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.
