BERNHARDT, SARAH

Bernhardt, Sarah: translation

(1844-1923)

Undoubtedly the most celebrated actress in the world for much of her career, the "divine" French actress with the "golden voice" made nine American tours between 1880 and 1918. She docked in New York on 27 October 1880 for her first nationwide tour under the management ofHenry Abbeyand Maurice Grau. The publicity had been phenomenal even before her arrival, with frequent news stories about her wardrobe, her skeletally thin silhouette, her frizzy red hair, her inscrutable French manners, her temper tantrums, and even some attempts to analyze her talent. Booking Bernhardt was initially regarded as financially risky for local theatre managers, as her tour managers asked $4,500 per performance, Bernhardt being personally guaranteed $1,500 per performance beyond expenses.However, her bookings quickly proved profitable and remained so, even after audiences discovered that they did not magically understand the French language in which Bernhardt and her company performed.

Bernhardt's subsequent American tours were in 1886-1887, 1891, 1896, 1900-1901, 1905-1906, 1910, 1912-1913, and 1916-1918. The last four were billed as her "farewell" tours of America. From 1905 also she often performed in unconventional venues—tents, skating rinks, sports arenas—in order avoid playing theatres controlled by theTheatrical Syndicate. For the last two tours, she was booked by producerMartin Beckon the Orpheumvaudevillecircuit, supposedly as a means of givingpopular-priceaudiences an opportunity to see her. In 1915, she had to have a leg amputated as a result of a fall some years earlier, yet she soldiered on, treading the boards with one wooden leg. Her actual farewell tour, in 1916-1918, got her out of war-torn Europe, and yet she did her part for the cause in that the one-act play she performed on the vaudeville bill was a patriotic piece titledFrom the Theatre to the Field of Honor. Undoubtedly,Camille(The Lady of the Camelias) by Alexandre Dumas,fils, was her most popular play with American audiences, for the play had become familiar to them in English. But she usually brought several of her costumemelodramas. In 1901, when she toured with Constant Coquelin, she played a breeches role, the title character in Edmond Rostand'sL'Aiglon.