LILLIE LANGTRY "THE JERSEY LILY" SINGS ON THE MARGATE BOAT 1903

I searched for the silent film that Lillie Langtry made - just one - and apparently a copy does not exist.  However, the model -actress-singer did record some songs and this YouTube video was a find. It also has many a photograph.  She was a Pear's Soap model and is credited as the first celebrity to endorse a product during her early days.

The Margate Boat was recorded in 1903. (She was in midlife.)

The one film she appeared in, in 1913, was titled "His Neighbor's Wife." (She was nearing her senior years.)

Born in 1853, the woman born Emilie Charlotte de Bathe, known to the world as an model, actress, singer - and Royal Mistress, died in 1929 in Monaco, age 75.

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LILLIE LANGTRY BECOMES INDEPENDENT OF HER HUSBAND, FOUNDS A THEATRE AND BECOMES A BUSINESS WOMAN.

Excerpt pages 246-247: in 1882, after success in Britain, Lillie founded her own theatre company and took it on a tour of the United States. She found that her reputation had preceded her, so she played to full houses wherever she went.  She made repeated tours of the States that were Equally successful. And she collected male admirers along the way.  One of them, wealthy horse breeder Freddie Gebhard, spent a fortune on her.  Her earnings from the theatre and Freddie's expensive fits enabled her to start a winery and, like Freddie, breed horses. She became an American citizen in 1887m which enabled her finally to have her marriage to her first husband, Edward, dissolved.  The marriage was ended by a California court, but legal opinion at the time suggested that the divorce was invalid in Britain and indeed anywhere outside California...

Lillie Langtry had another relationship, a violent one, with a man who also had a passion for horses.  In 1893 he died and left her more horses and she had a business named Mr. Jersey.  I note that she did not use Miss or Mrs. Jersey.  This put it into perspective for me that this Victorian Era woman had to deal with the extremely limited options women had at that time.  Queen Victoria might have ruled, but most women could only achieve power and status through their husbands or associations with men. And it's often still the same way.

Do you have a mentor, patron, benefactor? Is there anyone you can count on for a personal loan, gift, scholarship or internship?

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Missy
 

BAL DE LA COURTURE PARISIENNE

DANCE ON FIRE

Isadora lived long enough to see that there were dancers and dance troops all over the United States and Europe who took some inspiration from her ideas but who didn't give her credit.  This vintage image from artfullymusing.blogspot.com from THE THEATRE magazine, March 1917, features a dancer on fire.  She is wearing shoes.  Isadora at first wore Grecian type sandals, gold in color, that tied up her legs, but soon decided dancing barefoot was more in keeping with her philosophy.