1. Lillian Russell became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, praised for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.
39 Facts About Lillian Russell
1. 2.
Lillian Russell's parents separated when she was 18, and she moved to New York with her mother.
3.
Lillian Russell began to perform professionally by 1879, singing for Tony Pastor and playing roles in comic opera, including Gilbert and Sullivan works.
4.
Lillian Russell later returned to musical roles in vaudeville and retired from performing around 1919.
5.
Lillian Russell was married four times, but her longest relationship was with Diamond Jim Brady, who supported her extravagant lifestyle for four decades.
6.
Lillian Russell's family moved to Chicago in 1865, where she studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart from age 7 to 15 and then at the Park Institute.
7.
Lillian Russell, called Nellie as a child, excelled at school theatricals.
8.
When Russell was 18, her parents separated, and she, her mother and her younger sister moved to New York City, where her mother did suffrage work for Susan B Anthony.
9.
Lillian Russell studied singing under Leopold Damrosch and considered pursuing an operatic career; her very religious mother disapproved of her working in theatre, which she considered disreputable.
10.
Lillian Russell began dating Walter Sinn, whose father owned the Brooklyn Park Theatre.
11.
Lillian Russell soon began seeing the orchestra leader Harry Braham and became pregnant.
12.
Lillian Russell gave birth to their son Harry in June 1880.
13.
Lillian Russell was immediately popular with audiences and soon was acting in skits, as well as singing.
14.
Lillian Russell next played at the Bijou Opera House on Broadway as Djenna in The Great Mogul and with the McCaull Comic Opera Company played Bathilda there in Olivette.
15.
Lillian Russell played the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience and Aline in The Sorcerer in 1882 at the Bijou.
16.
Lillian Russell met composer Edward Solomon later in 1882 at Pastor's New York Casino Theatre where he was the season's musical director and she became the star.
17.
Lillian Russell was very well received in Solomon's works, on tour in the US for Pastor.
18.
Lillian Russell played in New York theatres or on tour in Gilbert and Sullivan and in operettas.
19.
Lillian Russell's relationship with Solomon soured, mostly due to his poor finances, and their last show, The Maid and the Moonshiner, was a flop.
20.
Lillian Russell continued to star in comic opera and other musical theatre.
21.
Girofle-Girofla was a favorite of Lillian Russell, who played the dual lead role in Chicago, New York and on tour in the 1890s.
22.
For many years, Lillian Russell was the foremost singer of operettas in America.
23.
Lillian Russell married tenor John Haley Augustin Chatterton in 1894, but they soon separated, and in 1898, they divorced.
24.
Lillian Russell remained at Abbey's, playing several roles, but when that theatre shut down in 1896, she played in other Broadway houses in more operettas by Offenbach, Victor Herbert and others, such as Erminie in 1899.
25.
For 40 years, Lillian Russell was the companion of businessman "Diamond Jim" Brady, who showered her with expensive gifts of diamonds and gemstones and supported her extravagant lifestyle.
26.
Lillian Russell was said to be able nearly to match Brady's excessive eating habits, and would do so in public.
27.
In 1899, Lillian Russell joined the Weber and Fields Music Hall, where she starred in their burlesques and other entertainments until 1904.
28.
Lillian Russell then returned to singing, appearing in burlesque, variety and other entertainments.
29.
Lillian Russell lived, for a time, in suite 437 of the hotel, now located in the offices of the student newspaper, The Pitt News.
30.
In 1915, Lillian Russell appeared with Lionel Barrymore in the motion picture Wildfire, which was based on the 1908 play in which she had appeared.
31.
Lillian Russell appeared in vaudeville until 1919, when ill health forced her to leave the stage entirely, after a four-decade long career.
32.
Lillian Russell became a wealthy woman, and during the 1919 Actors' Equity Association strike, she made a major donation of money to sponsor the formation of the Chorus Equity Association by the chorus girls at the Ziegfeld Follies.
33.
In 1922, Lillian Russell undertook a fact-finding mission to Europe on behalf of President Warren Harding.
34.
Lillian Russell recommended a five-year moratorium on immigration and a minimum of 21 years residency before making application for naturalization.
35.
Lillian Russell's findings were instrumental in developing the content of the Immigration Act of 1924, which greatly restricted immigration of southern and eastern Europeans and banned the immigration of Asians.
36.
Lillian Russell suffered apparently minor injuries on the return trip, which led to complications, and she died after ten days of illness at her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
37.
Lillian Russell is interred in her family's private mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
38.
Lillian Russell competed under the nom de course "Mr Clinton" with racing colors to be navy blue with a white star.
39.
The Lillian Russell Theatre aboard the City of Clinton Showboat is a summer stock theatre named after Russell in her hometown of Clinton, Iowa.