Discussions have got very deep here recently, so for a bit of light relief I am offering the reaults of surveys of Madame Tussaud's vistiros in the 1970s, courtesy of my book of lists I happened upon yesterday.  They were asked which were the five people they most hated and the five they most admired. (Though the title of the lists were The 5 most hated and feared persons in history and The 5 most beloved heroes or heroines of all time. So I am not sxure if they were asked the question for themselves personally or what they thought others considered the most hated and loved.  And beloved and admired aren't quite synonyms to me.)

I have the figures from 1970 to 1976.  For the most admired/loved Churchill tops four of them, Joan of Arc (sic) twice and Jesus Christ once. Horatio Nelson and Florence Nightingale share top spot with Chruchill in 1974 (though Florence is on no other year). It seems a bit odd that from 3500 questionnaires exactly the same number would vote three people top, or for the numbers to add to the same, assuming there were graduated points given to each placing. Churchill and Joan feature in all the lists, but Jesus pops on and off.  John F Kennedy, while not topping any of the lists, is on all of them, which I suppose is indicative of the times, as is the inclusion of Moshe Dayan in one.  Some slight oddities - in 1975 Robin Hood and Napoleon were fourth and fifth, and Abraham Lincoln was there once.  Nelson features in five of the seven years.

Poor old Richard Nixon tops the list of most hated and feared in 1972 and 73 (I see children being called Nixon these days a bit, so presumably this 'hatred' has disappeared or been totally forgotten since then).  But other than those years it is Hitler.  I sometimes wonder when this will change - I think he would still top modern lists.  Or would Osama Bin Laden top him now?  Napoleon in his day was a bogey man and much hated but no one would expect him on such a list now.  I am mystified about why Count Dracula featured in four of these years - had a film come out?  And why should Jimmy Carter have to share this poll with the likes of Jack the Ripper, Satan (who only came in in 5th place in 1972), Idi Amin and el-Qaddafi.  Mind you, other politicians like Harold Wilson, Mao Tse-tung, Enoch Powell, Spiro Agnew and Edward Heath also get their name in (bad) lights. I think Moshe Dayan is the only one on both lists.  John Christie was in one list, and while I vaguely remembered him as a murderer I didn't really remember his crimes. 

Who would mostly visit Mme Tussauds in those days - British people, Americans, Europeans?  Or a mix?

Count Dracula movies were all the rage back then Caro, particularly those with Christopher Lee.

Caro - there was a film about Christie, IIRC 10 Rillington Place, released in 1971, which probably raised his hate rating for a year or two.

I've been thinking who I would have put on my list back then.
"Hate" would probably be too strong a word for it, but I used to get extremely irritated at the times in the 1970s when I had to put up with Olivia Newton-John's singing tones all over the airwaves. She had - probably still has - a pretty face but I for one didn't really go a bundle on her as a singer. A couple of panel shows on the radio back then I absolutely hated were "Petticoat Line" and "Animal Vegetable Mineral" and there was the music show an ex-boyfriend called "Sing Something Sinful" and (I quite liked folk music - still do) the one titled "Country Meets Folk" which might more aptly have been called "Country Meets Country".  I seem to recall Enoch Powell winning the "World at One" radio programme poll for the person of the year on more than one occasion then. Harking back to the Tussauds polls, it would be interesting to know what the corresponding persons are since, say 2010, if Tussauds still do such lists.