Born: 4 December 1860, United States
Died: 6 June 1922
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Helen Louise Leonard
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
On November 22, 1880, “Lillian Russell” made her debut at Tony Pastor’s Theatre in New York City. Within weeks, the beautiful blonde added a prominent role in The Pie-Rats of Penn Yann to her stage credits. This spirited travesty of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance made Lillian Russell an instant star. For the next thirty-five years, Russell maintained her position as one of the first ladies of American musical theater.
Born Helen Louise Leonard in 1861, she was “Nellie” to her family—her father, an easygoing newspaperman, her mother, an ambitious social reformer and crusader for women’s rights, and four sisters. Trained in music and foreign languages, in the late 1870s she moved with her mother from Chicago to New York in order to receive advanced voice instruction. Soon, she met Tony Pastor, the vaudeville impresario who transformed the slightly seedy variety format into respectable family entertainment. Having previously only made appearances as a chorus member, Nellie Leonard, with guidance from Pastor, became “Lillian Russell, The English Ballad Singer.” She was seen at Tony Pastor’s by almost everyone in New York—-except her mother.
“For more than a month I succeeded in appearing in Tony Pastor’s every night, without my mother receiving so much as an inkling of my new occupation. This was easier than it sounds because mother was a busy woman…But one night at dinner I had a sudden premonition that something was wrong. I raised my eyes and found the glance of a newspaperman who lived in the same house…”Mrs. Leonard,” he said, “do you know that there is a girl named Lillian Russell, who sings at Tony Pastor’s Theatre, who looks enough like your little Nellie to be her sister?”
Charles W. Stein, ed. American Vaudeville As Seen By Its Contemporaries. (New York: Knopf, 1984), 13-14.
Assured that Tony Pastor’s Theatre was “respectable,” Mrs. Leonard accepted the newspaperman’s invitation to see the show and joined in the thunderous applause following her daughter’s performance.
Hearing her sing in The Pie-Rats of Penn Yann, Sir Arthur Sullivan pressured Russell to leave Tony Pastor’s for an equivalent role in the legitimate production. She refused to break her contract with Pastor. By 1888, Russell commanded $20,000 a year headlining the Casino Theatre in New York City. There she took on some of her most acclaimed roles including Gabrielle Dalmont in An American Beauty—a title that became her soubriquet.
Entering her second decade on the stage, Russell was as popular as ever. Touring with the Casino company made Lillian Russell a household name. The turn of the century found Russell older and fuller of figure, though still highly paid and much in demand. In 1899, she moved away from light opera and toward vaudeville by joining Lew Fields and Joe Weber‘s theatrical company. At the Weber and Fields Music Hall, and with their touring company, she starred in productions including Whirl-i-Gig, Hoity-Toity, and Whoop-Dee-Doo.
Whoop-Dee-Doo starred Russell as a French countess who purchases art for American millionaires. At one point in the play she sings the Johnson and Cole song “The Maid of Timbuctoo.” From 1901 to 1906 poet James Weldon Johnson frequently produced popular songs with composer Bob Cole. Joe Weber and Lew Fields are pictured in the upper corners of the title page of Maid of Timbuctoo. Whoop-Dee-Doo was the vaudeville team’s last collaboration for several years.
One of America’s first celebrities, the public was as fascinated with Lillian Russell’s private life as they were enchanted by her stage presence. Although her solid middle-class background and lady-like demeanor helped elevate the social status of entertainers, Russell’s four marriages (one to a bigamist), her rumored affairs with Diamond Jim Brady and the Great Sandow, and her appetite for food and jewelry added to her notoriety.
After marrying prominent Republican Alexander P. Moore in 1912, Russell increasingly focused on politics. She presided over the opening of Progressive Party headquarters in Pittsburgh, sold Liberty Bonds during World War I, and campaigned for Warren Harding in the 1920 election.
Lillian Russell died in 1922 shortly after completing a fact-finding mission to Europe on behalf of President Harding. She was buried with full military honors.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Lillian Russell (1861-1922), an American actress and singer, born at Clinton, Iowa. She sang in “Pinafore” in 1879, and later was the popular prima donna of the McCaull Opera Company. After appearing in London in 1883, she returned to New York and for a number of years was a favorite at the Casino. In 1912 she was married to A. P. Moore, editor and owner of the Pittsburgh Leader, this being her fourth marriage. Lillian Russell was a noted beauty of the American stage, and much beloved for her kindliness and charities. During the latter part of her life she became interested in public matters, and in 1921 President Harding appointed her a special investigator to study immigration conditions. On her return from a European trip in fulfillment of her mission she presented to the Department of Labor a report that favored an “immigration holiday” of five years, and twenty-one years’ residence here before naturalization.