The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to ConvertWyndham, Horace
History
The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert
Wyndham, Horace
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
Even after she was in it, and might, one would think, have been left
there in peace, the dead woman was not allowed to rest quietly in her
grave. Some years later her mantle was impudently assumed by an
alleged actress, who, dubbing herself "Countess of Landsfeld,"
undertook a lecture tour in America. If she had no other gift, this
one certainly had that of imagination. "I was born," she said to a
reporter, "in Florence, and my mother, Lola Montez, was really married
to the King Ludwig of Bavaria. This marriage was strictly valid, and
my mother's title of countess was afterwards conferred on myself. The
earliest recollections I have are of being brought up by some nuns in
a convent in the Black Forest. But for the help of the good Dr.
Doellinger, who assisted me to escape, I should still have been kept
there, a victim of political interests."
This nonsense was eagerly swallowed; and for some time the
pseudo-"Countess" attracted a following and reaped a rich harvest. It
was not until diplomatic representations were made that her career was
checked.
On Christmas Day, 1898, a New York obituary announced the death of a
woman, Alice Devereux, the wife of a carpenter in poor circumstances.
It further declared that she was the "daughter of the notorious Lola
Montez, and may well have been the grand-daughter of Lord Byron." To
this it added: "Society has maintained a studious and charitable
reserve as to the parentage of Lola Montez. All that is definitely
known on the subject is that a fox-hunting Irish squire, Sir Edward
Gilbert, was the husband of her mother." Thus is "history" written.
Nor would the "Spirits" leave poor Lola in peace. In the year 1888 a
woman "medium," calling herself Madam Anna O'Delia Diss DeBar (but,
under pressure, admitting to several _aliases_) claimed to be a
daughter of Lola Montez. As such, she conducted a number of seances,
and, in return for cash down, evoked the spirit of her alleged mother.
Some of the cash was extracted from the pocket of a credulous lawyer,
one Luther Marsh. Thinking he had not had fair value for his dollars,
he eventually prosecuted Madam for fraud, and had her sent to prison.
She was not disturbed again until the winter of 1929, when an Austrian
"medium," Rudi Schneider, with, to adopt the jargon of his craft, a
"trance-personality" called Olga (who professed to be an incarnation
of Lola Montez), gave some seances in London. The extinguishing of the
lights and the wheezing of a gramophone were followed by the usual
"manifestations." Thus, curtains flapped, books fell off chairs,
tambourines rattled in locked cupboards, and bells jangled, etc. But
Lola Montez herself was too bashful to appear. None the less, a number
of "scientists" (all un-named) afterwards announced that "everything
was very satisfactory."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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