Sarah Bernhardt, 1892
Library of Congress, 2005683732
French actor Sarah Bernhardt toured the United States nine times between 1880 and 1918, crisscrossing the country to perform in towns as tiny as Shawnee, Oklahoma (population of less than 10,000--that is like Lady Gaga giving a concert in Joplin, Missouri, today!)
Bernhardt became a superstar
with her dramatic portrayal in Camille
but also because of her outlandish behavior: photos of her sleeping in a coffin
circulated widely. She could always fill a theater, but her ambition exceeded
volume of ticket sales. She wanted everyone to experience her performance, but
even constant travel could not accomplish that. Film, however, could. As the Laclede Blade informed the seven hundred
residents of its Missouri town in 1912, everyone who had not had the
opportunity to see “Divine Sarah” could now watch her on screen for a mere
twenty-five cents. A triumph indeed!
Sarah Bernhardt, like many celebrities of the nineteenth century, obscured her origins. She was probably born in 1844 in Paris to an unwed mother. Bernhardt claimed in her autobiography that she was neglected and that a family council determined she should become an actor when she was only fifteen. She debuted on stage in 1862 and, as did many performers of the time, commenced affairs with wealthy patrons. Bernhardt gave birth to a son when she was only twenty years old but remained unmarried well into her thirties.
Sarah Bernhardt, 1880.
Library of Congress, 2005685633
Bernhardt quickly mesmerized audiences with her dramatic
performances, but captivated France and the world with her large personality. She
perfected a spinning death collapse and hand gestures that enabled even non-French
speakers to understand the action. Bernhardt made news off stage too, moving
from one theater group to another, angering managers and fellow actors. She collected
animals for a private zoo, exhibited her sculptures, made provocative
statements to the press, and cultivated a unique style with her frizzy red
hair, natural silhouette (she refused to wear a corset), and Art Nouveau
jewelry. Bernhardt wrote in her autobiography that she was amused and also
bemused by her fame. “I did nothing to attract attention,” she rather disingenuously
claimed. “My somewhat fantastic tastes, my paleness and thinness, my peculiar
way of dressing, my scorn of fashion, my general freedom in all respects, made
me a being quite apart from all others. I did not recognize the fact.”
Others obviously did and believed it was all part of
her plan. She began her extensive touring schedule by traveling to London in
1879. Author Henry James saw her perform there and, while he enjoyed her acting,
he informed his fellow Americans that her desire to be famous was greater even
than her talent. “Sarah Bernhardt is not, to my sense, a celebrity because she
is an artist. She is a celebrity because, apparently, she desires with an
intensity that has rarely been equaled to be one.” He continued that “the trade
of a celebrity, pure and simple, had been invented, I think, before she came to
London; if it had not been, it is certain she would have discovered it.”
Sarah Bernhardt Poster, 1896
Library of Congress, 95504810
Americans soon
experienced the celebrity Bernhardt for themselves, repeatedly. She often
embarked on world tours and nine times included the United States in her
itinerary. Bernhardt usually spent about a year traveling in the country,
reaching large cities, small towns, and everything in between. Similar to aging
rock stars today, she billed the final three all as “farewell tours.” Bernhardt
documented her first visit to the United States in her autobiography. She
described how in New York City women filled the streets near the theater with
chairs to force her to leave her carriage and walk among them. The fans shook
her hand, gave her flowers, and asked for her autograph. One woman tried to
snip a lock of her hair but Bernhardt joked that all she had gotten was a bit
of feather from her hat.
Bernhardt
experienced similar ardor and aggression in the small towns and cities she
visited all over the country. In 1906 she performed in three towns of Indian
Territory (soon to be the state of Oklahoma): Shawnee, Oklahoma City, and Muskogee.
The total population of the towns was less than fifty thousand though the area
was growing quickly. Fans sold out her shows and showered her with gifts,
including an Indian cradle board and handmade doll that she took back to France
with her. The Topeka State Journal reported
that at one stop in Oklahoma one man forced his way onto the private train and demanded to see his
sister Sarah. He was removed at the next station.
Bernhardt
continued to tour but found that by making movies she could reach even more
fans and acquire a more lasting fame. Between 1900 and her death in 1923, she
performed for the camera nearly a dozen times. Mostly these were short scenes
from plays or footage of her in her home. In 1912, however, Americans could go
to the movie theater to watch Bernhardt slowly die in Camille, her most famous production. The star was now sixty-eight
years old, a great-grandmother, and hobbled by an old knee injury that would
eventually result in amputation of her leg, but critics still marveled at her
acting. By making this movie, she bragged she had “conquered a new world” and
had achieved immortality. Residents of Laclede, Missouri, and of many other small
towns that had missed out on a Bernhardt visit, flocked to the theater and must
have agreed. Bernhardt is unknown by many today but you can easily find clips
from her movies on YouTube. Through the medium of film, she is still reaching
her American audience.
Sarah Bernhardt in Camille, 1913
Library of Congress, 2002706525
Thanks for reading! Comment below and find links to previous posts above to the right. To subscribe, email angela.firkus@gmail.com
Sources and Further Reading
Bernhardt, Sarah. My Double Life. London: William
Heinemann, 1907. https://www.google.com/books/edition/My_Double_Life/5VAnwxiuxN4C?hl=en&gbpv=1
“Bernhardt
Conquers New World.’” Moving Picture World.
11 (March 9, 1912): 874-875. https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor11newy/page/874/mode/2up
“Bernhardt Rejane
Photo Play.” Laclede (MO) Blade. September 20, 1912. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066129/1912-09-20/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=07%2F01%2F1912&sort=date&date2=01%2F01%2F1913&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=19&words=Bernhardt+Sarah&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=%22sarah+bernhardt%22&phrasetext=Sarah+Bernhardt&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=
Duckett, Victoria.
Seeing Sarah Bernhardt: Performance and
Silent Film. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015.
Gottleib, Robert. Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
“Great Sarah
Here.” Topeka (KS) State Journal. April 7, 1906. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016014/1906-04-07/ed-1/seq-11/
James, Henry. “The Comedie Francaise in London.” The Nation 29 (1879): 73.
Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteYes, she was! Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteShe definitely was the "pre-celebrity" before there was celebrity! Hollywood would have absolutely loved her antics! What a fascinating lady! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mae. Yes, I agree!
Delete