Benny recently mentioned Thelma Todd being compared to Lillian Russell on his blog,
and this was evidently some publicity scuttlebutt hoping to get Thelma cast in a movie anout Lillian Russell. The movie was apparently never made. However the hints are consistent and recyurrent that Cedar had used the name of Lillian Russell (And was involved with Diamond Jim Brady for a while) so perhaps she was sharing the identity with the more usually-cited Lillian Russell (who was also an actress that was really named something else) Cedar seems to have started using the identity (as "Lilly") arond the time of the Civil War and approximatrely 18 years later, Helen Leonard's Newspaperman father dreamed up the "Lillian Russell" identity for his daughter as a publicity stunt. The family moved to New York City and then broke up, but young Helen retained the identity and used it in her show buisiness career. At some point she must have met Cedar and the two of them agreed to share the identity. In her lifetime, Lillian Russell was almost legendary and many stories were told about her, frequently contradictory to each other. The fact that two different women were sharing the identity makes a little more sense out of the situation.
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Lillian Russell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lillian Russell |
|---|
Lillian Russell, 1905 |
| Born | Helen Louise Leonard
(1860-12-04)December 4, 1860
Clinton, Iowa |
|---|
| Died | June 6, 1922(1922-06-06) (aged 61)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
|---|
| Occupation | Actress/Singer |
|---|
| Years active | 1879–1919 |
|---|
Lillian Russell (December 4, 1860
[1] – June 6, 1922) was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.
Russell was born in Iowa but raised in
Chicago. Her parents separated when she was eighteen, and she moved to New York with her mother. She quickly began to perform professionally, singing for
Tony Pastor and playing roles in
comic opera, including
Gilbert and Sullivan works. She married composer
Edward Solomon in 1884 and created roles in several of his operas in London, but in 1886 he was arrested for
bigamy. Russell was married four times, but her longest relationship was with
Diamond Jim Brady, who supported her extravagant lifestyle for four decades.
In 1885, Russell returned to New York and continued to star in operetta and
musical theatre. For many years, she was the foremost singer of operettas in America, performing continuously through the end of the 19th century. In 1899, she joined the Weber and
Fields's
Music Hall, where she starred for five years. After 1904, she began to have vocal difficulties and switched to dramatic roles. She later returned to musical roles in
vaudeville, however, finally retiring from performing around 1919. In later years, Russell wrote a newspaper column, advocated
women's suffrage and was a popular lecturer.
Life and career
Russell was born
Helen Louise Leonard in
Clinton, Iowa. Her father was newspaper publisher Charles E. Leonard, and her mother was the feminist
Cynthia Leonard, the first woman to run for mayor of New York City. Her family moved to
Chicago by 1865, where she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart (from age 7 to 15) and the Park Institute. Her father became a partner in the printing firm of Knight & Leonard, and her mother became active in the women's rights movement. Russell, called "Nellie" as a child, excelled at school theatricals. In her teens, she studied music privately and sang in choirs. In December 1877, she performed in an amateur production of
Time Tries All at Chickering Hall in Chicago.
[2]
Early career
When Russell was eighteen, her parents separated, and she and her mother moved to
New York City. She soon became engaged to Walter Sinn, but broke off the engagement when she immediately found some success in the chorus of the
Brooklyn Park Theatre.
[2] She studied singing under
Leopold Damrosch. In November 1879, she made her first appearance on Broadway at
Tony Pastor's Casino Theater, billed as "an English Ballad Singer." Pastor, known as the father of
vaudeville, was responsible for introducing many well-known performers.
[3]
She joined the chorus of a touring production of
Gilbert and Sullivan's
comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore in 1879 and two weeks later married the orchestra leader Harry Braham after she found she was pregnant. She gave birth to a son, also named Harry, but the baby died after being stuck with a diaper pin by his nanny; the pin penetrated his stomach.
[4] In 1881, she played the leading
soprano role of Mabel in a
burlesque of
The Pirates of Penzance at Pastor's theatre. She next played at the
Bijou Opera House on Broadway as Djenna in
The Great Mogul and with the
McCaull Comic Opera Company played Bathilda there in
Olivette.
[2] She also played the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Patience and Aline in
The Sorcerer in 1882 at the Bijou. Returning to Pastor's Casino Theatre in 1883, she played Phoebe in
Billee Taylor, composed by
Edward Solomon, who was serving as music director for Pastor.
Russell married Solomon in 1884, a year after their daughter, Dorothy Lillian Russell,
[5] was born, and travelled with him to England. There, she first played Virginia at the
Gaiety Theatre in Solomon and
Stephens's
Paul and Virginia, followed by the title characters in Solomon's
Polly and
Grundy and Solomon's
Pocahontas. While in London, she was engaged to create the title role of Gilbert and Sullivan's
Princess Ida, but she clashed with
W. S. Gilbert and was dismissed during rehearsals.
[6] She then returned to America, touring for Pastor in Solomon's comic operas and playing in New York theatres or on tour in Gilbert and Sullivan and in operettas.
[2] In 1886, Solomon was arrested for
bigamy, since his previous marriage had not been dissolved. Russell obtained a divorce from Solomon in 1893.
[7]
During these years, Russell continued to star in comic operas and other
musical theatre. In 1887, she starred as Carlotta in
Gasparone by
Karl Millöcker in
New York City at the
Standard Theatre, together with
Eugene Oudin and
J. H. Ryley."
[8] Later the same year, she was back at the Casino Theatre in the title role of
Dorothy and over the next several years, she continued to star in operettas and musical theatre in Broadway theatres. At this time, she appeared in the title role in
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, as Fiorella in
The Brigands (in a translation by W. S. Gilbert), as Teresa in
The Mountebanks, as Marion in
La Cigale and as Rosa in
Princess Nicotine, among others.
[2]
Russell in
Lady Teazle (1904)
For many years, Russell was the foremost singer of operettas in America. Her voice, stage presence and beauty were the subject of a great deal of fanfare in the news media, and she was extremely popular with audiences. Actress
Marie Dressler observed, "I can still recall the rush of pure awe that marked her entrance on the stage. And then the thunderous applause that swept from orchestra to gallery, to the very roof." When
Alexander Graham Bell introduced long distance telephone service on May 8, 1890, Russell's voice was the first carried over the line. From
New York City, Russell sang "Sabre Song" to audiences in
Boston and
Washington, D.C. She rode a bicycle custom made for her by
Tiffany & Co. It was a gold-plated machine that displayed the jeweler’s art at its most opulent and unconventional – the handlebars inlaid with mother-of-pearl and the wheel spokes featuring her initials set in diamonds. She had "a cream serge
leg-of-mutton sleeve cycling suit with the skirt shortened by three inches, which caused a sensation and set a trend."
[9]
Russell filed for divorce from Solomon in 1893 and joined the J. C. Duff Opera Company, with which she toured. She married
tenor John Haley Augustin Chatterton (known professionally as Signor Giovanni Perugini) in 1894, but they soon separated and were divorced in 1898. In the spring of 1894, she returned to London to play Betta in
The Queen of Brilliants by
Jacques Offenbach and then played the same role in the New York production at
Abbey's Theatre. She remained at Abbey's, playing several roles, but when that theatre shut down in 1896, she played in other Broadway houses in more operettas by Offenbach (such as
The Princess of Trebizonde and many others),
Victor Herbert and others, such as the
Erminie (at the Casino Theatre) in 1899.
[2]
For forty years, Russell was also the companion of businessman
"Diamond Jim" Brady, who showered her with extravagant gifts of diamonds and gemstones and supported her extravagant lifestyle.
Later years
In 1899, Russell joined the Weber and
Fields's Music Hall, where she starred in their burlesques and other entertainments until 1904. Her first production there was
Fiddle-dee-dee in 1899 which also featured
De Wolf Hopper,
Fay Templeton and
David Warfield. Other favorites were
Whoop-de-doo and
The Big Little Princess. Before the 1902 production of
Twirly-Whirly,
John Stromberg, who had composed several hit songs for her, delayed giving Lillian Russell her solo for several days, saying that it was not ready. When he committed suicide a few days before the first rehearsal, sheet music for "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star" was discovered in his coat pocket. It became Russell's signature song and is the only one she is known to have recorded.
[10]
Leaving Weber and Fields, she next played the title role of
Lady Teazle in 1904 at the Casino Theatre and then began to play in
vaudeville. After 1904, Russell began to have vocal difficulties, but she did not retire from the stage. Instead, she switched to non-musical comedies, touring under the management of James Brooks. In 1906, she played the title role in
Barbara's Millions, and in 1908 she was Henrietta Barrington in
Wildfire. The next year she was Laura Curtis in
The Widow's Might. In 1911, she toured in
In Search of a Sinner. Russell then returned to singing, appearing in burlesque, variety and other entertainments.
[2]
In 1912, she married her fourth husband,
Alexander Pollock Moore, owner of the
Pittsburgh Leader, and mostly retired from the stage. The wedding was held in
Pittsburgh at the grand
Schenley Hotel, which today is a national historic landmark and the
University of Pittsburgh's student union building. Russell lived, for a time, in suite 437 of the hotel, now located in the offices of the student newspaper,
The Pitt News.
[11] The same year, she made her last appearance on Broadway in Weber & Fields'
Hokey Pokey. In 1915, Russell appeared with
Lionel Barrymore in the motion picture
Wildfire, which was based on the 1908 play of the same name in which she appeared. This was one of her few motion picture appearances. She sang in vaudeville until 1919, when ill health forced her to retire from the stage after a four-decade long career.
In later years, Russell wrote a newspaper column, advocated
women's suffrage (as her mother had), and was a popular lecturer, advocating an optimistic philosophy of self-help and drawing large crowds. During
World War I, she recruited for the U.S. Marine Corps and raised money for the war effort. Russell became a wealthy woman, and during the
Actors' Equity strike of 1919, she made a major donation of money to sponsor the formation of the
Chorus Equity Association by the chorus girls at the
Ziegfeld Follies. According to the March 17, 1922 edition of
The New York Times, Russell traveled aboard the
R.M.S. Aquitania from
Southampton, England, to the Port of New York on the March 11 to March 17 crossing. "[She] established a precedent by acting as Chairman of the ship's concert, the first woman, so far as the records show, to preside at an entertainment on shipboard."
Russell died at her home in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 1922, shortly after a completing a fact-finding mission to Europe on behalf of President
Warren Harding. The mission was to investigate the increase in immigration. She recommended a five-year moratorium on immigration, and her findings were instrumental in a 1924 immigration reform law.
[4] She suffered apparently minor injuries on the return trip, which led to complications, and she died after ten days of illness.
[2] She was buried with full military honors. She is interred in a private mausoleum in the
Allegheny Cemetery in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Legacy
A full-length portrait of Russell was painted in 1902 by the Swiss-born American artist
Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) who also painted another oval half-length, but both portraits are missing.
A
1940 film was made about Russell, although it presents a sanitized version of her life. It was directed by
Irving Cummings who, as a teenager starting his career, had acted with Russell in the play
Wildfire in 1908. It stars
Alice Faye,
Henry Fonda,
Don Ameche,
Edward Arnold and
Warren William.
The Lillian Russell Theatre aboard the City of Clinton Showboat is a
summer stock theater named after Russell in her hometown of
Clinton, Iowa.
[12] The
University of Pittsburgh's student activities building, the
William Pitt Union, has a Lillian Russell Room on its fourth floor, in the offices of
The Pitt News, in the same location where Russell lived when the building was the Schenley Hotel. The room contains a portrait of Russell.
[11][13]
See also
Notes
- ^ Sources differ as to whether Russell was born in 1860 or 1861. The IBDB, for example, says 1860.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Lillian Russell Dies of Injuries", The New York Times, June 6, 1922, pp. 1–2. Retrieved on April 17, 2009.
- ^ Timeline, including several events from Russell's career, eznet.net
- ^ a b A Woman Like No Other: The Real Lillian Russell, 2006. Twentieth Century Fox Productions.
- ^ Dorothy Lillian Russell's married name was Dorothy Calbit
- ^ Stedman, Jane W. (1996) W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre, pp. 200-01. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816174-3
- ^ Stone, David. "Edward Solomon" at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, February 17, 2002, November 3, 2009
- ^ New York Times review of 1887 New York production
- ^ Woodhead, Lindy. War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry, Wiley, 2004, pp. 65–66, ISBN 0471487783
- ^ Kenrick, John, (2002) History of the Musical Stage – 1890s: Part II, Musicals101.com. Accessed September 22, 2008.
- ^ a b Toker, Franklin (1986). Pittsburgh: an urban portrait. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-271-00415-0.
- ^ Lillian Russell Theatre, clintonshowboat.org
- ^ Huang, Sherri (2009-11-18). "SGB showdown: Romeo vs. Shull". The Pitt News. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
References
External links
- Photos of Russell
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