Sarah Bernhardt Endeavored to Reach Every American

 

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.

Topeka State Journal, April 7, 1906.

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

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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.