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 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 , 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 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 , 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. and her friends included Sarony placed Adah in a variety arms around him, exclaiming, , the Pre- of poses to create a dramatic “Oh, you dear delightful little Raphaelite circle, and the effect. He was searching for man. I am going to kiss you poets Algernon Charles ’s quintessential for that.” Swinburne and Alfred Lord attitudes and the emotions Sarony went on to become Tennyson. Adah moved on to they represented. Costumes the leading portrait photogra- imperial Paris, where she was and backgrounds were also pher of his day, mass-produc- again a sensation in a risky important, and Sarony would ing images of Sarah Benhardt, horse drama. The womanizing later hand-paint some of the Lily Langtry, and President Napoleon III courted her, black-and-white photos. But Grover Cleveland. But Adah George Sand befriended her, most important was the visible Menken was the first star and this time Adah chose for synergy between subject and whose sensuous image was a lover the elderly Alexandre photographer. He took more turned into thousands of 3 x 5- Dumas of Three Musketeers than 100 negatives on silver- inch cartes de visites (photo-

www.nysarchivestrust.org 24

THE ARCHIVES C O N N E C T I O N graphs mounted on postcards). Longfellow read her a last love In turn, these were copied by poem, while outside a crowd ur interest in Adah Isaacs Menken, aka The Naked poster artists whose work clamored at the theater doors OLady, began at London’s Theatre Museum in Covent decorated many a billboard to see The Naked Lady’s next The Lion AND Garden (now moved to the Victoria and Albert Museum). and saloon wall. performance. She was only We encountered a theatrical poster of Adah as Prince Mazeppa Adah was the original love thirty-three years old. on a cliff’s edge tied to an “untamed steed.” After mining goddess who occupied the Le Menken was buried in contemporary newspaper clippings at the British Museum, fantasies of young men across the paupers’ enclave of the we plunged into the New York Public Library’s Billy Rose much of the globe. The phe- Jewish section of Père Lachaise nomenon would not be Cemetery in Paris. But she did Collection at Lincoln Center. Additional sources included THE Journalist full-length biographies, rare memoirs by Adah’s contempo- equaled until Richard Avedon not rest long in obscurity; raries, and photos of Adah by Napoleon Sarony. However, photographed Marilyn Adah became the most popu- as her friend , godfather of cowboy poetry, Monroe in the 1960s, this lar ghost called up in séances remarked, “Nothing is known about her but lies!” time during the Cold War. As during the Spiritualism craze For our biography, A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves Avedon said of Monroe of the late nineteenth century. and Scandals of Adah Isaacs Menken, 1835–1868, America’s (which goes double for Arthur Conan Doyle turned Original Superstar (Lyons Press, 2011), we spent a decade Menken), “She was more Adah Isaacs Menken (AI) into digging in archives from New York to San Francisco, London, comfortable in front of the Irene Adler (IA) in his original and Paris. These included the American Jewish Archives at camera than away from it.” Sherlock Holmes tale, A Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati; Museum of the City of Scandal in Bohemia, wherein New York; Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas; Museum of Adah Rises Again Dr. Watson declares, “To the City of San Francisco; Players Club, New York; and Library Adah returned to London, Holmes she is always the of the Opera, Paris. The Harvard University Theatre Collection and then Paris. She threw woman.” has a trove of Adah’s intimate letters and Sarony’s photos. away her money, often to the The character based on Our thanks to young Mark Twain for the name of our web- poor in the street. In 1868, Adah is the strongest in the site about the life and times of Adah: www.TheGreatBare.com after one fall too many from Holmes canon, and is still in Mazeppa’s stage mountain, vogue. Currently she is played she lay dying in a Parisian by Rachel McAdams in Guy garret. Henry Wadsworth Ritchie’s two films, Sherlock Adah as the world’s love goddess and seductress. Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). Earlier, Adah had been

TCS 19, HARVARD THEATRE COLLECTION, HOUGHTON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY played by Ruth Roman in the television series “Bonanza,” and in 1960 by in ’s only , Heller in Pink Tights. Earlier still, Stella Adler had played Menken as “the divine Jewess” for the Group Theater. Jerome Kern was a Menken fan, as was Billy Rose and as Michael Tilson Thomas is today: the San Francisco Symphony’s hit series of con- certs this year, “Barbary Coast and Beyond,” features, once again, Adah Menken. The superstar lives on. n

­NEW YORK archives • FALL 2012