloney of New York, a survivor of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, glares at a wax figure of Saddam Hussein on Wednesday. She thought displaying the figure was in poor taste. Photo by John Gurzinski.

While U.S. soldiers have been scouring a desert nation halfway across the world for Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader has been making daily appearances here in the Mojave.

A life-size statue of Saddam is on display at Madame Tussaud's wax museum in The Venetian, and like the giant likeness toppled in Baghdad earlier this month, Saddam is being shown little respect here.

Museumgoers on Wednesday shot, stabbed, punched and strangled the dictator. At least they pretended to while friends or relatives snapped photos of the mock assaults.

"I'd do a lot more than this if I really saw him," said Steve McIntyre, a Pennsylvanian who was smiling as he thrust his foot into Saddam's wax groin.

As if repeatedly being battered by tourists wasn't enough, Saddam also has received little deference from the museum staff during the two weeks he's been here while on loan from Madame Tussaud's Hong Kong branch.

"We've been having some fun with him," said Melissa Horacek, a spokeswoman for the museum. "For a little while, they put an Elvis wig, a fanny pack and an `I Love Las Vegas' T-shirt on him."

Many of those who joyously tortured the $75,000 statue on Wednesday said they believed Las Vegas was the perfect getaway spot for the man designated as the ace of spades in the Defense Department's 55-card deck of most wanted Iraqis.

But some found coming face-to-face with Saddam in military garb with a pistol at his hip anything but humorous.

"I'm totally offended," said New Yorker Lisa Maloney, a secretary for Deutsche Bank and a survivor of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Like others upset about the statue's presence, Maloney said she believed the Iraqi leader was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a tie U.S. government officials have been unable to substantiate.

The 35-year-old said it was painful to watch others playfully pose with the likeness of a man she holds responsible for the deaths of friends and colleagues.

"Killing him wouldn't be enough," she said.

Boston real estate agent Patricia Ferrante's outrage prompted her to accost a young woman who was posing for a picture with the statue.

"Shame on you!" Ferrante, 54, said to the stranger.

"I think they should take him out of here," she said in an interview afterward. "Why are they making money on someone who's giving us a hard time?"

Russell Barnes, the museum's general manager, said the museum aims not only to entertain its patrons, but also to provoke reaction from them.

"We're not just a wax museum anymore," Barnes said. "We want to evoke emotion."

But those who have found the statue distasteful or inappropriate were easily outnumbered by the dozens who took great delight in offering the statue an obscene gesture or words that cannot be reprinted here.

"It gets out people's aggression, so that's a good thing," said Liz Volski, 49, a purchasing agent from Baltimore who posed for a picture with her fist just beneath Saddam's chin.

Paul Antico, a 30-year-old airport security worker from Boston, said release of pent-up anger was his intent when he mimed holding a gun to Saddam's head.

"It felt good," Antico said.

A few of the tourists would have preferred more gore.

"I think they should throw him down on the ground and put a bullet through him and have blood coming out," said Anne Quinn, 58, an office manager from Coventry, R.I.

Richard Cooper, 54, said he was content just to choke the statue.

"Besides what he did to us, this guy was hiding money and building palaces while his own people were starving," said Cooper, a retired firefighter and Vietnam veteran from Suffolk, Va. "I believe in the Old Testament: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

Some visitors launched particularly vicious strikes by pretending to have both guns and knives.

"I shot and stabbed him," said Sal Garofalo, a 9-year-old from Newington, Conn.

Like Garofalo, many of the youngest visitors seemed to see evil incarnate when they looked at the 6-foot piece of wax.

"He needs horns and a little goatee," said Derek Richards, 12, of Boston.

Garofalo, Richards and at least four other children who came through Wednesday afternoon had similar reactions upon spotting the statue in the gallery.

First, their mouths dropped open and their eyes widened. Then, the youngsters would turn to their parents to ask if it was Saddam before rushing over for an attack.

With Saddam's real-life fate still uncertain, Long Island, N.Y., retiree Sal Lacarruba said he wants his up close viewing of the statue to be his final sighting of the Iraqi leader.

"Hopefully, this is the only thing left of him," Lacarruba said.