Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'fortiesD'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
History
Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'forties
D'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
No amount of judicious flattery could, however, blind the Great and
Critical American Public to the fair stranger's imperfections as an
actress and a dancer. On 27th December she appeared in the title _role_ of
_Betly, the Tyrolean_, a musical comedy written especially for her, at the
Broadway Theatre. It was expected that she would prove a powerful
attraction, and seats for the first performance were put up to public
auction on the preceding Saturday. But the piece was withdrawn on 19th
January 1852, public curiosity having by then been satisfied, and what
taste there was in New York not much gratified. Lola, however, secured an
engagement at the Walnut Street Theatre, at Philadelphia, that dull,
colourless city, which formed the most incongruous of all possible
settings for her personality. In May, when a faint breath of romance seems
to rustle the trees even in Union Square, she went back to New York. On
the 18th she appeared again at the Broadway Theatre in a dramatised
version of her career in Munich, written by C. P. T. Ware. She appeared as
herself, in the characters of the Danseuse, the Politician, the Countess,
the Revolutionist, and the Fugitive. The part of King Louis was sustained
by Mr. Barry, and Abel--the villain of the piece--by F. Conway. The play
ran five nights only. Even during these brief runs, and though the prices
at New York theatres did not exceed a dollar in those days, Lola had
amassed a considerable sum of money; but she was by nature prodigal, and
easily outpaced the swiftest current of Pactolus. She now hit on a
somewhat original scheme, which quickly replenished her exchequer. She
organised receptions, to which any one paying a dollar was admitted for
the space of a quarter of an hour, to shake her by the hand, gaze upon her
in all the splendour of her beauty, and converse with her in English,
French, German, or Spanish. The function was hardly consistent with the
Countess's dignity, but it revealed in a striking manner her knowledge of
the American character. To shake hands with a well-known personage is
esteemed by your average Yankee a greater privilege than visiting the
Acropolis or wading in the Jordan.
From New York Lola proceeded to New Orleans, that queer old city of
creoles and canals.
"A Canadian named Jones," relates De Mirecourt, "acted as her agent,
and as there was reason to fear that in this deeply religious state,
her scandalous history might dispose the public against her, the
following plan was devised.
"It was reported in the Louisiana journals that the Countess of
Landsfeld, who had recently arrived in America, was distributing alms
in abundance to the poor, the sick, and the captive, to make amends
for her misspent life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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