(December 4, 1860 - June 6, 1922)
Lillian Russell was one of the most famous actresses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was also considered to be an ideal feminine sex symbol of the age. She was known for her flamboyant style both in her stage performances and in her off-stage celebrity persona. A light opera soprano, Russell's beautiful voice was a favorite of audiences throughout the United States.
Russell was born in Clinton, Iowa to feminist Cynthia Leonard and newspaperman Charles E. Leonard. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois when Lillian was five years old. When Lillian was eighteen years old, "Cynthia decided New York City would be her next stop, not only to fulfill her own destiny but also, like a true 'stage mother,' to promote her daughter's professional career." 1 After a year of living in New York, Lillian made her debut at Tony Pastor's Casino Theatre as a chorus singer in a production of Evangeline. Russell became an instant sensation and Tony Pastor promoted her to headline some of his touring comic operas.
Russell was a favorite of the gossip media and details of her personal life often became the subject of public discourse. Magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal propagated consumerism, class identity, and beauty standards for women. "Lillian Russell was featured as the personification of this ideal. So much that one writer pondered which had come first, the definition or Lillian." 2 In 1884, Russell married composer Edward Solomon, her second husband. The newlyweds promptly set sail for England where she starred in Solomon's Polly, Grundy and Solomon's Pocahontas and Solomon and Stephens's Virginia and Paul. After Russell returned to New York, she toured in Solomon's operas until their divorce in 1893. In 1894, Russell married John Haley Augustin Chatterton; they separated six months later and divorced in 1898.
When Alexander Graham Bell introduced the long distance telephone on May 8, 1890, Russell singing the "Sabre Song" was the first voice carried over the line. 3 Russell continued to perform in touring operas and comedies throughout the 1890s and was a favorite of audiences wherever she performed. Her most difficult roles were in two Offenbach operas: Fiorella in The Brigands (1889) and in the title role in The Grand Dutchess (1890). After 1912, she rarely performed and, instead, wrote women's beauty articles in various periodicals.
1. Fields 12
2. Fields 58
3. Wikipedia
Resources
Fields, Armond. Lillian Russell: A Biography of "America's Beauty." Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999.
An in-depth biography, which includes numerous photographs and images, as well as an exhaustive performance chronology.
"Lillian Russell." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Russell 9 Ocotber 2007.
"Lillian Russell." University of Rochester Campus Libraries. http:/library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=969 9 October 2007.