Lillian Russell
Encyclopedia
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, 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 nineteenth 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.
. 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.
. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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, 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. 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. In 1886, Solomon was arrested for bigamy
, since his previous marriage had not been dissolved. Russell obtained a divorce from Solomon in 1893.
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
." 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.
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.
.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
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 is, today, 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
. 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. She suffered apparently minor injuries on the return trip, which led to complications, and she died after ten days of illness. She was buried with full military honors. She is interred in a private mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
.
(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
and Edward Arnold
.
The Lillian Russell Theatre aboard the City of Clinton Showboat is a summer stock theater named after Russell in her hometown of Clinton, Iowa
. 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.
Photos of Russell
Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. 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
Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century...
and playing roles in comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
, including Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
works. She married composer Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon was a prolific English composer, as well as a conductor, orchestrator and pianist. Though he died before his fortieth birthday, he wrote dozens of works produced for the stage, including several for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, such as The Nautch Girl, among others.-Early...
in 1884 and created roles in several of his operas in London, but in 1886 he was arrested for bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
. 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
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. For many years, she was the foremost singer of operettas in America, performing continuously through the end of the nineteenth century. In 1899, she joined the Weber and Fields
Lew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
's Music Hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, 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
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, however, finally retiring from performing around 1919. In later years, Russell wrote a newspaper column, advocated women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
and was a popular lecturer.
Life and career
Russell was born Helen Louise Leonard in Clinton, IowaClinton, Iowa
Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 26231as of 2010. Clinton, along with DeWitt, Iowa , was named in honor of the seventh governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton is the principal city of the Clinton Micropolitan Statistical...
. Her father was newspaper publisher Charles E. Leonard, and her mother was the feminist Cynthia Leonard
Cynthia Leonard
Cynthia Leonard was a suffragist, aid worker and writer, notable for her pioneering efforts toward social reform in the 19th Century. Born Cynthia Hicks Van Name, in Buffalo, New York, she married Charles E. Leonard in 1852...
, the first woman to run for mayor of New York City. Her family moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
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.
Early career
When Russell was eighteen, her parents separated, and she and her mother moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She soon became engaged to Walter Sinn, but broke off the engagement when she immediately found some success in the chorus of the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
Park Theatre. She studied singing under Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch was a German American orchestral conductor.- Biography :Damrosch was born in Posen , Kingdom of Prussia, and began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor...
. In November 1879, she made her first appearance on Broadway at Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century...
's Casino Theater, billed as "an English Ballad Singer." Pastor, known as the father of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, was responsible for introducing many well-known performers.
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
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. In 1881, she played the leading soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
role of Mabel in a burlesque of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
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
McCaull Comic Opera Company
McCaull Comic Opera Company, sometimes called the McCaull Opera Comique Company, was founded by Colonel John A. McCaull in 1880. The company produced operetta, comic opera and musical theatre in New York City and on tour in the eastern and midwestern U.S. and Canada until McCaull's death in 1894...
played Bathilda there in Olivette. She also played the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
and Aline in The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
in 1882 at the Bijou. Returning to Pastor's Casino Theatre in 1883, she played Phoebe in Billee Taylor
Billee Taylor
Billee Taylor, or The Reward of Virtue is "a nautical comedy opera" by Edward Solomon, with a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens.The piece was first produced at the Imperial Theatre in London on 30 October 1880, starring Arthur Williams as Sir Mincing Lane and Frederick Rivers as Billee. It...
, composed by Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon was a prolific English composer, as well as a conductor, orchestrator and pianist. Though he died before his fortieth birthday, he wrote dozens of works produced for the stage, including several for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, such as The Nautch Girl, among others.-Early...
, who was serving as music director for Pastor.
Russell married Solomon in 1884, a year after their daughter, Dorothy Lillian Russell, was born and travelled with him to England. There, she first played Virginia at the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
in Solomon and Stephens
Henry Pottinger Stephens
Henry Pottinger Stephens, also known as Henry Beauchamp , was an English dramatist and journalist. With a variety of partners, he wrote burlesques, comic operas and musical comedies that briefly rivalled the Savoy Operas in popular esteem.-Life and career:"Pot" Stephens was born in Barrow-on-Soar,...
's Paul and Virginia, followed by the title characters in Solomon's Polly and Grundy
Sydney Grundy
Sydney Grundy was an English dramatist. Most of his works were adaptations of European plays, and many became successful enough to tour throughout the English-speaking world...
and Solomon's Pocahontas. While in London, she was engaged to create the title role of Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
, but she clashed with W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
and was dismissed during rehearsals. 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. In 1886, Solomon was arrested for bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
, since his previous marriage had not been dissolved. Russell obtained a divorce from Solomon in 1893.
During these years, Russell continued to star in comic operas and other musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. In 1887, she starred as Carlotta in Gasparone
Gasparone
Gasparone is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a German libretto by Friedrich Zell and Richard Genée. The libretto was later revised by Ernst Steffan and Paul Knepler...
by Karl Millöcker
Karl Millöcker
Carl Joseph Millöcker , was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor.He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the Standard Theatre
Manhattan Theatre
The Manhattan Theatre, directly across from Greeley Square at Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street, was located at 102 West 33rd Street, in New York, NY. It was a 1100-seat theatre which opened in 1875 as the Eagle Variety Theatre, and later re-named the Standard Theatre in 1878...
, together with Eugene Oudin
Eugène Oudin
Eugène Esperance Oudin was an American baritone, composer and translator of the Victorian era.-Early years:...
and J. H. Ryley
J. H. Ryley
John Handford Ryley, was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, particularly in America...
." Later the same year, she was back at the Casino Theatre in the title role of Dorothy
Dorothy (opera)
Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
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
Les brigands
Les brigands is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy....
(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.
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...
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
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
introduced long distance telephone service on May 8, 1890, Russell's voice was the first carried over the line. From New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Russell sang "Sabre Song" to audiences in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Russell filed for divorce from Solomon in 1893 and joined the J. C. Duff Opera Company, with which she toured. She married tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
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
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and then played the same role in the New York production at Abbey's Theatre
Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway)
The Knickerbocker Theatre — previously known as Abbey's Theatre and Henry Abbey's Theatre — was a Broadway theatre located at 1396 Broadway in New York City. It operated from 1893 to 1930...
. 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
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
and others, such as the Erminie
Erminie
Erminie is a comic opera in two acts composed by Edward Jakobowski with a libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton, based loosely on Charles Selby's 1834 Robert Macaire...
(at the Casino Theatre) in 1899.
For forty years, Russell was also the companion of businessman "Diamond Jim" Brady
James Buchanan Brady
James Buchanan Brady , also known as Diamond Jim Brady, was an American businessman, financier, and philanthropist of the Gilded Age.-Life and career:...
, who showered her with extravagant gifts of diamonds and gemstones and supported her extravagant lifestyle.
Later years
In 1899, Russell joined the Weber and FieldsLew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
'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
Fay Templeton
Fay Templeton was an American stage actress.Her parents were actors/vaudevillians and she followed in their footsteps, making her Broadway debut in 1900. She continued to appear there until 1934...
and David Warfield
David Warfield
David Warfield was an American stage actor, born in San Francisco, California. His first connection with the theatre was as an usher. He made his first stage appearance in 1888 in The Ticket-of-Leave Man. Two years later he went to New York City, where he appeared at the Casino Theatre and at...
. 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.
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
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. 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.
Alexander Pollock Moore
Alexander Pollock Moore was an American diplomat, editor and publisher. Born in Pittsburgh on November 10, 1867, he was the publisher/owner of the Pittsburgh Leader when he married the stage actress Lillian Russell, becoming her fourth husband....
, owner of the Pittsburgh Leader, and mostly retired from the stage. The wedding was held in Pittsburgh at the grand Schenley Hotel
William Pitt Union
The William Pitt Union is the student union building of the University of Pittsburgh main campus and is a Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark...
, which is, today, a national historic landmark and the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
'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
The Pitt News
The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland which has been active in some form since 1910. It is published Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer...
. The same year, she made her last appearance on Broadway in Weber & Fields' Hokey Pokey. In 1915, Russell appeared with Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
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
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
(as her mother had), and was a popular lecturer, advocating an optimistic philosophy of self-help and drawing large crowds. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, 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
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association , commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing the world of live theatrical performance, as opposed to film and television performance. However, performers appearing on live stage productions without a book or...
strike of 1919, she made a major donation of money to sponsor the formation of the Chorus Equity Association
Chorus Equity Association
The Chorus Equity Association was created on August 12, 1919 in New York City, New York during the strike by the Actors' Equity Association. After Florenz Ziegfeld revealed that he was joining the Producing Managers' Association, with the help of a substantial donation from superstar actress and...
by the chorus girls at the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
. According to the March 17, 1922 edition of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Russell traveled aboard the R.M.S. Aquitania
RMS Aquitania
RMS Aquitania was a Cunard Line ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage to New York on 30 May 1914...
from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, 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
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, 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. She suffered apparently minor injuries on the return trip, which led to complications, and she died after ten days of illness. She was buried with full military honors. She is interred in a private mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery
Allegheny Cemetery
Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.It is a nonsectarian, wooded hillside park located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood and bounded by Bloomfield, Garfield, and Stanton Heights...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
.
Legacy
A full-length portrait of Russell was painted in 1902 by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-UryAdolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Muller-Ury was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.-Heritage and early life in Switzerland:...
(1862–1947) who also painted another oval half-length, but both portraits are missing.
A 1940 film
Lillian Russell (film)
Lillian Russell is a 1940 biographical film of the life of the singer and actress. The screenplay was by William Anthony McGuire. The film was directed by Irving Cummings and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It starred Alice Faye in the title role, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda and Edward Arnold as Diamond...
was made about Russell, although it presents a sanitized version of her life. It was directed by Irving Cummings
Irving Cummings
Irving Cummings , born Irving Camisky in New York City, New York was an American movie actor, director, producer and writer....
who, as a teenager starting his career, had acted with Russell in the play Wildfire in 1908. It stars Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
, Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
and Edward Arnold
Edward Arnold (actor)
Edward Arnold was an American actor. He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, the son of German immigrants Carl Schneider and Elizabeth Ohse.-Acting career:...
.
The Lillian Russell Theatre aboard the City of Clinton Showboat is a summer stock theater named after Russell in her hometown of Clinton, Iowa
Clinton, Iowa
Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 26231as of 2010. Clinton, along with DeWitt, Iowa , was named in honor of the seventh governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton is the principal city of the Clinton Micropolitan Statistical...
. The University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
's student activities building, the William Pitt Union
William Pitt Union
The William Pitt Union is the student union building of the University of Pittsburgh main campus and is a Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark...
, 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.
See also
- Cynthia LeonardCynthia LeonardCynthia Leonard was a suffragist, aid worker and writer, notable for her pioneering efforts toward social reform in the 19th Century. Born Cynthia Hicks Van Name, in Buffalo, New York, she married Charles E. Leonard in 1852...
- Lillian Russell (film)Lillian Russell (film)Lillian Russell is a 1940 biographical film of the life of the singer and actress. The screenplay was by William Anthony McGuire. The film was directed by Irving Cummings and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It starred Alice Faye in the title role, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda and Edward Arnold as Diamond...
- Mrs. BeautifulMrs. BeautifulMrs. Beautiful is an historical novel by the American writer Lester Goran set in 1909 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.It tells the story of Roxanne, a tough heroine from West Virginia who comes north to the boomtown of Pittsburgh...
- Sex symbols
External links
(Film credits.) (1940 film of her life.) (1947 film of the life of Chauncey Olcott, with whom Russell had a relationship.)- Interview of Russell from 1907
- Interview of Russell from 1914
- "Lillian Russell Flaunts Good Taste 1901"
- "Lillian Russell's Beauty Secret", The New York Times, June 22, 1902, Magazine supplement, p. SM16
- Lillian Russell "Come Down Ma Evenin Star" (1912) recording via Youtube
Photos of Russell
- Image galleries
- Photo of Russell and her husband Alexander Moore on board the RMS AquitaniaRMS AquitaniaRMS Aquitania was a Cunard Line ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage to New York on 30 May 1914...
in 1922. - Photographs of Russell
- "Famous Tightlacers" Photos of Russell
- photo gallery of Lillian Russell at the NYP Library
- Dorothy Russell, Lillian's daughter