Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 7 December 2002

A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines

* * * * * * * * Adah Isaacs Menken in Nashville, 1866

Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), American actress and celebrity,
as William in Douglas Jerrold's drama, Black-Eyed Susan.

(photo: Sarony & Co, Birmingham, 1864/65)

'According to announcement, Miss Adah Isaacs Menken commenced last Monday night [16 July 1866] an engagement at the Nashville Theatre. The weather was extremely warm, but it did not prevent any one from attending who desired to be present and witness her first appearance. At an early hour the Theatre was filled to overflowing, and Mr. Flynn was under the necessity of turning several hundreds away for want of room. The fair artiste had just arrived a few hours before the curtain rose, having left Cincinnati on Sunday morning, and had a very depressing two days' journey to get here. But in defiance of all drawbacks she looked charmingly, was received with rapturous applause, and played Mazeppa with more grace, spirit, and effect than any of her predecessors. By universal acclaim she was pronounced the first equestrienne artiste of the age, the Queen of Beauty and the Drama. Her admirers of other days were astonished to find her looking so youthful, and wondered whether, in her travels, she had discovered and drank of the fabled Fountain of Youth. Time has dealt leniently with her, and instead of marring the beauty for which she was long ago celebrated, has but retouched it, and given it a richer and lovelier glow. Both physically and mentally her improvement is marked, and were her nature less gentle and unassuming she might be haughty and arrogant. But she wears her honours grandly, yet meekly, and retains the happy mien and manner natural to her. Thursday night she played William in the nautical drama of Black-Eyed Susan. The author never had a better representative of his "sailor boy." The character was beautifully played, and in its most pathetic passages tears stole unbidden to the eyes of many "unused to weeping." Friday night she appeared as Mathilde in the military drama of The French Spy, and developed points of interest and beauty unseen or passed over by artistes of less genius. On Saturday, 21st, there was a Mazeppa matinee, and in the evening Black-Eyed Susan, both times the Theatre being packed almost to suffocation. Miss Menken's engagement was a very brilliant one. – From the Nashville Union, July 21 [1866].' (The Era, London, Sunday, 19 August 1866, p.10b) * * * * * * * * Charlotte Cushman's grave, Mount Auburn, 1876

The celebrated American actress, Charlotte Cushman,
who died at the age of sixty-two on 17 February 1876.

(photo: Sarony, New York, circa 1870)

'Those who were most intimately acquainted with Miss Cushman state that she often expressed a desire to be buried as near the place of her birth as circumstances would permit. With this view she visited Mount Auburn Cemetery during the latter part of 1874, and inspected a number of lots and tombs then for sale. Several of these occupy very prominent portions of the cemetery, and are surrounded by costly monuments; but none seemed to suit the simple taste of Miss Cushman, and she pleasantly remarked to one of the attendants, "They are all grand, but haven't you a lot for sale where one could obtain an unobstructed view of Boston?" She was informed that there were a few lots for sale back of the tower, whereupon she said, "Oh, well, let us look at them." While the lady and the official were on their way to the place designated the graves of some of her once warmest friends were passed, and at each she paused for a moment and related some pleasant memories connected with their lives. Palm-avenue, situated at the eastern side of the ground, was reached, and, standing upon a little eminence, Miss Cushman exclaimed, "This is a delightful spot; see, yonder lies dear old Boston." The lot is numbered 4,236, and was at once purchased and orders given by her to have it properly cared for. Last summer she again visited the place in company with a party of other ladies, and appeared to be greatly pleased with the selection she had made. Though the lot is quite a distance from the central part of Mount Auburn, its location is strikingly beautiful, being within full view of the city of Boston, and overlooking the widest part of Charles River.' (The Era, London, Sunday, 2 April 1876, p.5d) * * * * * * * * Yvette Guilbert's terms for appearing in America, 1894

Yvette Guilbert (1867-1944), French singer and entertainer

(photo: Ladrey, Paris, probably 1894)

'There is nothing like a mathematical head if one is to be a man – or even a woman – of business; and that is the kind of head which Mdlle. Yvette Guilbert evidently possesses. A manager in New York offers her an engagement; but she points out that it must be proved to demonstration that she can lose nothing by crossing the Atlantic before she ventures upon such a journey. She sets down the figures, and they show that in four weeks, plus the time it takes to cross the ocean "there and back," she could make £2,400 in Europe. So she demands that sum, with £100 for travelling expenses, £4 a-day hotel bills, and 20 per cent. of the nett receipts. And we really do not see how, on these terms, the fair artist could be out of pocket.' (The Era, London, Saturday, 21 July 1894, p.8a) * * * * * * * * Tom Costello at the Metropolitan music hall, London, 1899 'Mr Tom Costello… kept the house by his song of the expectant bridegroom, whose promised bride sends her husband to make the necessary excuses for her enforced absence from the interesting ceremony. "The Dandy Yiddisher Coon" enables Mr Costello to show us how cleverly he can burlesque the typical youth of Houndsditch, whose poetic appeals to Rachel are leavened with phrases proving that in the mind of "Ikey Mo" [abbreviation of the name Isaac Moses, i.e. a Jew] Cupid and cupidity must ever be associated.' (The Era, London, Saturday, 1 July 1899, p.16a) * * * * * * * * Julia Marlowe advertises 'Nonpareil' Velvet, USA, 1904

Julia Marlowe

(photo: unknown, USA, circa 1904)

* * * * * * * *