The Original Superstar

Volume 12 • Number 2 FALL 2012 $4.95 The First “Marilyn Monroe” ALSO INSIDE: New York's Gasworks, Then and Now Kidnapped Into Slavery Opera in the Archives TR's Enduring Friendship Celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation 20 > NAALL > RRIIGGIIN 55 OO RRSSTTAARR EE BY BARBARA and SSUUPP MICHAEL FOSTER You may think you don’t know PF TS 939.5.4 (6), HARVARD THEATRE COLLECTION, HOUGHTON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY the name or the face of Adah Isaacs Menken, aka The Naked Lady, the nineteenth century’s first superstar and celebrity. But if you’ve read a certain Sherlock Holmes story, or seen any photo of Marilyn Monroe— > > you already know Adah. NEW YORK archives • FALL 2012 21 NAALL Adah as Prince Mazeppa. IN GI e live in a star-stud- IG ded world. From I blockbuster movies R Adah was a R Wto (supposed) reality WTV shows such as “Dancing O versatile O AARR with the Stars” to the tabloids T at every supermarket check- SST performer RR out, pictures and stories about celebrities bombard who could sing, EE us. But when and where did TCS 19, HARVARD THEATRE COLLECTION, HOUGHTON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY PP this overweening celebrity dance, and culture begin? UU It was at the Green Street exchange Theater in Albany, New York on the verge of the Civil War, repartee with on a Monday evening in June of 1861, when pretty, dark, the audience. curvy Adah Isaacs Menken first performed in Mazeppa, a cry for freedom against the tyrannical Russian czar. Taken from a poem by Lord Byron, the popular drama’s lead role of Prince Mazeppa was, of course, played by a male actor. But in the key scene, after losing the battle the captive prince was tied to a “wild, something like a baby’s diaper. supported the family by per- untamed stallion” and sent up As she exited the stage forming. Appearing in Havana the ramps of a four-story stage above the proscenium arch, at seventeen, the beautiful mountain, complete with Adah brought down the young woman with the mop props of wolves and vultures, packed house. It was the of dark curly hair had an affair to perish in the wilderness. beginning of a brief but sen- with the Cuban poet and The ride was considered too sational career that ranged revolutionary Juan Clemente dangerous for the actors, from Broadway to Gold Rush Zenea; in his poem Silva, the and a dummy was usually California to London and Paris poet is transfixed by her voice attached to the trained horse. and that made Adah the first and gestures. Returning to But on this night, Adah superstar performer, nicknamed New Orleans, Adah married Menken, who’d grown up in by the press The Naked Lady. and divorced a minstrel show Texas supporting her family as performer. Next in line came a circus performer, did the ride A Star in the Making Alex Menken, the black sheep in person, tied down wear- She was born Adah Bertha of a Jewish merchant family. ing—nothing, or so it looked Theodore in New Orleans in Living in Cincinnati with to the wildly cheering audience. 1835. Her beloved mother Alex’s family, Adah became a In fact, Adah wore a sheer, was a woman of color, her protégé of Rabbi Isaac Wise, flesh-colored body stocking, natural father was Jewish, founder of Reform Judaism Opposite: The dangerous act of and at the groin was placed and her stepfather was Irish, and a fervent contributor to riding a horse up a four-story what Mark Twain described as a retailer who went broke. The Israelite. While Adah stage mountain made Adah Isaacs “a little dimity nothing,” Beginning in her teens, Adah defended Jewish causes, her Menken a star. www.nysarchivestrust.org 22 Samuel Clemens (before he was Mark Twain) was among the many men dazzled by Adah. overshadowed husband drank. (currently a shop in Noho). By early 1859, Adah was doing In this dim, smoky cellar, Despite the onset comedy in New York, and by Adah met New York’s first midsummer she had left Alex, Bohemians, and she became of the Civil War, believing they were divorced. friendly with Ada Clare, the Adah was a versatile feminist writer; Artemus Ward, Adah played to performer who could sing, America’s first stand-up comic dance, and exchange repartee (who defined a Bohemian as An Avalanche of Success sold-out theaters, with the audience. In New York “an educated hoss thief”); The huge success of Albany’s she pursued her stage career and Walt Whitman, the great Mazeppa in 1861 triggered often within in the popular Bowery theaters, American poet who was an avalanche of offers for and she became involved with roundly despised by both press Adah. She played the circuit hearing distance a handsome pugilist, John and pulpit. Adah wrote an of theaters in upstate New Heenan. In 1860 Adah quietly essay defending him, “Swim- York, the Midwest, and the of cannon fire married Heenan before he ming Against the Current.” border states. Her arrival in sailed for England to fight The title could also sum up leading cities was announced from the front. for the world heavyweight her own life. by telegraph, posters around championship. While he was When John Heenan town, and glowing reviews in away, Adah frequented Charlie returned to America victorious the newspapers. Despite the Pfaff’s tavern at 653 Broadway and acclaimed as a great sports onset of war, Adah played to hero, he denied he had married sold-out theaters, often within Adah and derided her as a hearing distance of cannon prostitute. Then up popped fire from the front. Mazeppa’s Alex Menken, who declared message of liberty overcoming he had never divorced Adah tyranny suited a country at and that she was a bigamist. war, and Adah the woman/ Her child by Heenan died, and prince became the country’s Adah attempted suicide. The darling. Advance theatrical tabloid newspapers jumped on seating was introduced, the scandal, sweeping aside preachers denounced Adah’s the election of Lincoln as supposed nudity, which only president. Adah, recuperating, swelled the crowds, and the was helped by Robert Henry papers ran imagined stories of Newell, a humorist and literary her love life. In 1863 Adah editor of the New York Sunday married Robert Newell, accept- Mercury, a respected weekly. ed an offer of one-third of Newell also despised Whitman, the gate from California Gold though he had printed Adah’s Rush impresario Tom Maguire essay; he had fallen in love (a former New York cabbie), with her. Another supportive and set sail for San Francisco. friend was Ed James, journalist Her California friends for The Clipper, the Variety of included two cub reporters, its day. James, a Member of Mark Twain (still known then Parliament, had been caught as Samuel Clemens) and Bret making love to a nobleman’s Harte. Clemens reported on wife and fled London for Adah’s effect on San Francisco: New York. He would become About this time a magnifi- With her fourth husband, Adah traveled to San Francisco, where she Adah’s confidant and, more cent spectacle dazzled my posed for this photo, labeled “with a winning hand.” importantly, her publicist. vision—the whole constellation NEW YORK archives • FALL 2012 23 of the Great Menken came fame. Dumas’ father, one of flaming out of the heavens Napoleon Bonaparte’s generals, like a vast spray of gasjets, was a black man from Haiti, and shed a glory abroad over and Dumas boasted of his the universe as it fell. I have African heritage. Adah’s affair, used the term “Great Menken” the subject of international because I regard it as a more gossip, was thus an affirmation modest expression than “The of her own heritage. Great Bare.” Back in postwar New York Adah indeed dazzled San and once again its sensation— Francisco, then moved on to she played for half the gate Virginia City, Nevada, the at the packed Broadway rip-roaring boomtown whose Theater—one day in April 1866 Comstock Lode of gold and Adah strolled into Napoleon silver largely financed the Sarony’s Manhattan photo Union armies. Adah’s nightly studio at 630 Broadway (in performances were greeted today’s Soho). She had been with gusto by the miners, disappointed with previous who tossed bags of gold dust photographers, whose portraits onstage in appreciation. of her were stiff and lifeless, Here Adah met Captain Paul and hoped that the French- Barkley, a gambler and possi- Canadian Sarony, known as ble Confederate agent. Adah “the Rembrandt of the cam- ditched husband Newell, era,” would capture not only Barkley forgot about the war, her looks but her feelings. and both sailed off to London Sarony, a short man with a together. They would be sparkling face accented by a married—Adah’s fifth mar- goatee, took command. His IMAGES THIS SPREAD: TCS 19, HARVARD THEATRE COLLECTION, HOUGHTON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY riage—but it lasted only a camera had no aperture, and few days. It did give Adah a to adjust the light he used the son whom she adored, but Venetian blinds on his studio the boy died in childhood. windows. Adah had to pose for coated glass plates of the One of Napoleon Sarony’s at least a minute for each shot. volatile superstar. Days later, photographs of Adah. Here An International Image Trained as a lithographer when Sarony produced his she poses in a costume from Victorian London loved Adah, and a student of European art, final results, Adah threw her the play Child of the Sun.

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