Marie Studholme in the United States, 1895/96

a colour lithograph cigarette card issued in the United States in 1895 by the P. Lorillard Company for its ‘Sensation’ Cut Plug tobacco with a portrait of Marie Studholme (1872-1930), English musical comedy actress and singer, at the time of her appearances in America in An Artist’s Model
(printed by Julius Bien & Co, lithographers, New York, 1895)

An Artist’s Model, Broadway Theatre, New York, 27 December 1895
‘An Artist’s Model, as presented last night by George Edwardes‘ imported company, was received with frequent applause, and many of the musical numbers were redemanded. Still it is difficult to understand why the piece should have made such a hit in England, or why it should have been found necessary to bring over an English company to interpret it for the delectation of American audiences… .
‘Marie Studholme, the Daisy Vane of the cast, is fully as pretty as she has been heralded to be. What is more to the point, she acts, sings, and dances with coquettish archness and charming vivacity.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, New York, Saturday, 28 December 1895, p. 16c)

‘Another transfer from Broadway is that of An Artist’s Model, which goes to the Columbia immediately after the close of its term in this city. Brooklyn gets it with the London company intact, including a group of good vocalists, a set of competent comedians, and, perhaps above all, a prize beauty in Marie P. Studholme [sic], whose loveliness of person is an object of quite reasonable admiration.’
(The Sun, New York, New York, Sunday, 9 February 1896, p. 3b)

Columbia Theatre, Brooklyn, week beginning Monday, 10 February 1896
‘George Edwardes’ company, direct from the Broadway Theatre, appeared on Monday evening in An Artist’s Model. The bright, catchy songs, funny situations, and pretty girls caught the fancy of a large and fashionable audience, and encores were the order of the evening. Maurice Farkoa‘s laughing song was a great hit, and Marie Studholme’s pretty face and cut manners took the chappies completely by storm. Others were pleased were Nellie Stewart, Allison Skipworth, Christine Mayne, and Lawrence D’Orsay.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, New York, Saturday, 15 February 1896, p. 16c)

* * * * *

‘MARIE STUDHOLME.
‘Said to Be the Most Beautiful Woman in England.
‘The present attraction at the Broadway theater, New York, is An Artist’s Model, and the most potent magnet of that successful production is Miss Marie Studholme, who is almost universally conceded to be the most beautiful woman in all England. She was quite popular in London, but it is safe to assert that she has received more newspaper notices during the two weeks she has been in this country than had ever been accorded to her in the whole course of her theatrical career.
‘Miss Studholme is a Yorkshire lass. She was born in a little hamlet known as Baildon, near Leeds, about twenty-two years ago. She was exceptionally pretty, even as a child, and, being possessed of considerable vocal and histrionic ability, it was decided that she should become in time a grand opera prima donna. To this end a thorough training was considered necessary, and Miss Studholme accordingly made her debut in Dorothy, singing the role of Lady Betty. Her next London engagement was in La Cigale, in which she had only a small part. She suffered from ill health at about this time and found it necessary to return to her native village to recoup.
‘After a very brief retirement Miss Studholme was lured back to the British metropolis by an offer of the character of the bride in Haste to the Wedding, at the Trafalgar theater [27 July 1892, 22 performances]. There here remarkable winsomness of manner was first notices by the newspapers. An engagement in Betsy at the Criterion [22 August 1892] followed, and again the fair young actress found it necessary to go home to win back her health and strength, which have since never failed her.
‘She soon returned to the Shaftesbury theater [13 April 1893], where Morocco Bound was the attraction. Here she enjoyed a positive triumph, having been successful in no less than three parts in the piece – those originally assigned to Violet Cameron and Jennie McNulty, besides her own. The enterprising and octopian George Edwardes, recognizing that the little beauty was also possessed of extraordinary versatility, immediately made Miss Studholme an offer to join his Gaity [i.e. Gaiety Theatre] company. This was accepted, and then the Morocco Bound syndicate made her a more tempting proposition to remain. She would have preferred to stay where she was in the changed circumstances, but the agreement had already been signed, and Miss Gladys Stourton in A Gaity Girl [i.e. A Gaiety Girl] at the Prince of Wales’ theatre [14 October 1893]. Her success I that role was enormous, and when Mr. Edwardes was getting together a special company to send to the United States, Miss Studholme is said to have been his very first selection. His wisom is demonstrated by the columns of priase devoted to the little English artiste by the not infrequently hypercritical New York theatrical critics.’
(The Saint Paul Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, Sunday, 3 May 1896, p. 9c)

Mlles. Serpolette, Folette, Risette and Clair de Lune

‘Quadrille Fin de Siecle,’ a cabinet photograph of Mlles. Serpolette, Folette, Risette and Clair de Lune, the Parisian can can dancers who made their sensational American debut at Koster & Bial’s, New York, in November 1892
(photo: Sarony, New York, 1892)

‘KOSTER & BIAL’S.
‘At Koster & Bial’s last night the second half of the programme was made up of imported Parisian ”specialties,” which were loudly applauded by the motley crowd. A novelty announced with a ”quadrille fin de siècle” by four dancers from the neighbourhood of the Batignolles.
‘They were supposed to hail from the Moulin Rouge, the home of high kicking and acrobatic performances, but from their comparatively slight knowledge of the figures of the dance, it is probably that, if they did come from Paris at all, it was from one of the smaller cafés. They have the South Fifth Avenue manner. Mlles. Serpolette, Folette, Risette, and Claire de Lune are four very large and rather vulgar-looking women of mature years. They do not dance ven as well as the four women in The Black Crook, nor do they attempt the same gymnastics, but the ”quadrille” is identical with that dances at the Fourteenth Street house.
‘Their performance seemed to please the crowd at Koster & Bial’s. M. and Mme. Berat, Marie Vanoni, with ”Georgie” and ”La Cantinière”, the grotesque Eduardos, and the Americans, Wood and Shepard, were all more interesting to decent folk. The Rendezvous and Barbe Bleu (condensed) operettas were well given.’
(The New York Times, New York, Wednesday, 22 November 1892, p. 5)

‘New York has a new attraction at one of her music halls. The four French dancers, Mlles. Serpolette, Clair de Lune, Folette and Risette, who made their first appearance in this country last week on Koster & Bial’s concert hall stage gave what may be safely called the most sensational terpsichorean exhibition that has ever been witnesses on the American stage. Their exhibition was anything but artistic, or even fetching. It consisted in a more than liberal display of lingerie, some very high kicking, squatting on the floor with legs stretched out at right angles, making somersaults and other feats of similar nature.’
(Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Monday, 28 November 1892, p. 4a)

‘Dancing before the footlights in New York city just now are a number of young women from Paris’ Maulin Range [sic] and Jardin de Paris, who are creating a sensation, the like of which has not been experienced in many a day, says a writer in the World of that city. According to the writer a new dance has been introduced by the French called le grand ecart. The English name for it is not very dignified. Perhaps the feat is less so, but we must accept it as an artistic excellence. Imagine the dignity of a young woman sinking down to the floor her limbs at right angles to the body. The undignified phase is lost in the rapturous applause which comes from all parts of the house, even from the box tiers of the Four Hundred… .’
(Hamilton Daily Democrat, Hamilton, Ohio, 17 December 1892, p. 3d)

‘COLUMBIA THEATER [Brooklyn].
‘Babes in the Wood may be seen for another week at this spacious and handsome theater, before making way for The Isle of Champagne. It is a showy, spectacular piece, with a dash of burlesque, a dash of vaudeville, a bit of pantomime, some singing, incessant music, brilliant effects of costume, scenery and lights, and more than a dash of dancing. The performance of the four French dancers, who wrap their legs around their necks and perform the bone racking feat called ”the split,” makes a genuine sensation. Arthur Dunn and Timothy Cronin in the comic parts are really funny.’
(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, 12 February 1893, p. 5a)

The Abbott Sisters (fl. late 19th Century), American duettists

Abbott Sisters (fl. late 19th Century), American duettists
(photo: J. Schloss, New York, 1894)

The Abbott Sisters with Albert Chevalier’s Company at the Columbia Theatre, Brooklyn, week beginning 2 November 1896
‘Chevalier will get his introduction to Brooklyn at the Columbia next week and will sing his best known coster songs. In his company are the Abbott sisters, the American singers who made a hit [at the Palace Theatre of Varieties, Cambridge Circus] in London last season.’
(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Friday, 30 October 1896, p.7a)

‘Albert Chevalier, the London coster singer, will make his first appearance in Brooklyn this week at the Columbia theater. Chevalier is notable among music hall entertainers for the really artistic character of his impersonation. He has humor, of course, or he could never had succeeded on the stages on which he first made his fame. But his humor is restrained by a fine sense of art and his personations show an acting ability of a high order. Had he been an American he would, no doubt, have been a character comedian like [James A. ] Herne or [William H.] Thompson or Frank Mayo. But the London music halls offer a much wider scope than do our variety houses and furnish audiences which our variety theaters, outside of two or three in New York which have developed very recently, never see. In that city his coster sketches were as highly appreciated in a twenty minute turn as they would have been here in a three act play, and with them he made a success which is likely to keep him permanently on the music hall boards. He has been in American about a year now, during which time his vogue has been steadily growing and his songs have run all over the country. A Chevalier song, though, in the hands of another singer, is like inferior photographs of a pretty woman. No one knows the charm until he has seen the original. During his week at the Columbia Mr. Chevalier will sing the songs which are most widely known, “My Old Dutch,” “Tick Tock,” “The Future Mrs. ‘Awkins,” “The Coster’s Song,” “The Little Nipper,” and others. He will be supported by a company of English entertainers whom he brought to this country because they were drawingroom sings at home and were somewhat different in style from the variety stage performers with whom we are familiar. The only Americans in the party art the Abbott sisters, two girls whose home is in Brooklyn and who made a hit in London last summer with their songs to mandolin accompaniment. They were popular on this side before they went abroad but now that the novelty and freshness of their work have impressed London they will be better liked at home. It is always pleasant to have one’s judgment confirmed by people of wide experience. Other members of the Chevalier company are Mr. Charles Bertram, Mr. Harry Atkinson, Mr. Cyrus Dare, Mr. Harry Brett and Miss Nora Girton.’
(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, 1 November 1896, p.24a/b)