In
1880, Yacob and Katherine (Kreusch) Spieles came from Germany
and established the Wax Mannequin Manufacturing Company
in New York City. They were one of the first such companies
to provide wax mannequins for the new "ready to wear"
clothing. Katherine Cecelia Spieles was born in this same
year.
In
1900, Katherine Cecelia, who had been brought up working
in her father's business, moved to San Francisco at age
20 to create a western branch to her father's Wax Mannequin
manufacturing company.
In
1903, on May 25th, she married Otto Stubergh and changed
the name of the company to Stubergh Manufacturing Company.
On June 23, 1911, they had a child and named her Katherine
Marie Stubergh.
Katherine
Marie spent her childhood at Miss Tobin's private school
in San Francisco and then Virginia Lee Pride in Los Angeles,
California. She studied dance under Theodore Kosloff, Lester
Horton, and Michio Ito to become a premier dancer.
In
1925, (Otto Stubergh had passed away in 1923) at the request
of their personal friend, Sid Grauman, they came to Los
Angeles to create wax figures of prominent motion picture
stars to be displayed in the forecourt of Grauman's Egyptian
Theater as well as wax figures of non-descript chinese individuals
for the foyer of his Chinese Theater. They closed the San
Francisco office in 1926 and permanently moved their headquarters
to L.A.
Due
to the family's three generations in mannequin manufacturing
and having knowledge of all phases of the business, Katherine
Marie, at age 21 abandoned her dancing career in order to
concentrate efforts on sculpture and wax figure production.
She had a partnership with her mother from 1932 to 1963
and were known as "The Stuberghs."
Katherine
Marie married her first husband, Hans B. Peterson, on February
12, 1943. She later met and married her second husband,
Tom Keller, on April 7, 1962.
Katherine
Marie has created portraits of nearly every prominent person
in the motion picture industry as well as contemporary and
historical figures. She created the wounded soldiers in
the railroad scene in "Gone With the Wind", the
Maureen O'Hara figure in Charles Laughton's "Hunchback
of Notre Dame", the wax figures in "House of Wax",
the statue of Jerry Lewis and babies in "Rock-A-Bye
Baby", and many others. She modeled the bronze plaque
for the Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Memorial, and had many famous
individuals "sit" for portrait busts such as Charles
Spencer Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Mae West, John Barrymore,
and Mary Pickford, to name a few.
She
produced figures for all purposes, from crude dummies used
in movie mob scenes to detailed natural likenesses, life-size
or miniature, designed and executed special exhibits for
fairs, expositions, etc. She created a great number of wax
figures for the Movieland Wax Museum and the Hollywood Wax
Museum, as well as the 3-D creation wax display of Leonardo
DaVinci's painting of the "Last Supper" in Santa
Cruz, California.
In
1968, she hired Henry Jesus Alvarez and mentored him in
her family business. She retired in 1970 and from that point
in time, Henry and Andrea Alvarez have carried the banner
of creating quality wax models, for which Stuberghs, and
now, Alvarez Wax Models are known for.
The
following pictorial section is a tribute to Katherine Marie
Stubergh.
Click
here to view our Katherine Stubergh Gallery
