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#AceHistoryDesk – An American Beauty: On November 22, 1880, “Lillian Russell” made her debut at Tony Pastor’s Theatre in New York City. Within weeks, the beautiful blonde added a prominent role in The Pie-Rats of Penn Yann to her stage credits.

This spirited travesty of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance made Lillian Russell an instant star. For the next thirty-five years, Russell maintained her position as one of the first ladies of American musical theater.

Born Helen Louise Leonard in 1861, she was “Nellie” to her family—her father, an easygoing newspaperman, her mother, an ambitious social reformer and crusader for women’s rights, and four sisters.

Trained in music and foreign languages, in the late 1870s she moved with her mother from Chicago to New York in order to receive advanced voice instruction.

Soon, she met Tony Pastor, the vaudeville impresario who transformed the slightly seedy variety format into respectable family entertainment. Having previously only made appearances as a chorus member, Nellie Leonard, with guidance from Pastor, became “Lillian Russell, The English Ballad Singer.” She was seen at Tony Pastor’s by almost everyone in New York—-except her mother.

“For more than a month I succeeded in appearing in Tony Pastor’s every night, without my mother receiving so much as an inkling of my new occupation. This was easier than it sounds because mother was a busy woman…But one night at dinner I had a sudden premonition that something was wrong. I raised my eyes and found the glance of a newspaperman who lived in the same house…”Mrs. Leonard,” he said, “do you know that there is a girl named Lillian Russell, who sings at Tony Pastor’s Theatre, who looks enough like your little Nellie to be her sister?”

Lillian Russell

Charles W. Stein, ed. American Vaudeville As Seen By Its Contemporaries (New York: Knopf, 1984), 13-14.none

Assured that Tony Pastor’s Theatre was “respectable,” Mrs. Leonard accepted the newspaperman’s invitation to see the show and joined in the thunderous applause following her daughter’s performance.

Hearing her sing in The Pie-Rats of Penn Yann, Sir Arthur Sullivan pressured Russell to leave Tony Pastor’s for an equivalent role in the legitimate production. She refused to break her contract with Pastor. By 1888, Russell commanded $20,000 a year headlining the Casino Theatrein New York City. There she took on some of her most acclaimed roles including Gabrielle Dalmont in An American Beauty—a title that became her soubriquet.

Entering her second decade on the stage, Russell was as popular as ever. Touring with the Casino company made Lillian Russell a household name.

The turn of the century found Russell older and fuller of figure, though still highly paid and much in demand. In 1899, she moved away from light opera and toward vaudeville by joining Lew Fields and Joe Weber‘s theatrical company. At the Weber and Fields Music Hall, and with their touring company, she starred in productions including Whirl-i-Gig, Hoity-Toity, and Whoop-Dee-Doo.“

Whoop-Dee-Doo starred Russell as a French countess who purchases art for American millionaires.

At one point in the play she sings the Johnson and Cole song “The Maid of Timbuctoo.” From 1901 to 1906 poet James Weldon Johnson frequently produced popular songs with composer Bob Cole. Joe Weber and Lew Fields are pictured in the upper corners of the title page of “Maid of Timbuctoo.” Whoop-Dee-Doo was the vaudeville team’s last collaboration for several years.

One of America’s first celebrities, the public was as fascinated with Lillian Russell’s private life as they were enchanted by her stage presence.

Although her solid middle-class background and lady-like demeanor helped elevate the social status of entertainers, Russell’s four marriages (one to a bigamist), her rumored affairs with Diamond Jim Brady and the Great Sandow, and her appetite for food and jewelry added to her notoriety.

After marrying prominent Republican Alexander P. Moore in 1912, Russell increasingly focused on politics.

She presided over the opening of Progressive Party headquarters in Pittsburgh, sold Liberty Bonds during World War I, and campaigned for Warren Harding in the 1920 election.

Lillian Russell died in 1922 shortly after completing a fact-finding mission to Europe on behalf of President Harding. She was buried with full military honors.

Learn More

• The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920 illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived at the turn of the century. Search the collection on Weber and Fields to view a Pictorial Souvenir from 1901 and a program from an 1898 production of Hurley Burley.
• Look at one of Russell’s signature songs, “The Silver Line.” Written by Russell’s second husband, Edward Solomon, “The Silver Line” is available through the collection Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885.
• Visit the collection Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies to access over 400 motion pictures and sound recordings intended for turn-of-the-century audiences.
• Read Today in History features on Russell’s show business contemporaries including impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., escape artist Harry Houdini, and “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy. Search Today in History on the term entertainer to read about a host of other stage and screen personalities.
• The Library’s Music Division houses a broad and diverse collection reflecting all aspects of western music history. A glimpse at these vast collections is found in the  Performing Arts Databases. One can find descriptions of the Library’s collections on vaudeville and musical theater. Also explore the Performing Arts Digital Collections

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