WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY - ADAH MENKEN

'MAVERICK’
“KIZ”

“This place hasn’t been as empty as this
since Adah Menken played 

McGuire’s Theatre...

in tights!”

Hank, 

Virginia City bartender

From Wikipedia:

Adah Isaacs Menken (June 15, 1835 – August 10, 1868) was an American actress, painter and poet, and was the highest earning actress of her time.   She was best known for her performance in the melodrama “Mazeppa”, with a climax that featured her apparently nude and riding a horse on stage. After great success for a few years with the play in New York and San Francisco, she appeared in a production in London and Paris, from 1864 to 1866. After a brief trip back to the United States, she returned to Europe. However, she became ill within two years and died in Paris at the age of 33.
Menken told many versions of her origins, including her name, place of birth, ancestry, and religion, and historians have differed in their accounts. Most have said she was born a Louisiana Creole Catholic of mixed race, with European and African ancestry. A celebrity who created sensational performances in the United States and Europe, she married several times and was also known for her affairs. She had two sons, both of whom died in infancy.
Though she was better known as an actress, Menken sought to be known as a writer. She published about 20 essays, 100 poems, and a book of her collected poems, from 1855 to 1868 (the book was published posthumously). Early work was devoted to family and after her marriage, her poetry and essays featured Jewish themes. However, beginning with work published after moving to New York, with which she changed her style, Menken expressed a wide range of emotions and ideas about women's place in the world. Her collection “Infelicia” went through several editions and was in print until 1902.
[Her husband Alexander Isaac Menken] began to act as her manager, and Ada Menken performed as an actress in the Midwest and Upper South, also giving literary readings. She received decent reviews, which noted her "reckless energy," and performed with men who became notable actors: Edwin Booth in Louisville, Kentucky and James E. Murdoch in Nashville, Tennessee.
Menken wore her wavy hair short, a highly unusual style for women of the time. She cultivated a bohemian and at times androgynous appearance. She deliberately created her image at a time when the growth of popular media helped to publicize it.
In 1859, Menken appeared on Broadway in New York City in the play “The French Spy”. Her work was not highly regarded by critics. The New York Times described her as "the worst actress on Broadway." The Observer said, "she is delightfully unhampered by the shackles of talent." Menken continued to perform small parts in New York, as well as reading Shakespeare in performance, and giving lectures.
In 1860, Menken wrote a review titled "Swimming Against the Current," which praised Whitman's new edition of “Leaves of Grass”, saying he was "centuries ahead of his contemporaries."  She identified with the controversial poet, and declared her bohemian identity through her support for him. That year, Menken also wrote an article on the 1860 election, an unusual topic for a woman, which further added to her image.
She appealed to her business manager Jimmie Murdock to help her become recognized as a great actress. Murdock dissuaded Menken from that goal, as he knew she had little acting talent.  He offered her the "breeches role" (that of a man) of the noble Tartar in the melodrama “Mazeppa”, based on the poem of that title by Lord Byron  (on the life of Ivan Mazepa). At the climax of this hit, the Tartar was stripped of his clothing, tied to his horse, and sent off to his death.  The audiences were thrilled with the scene, although the production used a dummy strapped to a horse, which was led away by a handler giving sugar cubes. Menken wanted to perform the stunt herself. Dressed in nude tights and riding a horse on stage, she appeared to be naked and caused a sensation.  New York audiences were shocked but still attended and made the play popular.

Menken took the production of “Mazeppa” to San Francisco. Audiences again flocked to the show. She became known across the country for this role, and San Francisco adopted her as its performer.
As usual, she attracted a crowd of male admirers, including such prominent figures as the writer Charles Dickens.
Playing in a sold-out run of “Les pirates de la savanne” in Paris in 1866, Menken had an affair with the French novelist Alexandre Dumas, père, considered somewhat scandalous as he was more than twice her age.

She was believed to have died of peritonitis and/or tuberculosis,. Late twentieth-century sources suggest she had cancer. She was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.

O'Bservation:
It could be that Beau Maverick had met Adah Menken while he was in London, banished there by his Uncle, Beauregard “Pappy” Maverick, for whom he was named.  I’m sure fanficcers could have a field day with Beau meeting prominent historical figures there, like Mr. Dickens, who have televersions, and fictional characters like the young Violet Crawley who was married to the Earl of Grantham before 1860.

Adah Menken:
“I have always believed myself to be possessed of two souls, one that lives on the surface of life, pleasing and pleased; the other as deep and as unfathomable as the ocean; a mystery to me and all who know me.”

Happy Trails!