Menken, Adah Isaacs (1835–1868)

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Menken, Adah Isaacs (1835–1868)

American actress and poet whose beauty and daring made her one of the great celebrities of the era. Name variations: Mazeppa. Born Adah Bertha Theodore on June 15, 1835, in Chartrain (now Milneburg), Louisiana; died of tuberculosis and peritonitis in Paris, France, on August 10, 1868; daughter of Auguste Theodore (a shopkeeper) and Marie Theodore; possibly attended some public schools in New Orleans; tutored by schoolteacher stepfather, Campbell Josephs; married Alexander Isaac Menken (a musician and dry goods salesman), on October 3, 1856; married John Carmel Heenan (a prizefighter), on September 3, 1859; married Robert Henry Newell (a writer and editor known by pen name Orpheus C. Kerr), on September 24, 1862; married James Paul Barkley (occupation unknown), on August 19, 1866; children: one died in infancy (b. 1860); Louis Dudevant Victor Emmanuel Barkley (later given new identity by adoptive parents).

Made first stage appearance as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons, Shreveport, Louisiana (1857); made New Orleans debut as Bianca in Fazio (1857); moved to New York (1859); made New York debut as Widow Cheerly in The Soldier's Daughter (1859); opened in most famous role as Tartar Boy in Mazeppa, Albany (1861); made San Francisco debut in Mazeppa (1863); made London debut in Mazeppa (1864); lived in London and Paris (late 1860s); made Paris debut in The Pirates of the Savannah (1866). A collection of poems, Infelicia, published posthumously, London (1868).

Though a terrible Civil War raged in the United States in 1864, most Londoners paid scant attention to the plight of their Englishspeaking brethren. Accounts of battles appeared in newspapers, but longstanding apathy about the former colonies could hardly be shaken by a cursory and impersonal exposure to the carnage. The United States and its citizens, Victorians believed, had little to offer. The young republic lacked great art, literature, and drama. A "wilderness" when colonized by Europeans, a cultural wilderness it remained, especially in the throes of war. But that autumn, one American created a stir like that of few other previous visitors to London of any nationality. Fashionable people seemed concerned with nothing else but her visit, and four weeks of public performances were sold out in advance. Adah Isaacs Menken had come to England prepared to conquer the London stage.

Lo! This is she that was the world's delight.
—Algernon Swinburne

The people of Great Britain hardly constituted the first to succumb to Menken's charms, and would not be the last. During the decade of the 1860s, she was America's most celebrated entertainer, a remarkable achievement for a woman of common origins. The fact that Menken came from modest beginnings is, however, one of the very few aspects of her background all biographers agree upon. Menken obfuscated much of her past in a shroud of secrecy and fantasy. She fabricated stories about her youth to gain publicity and to fit the interests of the listener. As she began her acting career, she claimed her father was a prominent New Orleans merchant. She later said she was the daughter of Ricardo los Fuertes, a Portuguese noble. She also told people she was the daughter of an Irish boxer, a Confederate officer who died during the Civil War, and a French immigrant to New Orleans, to name just some of her "fathers." All of these tales were untrue. Some biographers believe she may have actually told the truth to the elder Alexander Dumas when she remarked that her father was a free man of color. Auguste Theodore, a poor shopkeeper from Chartrain (now Milneburg), Louisiana, was listed as her father in the registry of the parish where Adah was born. There is no evidence of his ethnicity, which constituted a less significant issue in the New Orleans area than any other place in the United States at the time. Marie Theodore , Adah's mother, was probably born in Bordeaux, France.

It is certain that Adah Bertha Theodore was born on April 11, 1835, and that Auguste Theodore died six months afterward. Marie sold the shop and moved to a boarding house in New Orleans, where she met Campbell Josephs. They would marry in 1836. Josephs taught Latin and Greek at a private boys' school, the St. Charles Academy. Though there is evidence Marie paid inadequate attention to her daughter from the earlier marriage, Campbell Josephs raised Adah as his own child. Under his tutelage, she learned Latin, Greek, French, Hebrew, and Spanish while quite young. She studied the classics, attended the theater, and read poetry. Josephs believed in regular exercise for children, which included dancing and horseback riding (the academy had a stable). Adah's riding proficiency would serve her well later in life.

Adah's education represented a remarkable opportunity for a young woman of the time. Her equally extraordinary intellect prepared her for a unique life—and she would certainly live life to the fullest. Campbell Josephs died in 1852, leaving the family destitute as was often the case with the death of the male head of a household. Menken advertised her services as a language tutor, and traveled from house to house teaching girls from affluent homes. She may have been the sole wage earner in the family for some time.

Menken kept a diary when she began working, and this surviving document provides a great deal of evidence about her independent thinking and willingness to challenge convention. She read Nathaniel Hawthorne's "scandalous" The Scarlet Letter and expressed her admiration for Hester Prynne, "a wonderful woman … lovely and strong." Of Chillingworth, Adah noted: "I would have killed him." About this time, she entered the male realm of politics, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate Franklin Pierce at public rallies. Her outraged mother told her to stop, but Menken refused. As she observed in her diary, "The woman of today is not a slave, but free!" This sentiment reflected her view, but hardly prevailing attitudes in antebellum America. How many 17-year-old women were mounting speaking platforms in the United States in 1852? Menken's experience was rare.

In October 1853, Baron Friedrich von Eberstadt asked Adah to accompany him to Havana, Cuba, where it seems she became his mistress. Eberstadt was an Austrian noble whose daughter Adah had tutored. In later memoirs, she claimed to have danced as the "Queen of the Plaza" in Havana, though it seems likely she turned to prostitution to survive after the baron abandoned her. While looking for gainful employment on the stage upon her return to the United States in 1856, she met Alexander Isaac Menken, the son of a dry goods manufacturer from Cincinnati, Ohio. Though he wished to be a professional violinist or orchestra conductor, Isaac was probably working for his father as a traveling salesman. Within a day, he proposed marriage to the young woman of striking beauty and exceptional intelligence. They were immediately married on October 3, 1856.

Isaac was Jewish, and whether Adah had grown up in a Jewish family or converted to Judaism in 1856 is unknown. She remained true to the Jewish faith the rest of her life. Isaac's fortunes soured during the economic recession of 1857, and Adah turned to the stage to make ends meet. She made her debut in March at James Charles' theater in Shreveport, Louisiana, as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons. Her New Orleans debut at Crisp's Gaiety, as Bianca in Fazio, occurred on August 29. Hardly a great actress, the pretty, somewhat exotic-looking young woman provided a striking physical presence on stage. Audiences received her well. Adah Isaacs (she added the "s" to her stage name) Menken continued to perform in New Orleans and toured the southeast and midwest. In 1859, she sought wider recognition, however, and the Menkens moved to New York City.

Adah Menken made her New York debut in March 1859 at Purdy's National Theater in the role of the Widow Cheerly in The Soldier's Daughter. It was a small part, but the petite dark-haired, dark-eyed actress won over audiences. The play closed after a short run, though Menken secured a larger role in a second play, The French Spy, where her fluency in French helped earn her good reviews. This part would be followed by a third at the Purdy theater, in The Three-Foot Man, a play which also closed quickly. Adah had great difficulty finding work for a time afterward.

During 1859, Adah Menken's personal life also grew complicated and, ultimately, somewhat scandalous. Isaac's relationship with Adah grew increasingly strained after the move to New York. He wanted to go home to Cincinnati; she insisted she would become a famous actress on the New York stage. Isaac was probably jealous of her early successes, though they were modest, and grew increasingly disturbed about her flirtatious demeanor. He also became incensed about her new habit of smoking cigarettes in public. Although it was a fad among men, few women dared to smoke openly, but Adah loved to defy convention. As her husband's protests mounted, Adah noted in her diary, "I have told Isaac I will leave him if he does not stop badgering me with his sermons on cigarettes. I do not criticize him for smoking segaros. … I will not submit to the dictation of any man." In July, Isaac gave up hope "dictating" anything to his wife, announced his separation from her, and left New York.

Now alone, Menken had to rely on her acting and writing to make ends meet. Before the move to New York, she had published some poems in the Cincinnati Israelite, and showed them to Edwin James, the editor of a New York newspaper, The Clipper. He began publishing her poetry at five dollars a piece, an arrangement that continued for many years. At the Clipper offices, James introduced Menken to John Carmel Heenan, a leading prizefighter from Benicia, California. Johnnie Heenan stood 6′2", weighed well over 200 pounds, sported a heavy black mustache, and claimed to be the boxing champion of America. No other American boxer seemed prepared to dispute this assertion. The "Benicia Boy" took an immediate liking to Adah, and she began to accompany the massive boxer to public events. On September 3, they were married in secret, though word about the union leaked out within a few months.

The period following Adah's second marriage was among the darkest in her life. Isaac Menken announced that he had not secured a divorce from his wife, thus she was a bigamist. He would subsequently initiate the divorce proceedings, if a bit belatedly. New husband Johnnie was a heavy drinking carouser who spent little time with his wife. Despite rumors prevalent at the time, there is no evidence that he physically abused Adah, though there were also reports that she landed punches on his face. These stories may have been circulated by Adah and her associates to create some publicity for the young actress. The boxer would abandon Adah in 1860 to travel to London to fight the international boxing champion Tom Sayers. The barefisted brawl lasted over 2 hours and 37 rounds, during which Heenan knocked down Sayers 20 times. Fearful that the "Benicia Boy" was going to kill Sayers, promoters called the fight and declared it a draw. Well compensated for the event, Heenan returned to New York in July and repudiated his marriage to Adah. In his absence, she had given birth to his son, though the child died in infancy.

Menken sunk into depression in the wake of these tragic events. She learned of her mother's death, as well, and it would not be until early 1861 that she summoned the strength to return to the stage. Her trials and tribulations had added to her notoriety, and Adah remained committed to the ultimate goal of becoming a beloved actress. She believed the right role to win the affection of audiences would eventually present itself, and such a part did materialize in 1861. Ironically, the role for which Menken achieved her desired popularity was not as a woman, but a boy. She played the Tartar youth in Mazeppa, an adaptation of Lord Byron's poem. The traditional climax of the play involved the boy, stripped of his clothes by his captors and lashed to the back of a wild horse, riding up to papier-maché cliffs to disappear into the clouds. The dramatic end was dulled a bit by the tradition of tying a stuffed manikin to an old nag which slowly ascended some stairs. Adah and her new manager, James Murdoch, had a better idea.

Experienced with horses, Menken would ride the animal herself at the end of the play, clad in skin-colored tights to appear naked. The advantage of playing a boy proved beneficial because an unclothed female character could not appear on stage. The melodrama opened on June 3, 1861, at the Green Street Theater in Albany in front of a massive crowd. Unsure whether or not she was actually naked, the audience was shocked but excited by the spectacle of Adah riding up the platform through the crowd. Thunderous ovations greeted her nightly, and Adah Isaacs Menken (the name she would always use on stage) found the fame she long desired. Mazeppa opened at New York's Broadway Theater shortly after the Albany success. With hair cut short like that of a boy and atop Black Bess, she gave a performance that was the cultural sensation of one of the darkest years in

American history. To an editorial writer in the New York Post, it was "a pleasure and a duty to see her in Mazeppa." He went on to suggest that "Miss Menken places the male in her audience at a disadvantage. She is so lovely that she numbs the mind, and the senses reel."

New York audiences flocked to see the "Naked Lady," as she came to be known. Menken's salary rose to an incredible $500 per week. She bought an impressive house, and the literary and other cultural elite made this residence at 458 Seventh Avenue a center of New York intellectual life. Menken proved a brilliant host at her salon. "She could discourse fluently on matters pertaining to literature," noted frequent visitor Robert Henry Newell, a writer and editor of the Mercury, as well as "the sciences and the latest news of the world." Walt Whitman and Fitz-James O'Brien became devoted friends. As the nation sunk deeper into civil war, a Southerner became the North's newest celebrity.

The Civil War did have an impact on Adah Menken's career. Mazeppa went on tour where Adah was well received in Trenton and Baltimore, among other cities. She faced occasional catcalls about her Southern heritage, however, and after making some pro-secessionist statements (likely designed to generate publicity) faced arrest in Maryland. She wriggled out of this problem with ease, and ticket sales in Baltimore soared. Adah Menken had become a master of staying in the public eye. She also married a third time, to Robert Henry Newell, who was also known by the pen name, "Orpheus C. Kerr." Though the relationship was rocky at best, the two sailed for San Francisco on July 13, 1863, where she dazzled some of the most appreciative audiences she ever encountered.

Tom Maguire, owner of the impressive Opera House in San Francisco, had approached Menken's agent, James Murdoch, with a stunning offer. He would pay her $1,500 per week for a 12-week appearance in the nation's fastest growing city. San Francisco proved the perfect place to further Menken's fame. A tiny settlement before the Gold Rush of the late 1840s, it contained nearly 100,000 residents by 1863. A dynamic city of dramatic contrasts—it was both a rough frontier town and a place where prominent citizens wore the latest French fashions—it included a number of large, elaborate theaters.

There was no easy route to California at the time and rather than the dangerous overland passage or the long voyage around Cape Horn, Menken chose the more popular "Atlantic-Panama-Pacific" trip. Just days after the carnage at Gettysburg ended, Adah and husband Robert boarded the Sao Jorge. It was certainly a good idea to leave the war-weary East and head to the West Coast. At Porto Bello, they began the 50-mile overland journey through the jungle toward Panama City. Harassed by "swarms of mosquitos, flies, gnats and an infinite host of other flying and crawling creatures," as Newell reported in an article for the Mercury, the Menken party faced a challenging journey. They would happily board the Palace Queen, though the tedious trip strained Adah's relationship with Robert, an estrangement that would never be repaired.

Tom Maguire had promoted Menken's visit effectively. A large number of citizens turned out for her arrival, then packed the Opera House for a gala reception where Adah charmed San Francisco's elite. Mazeppa sold out for its entire run. From the first night to the last, the audiences literally went wild during the climatic "Naked Lady" scene. She also performed in Dick Turpin, The French Spy, and Three Fast Women, among other plays. When not on the stage, Menken spent much of her time with "Golden Era" authors Bret Harte, Artemus Ward, Warren Stoddard, and Joaquin Miller. She probably met Mark Twain, though he was never counted among her devoted admirers. It seems every other prominent man in San Francisco wished to meet with Adah, and rumors spread about affairs with local millionaires. Newell did return to New York within a few weeks of their arrival as Adah's third marriage fell apart. Excerpts from Menken's unreliable diary support the conclusion that she did have affairs, but as in many aspects of Adah's life, separating fact from fiction is impossible.

After an exciting and lucrative run in the Golden Gate City, Menken's party began the return trip to the East, this time overland, beginning in December. Adah stopped in the silver boom town of Virginia City where a raucous crowd of miners made the stop a financial success, to say the least. Estimates placed the value of gifts and payments of silver and shares of stock at $100,000 or more, and even if this figure is somewhat exaggerated, she certainly did return to New York a wealthy woman. After finding war-weary Easterners less inclined to go to the theater during the fourth year of fighting, Menken agreed to travel to London to take advantage of her growing notoriety abroad. She sailed for Europe in April 1864.

Mazeppa opened on October 3 at Astley's Theater. London newspapers carried on a lively discussion before this date about whether English audiences would embrace the play and its controversial star. But on opening night Menken took about two dozen curtain calls. As Bell's observed, "The most popular of American actresses has conquered us." Mirroring her United States experiences, literary figures were drawn to "the goddess," including novelists Charles Dickens and Charles Reade, and artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She formed her closest association with poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, who wrote "Laus Veneris" for her. After a brief trip back to New York, Menken returned to London in 1865 with Child of the Sun, by John Brougham. When audience numbers dropped off somewhat, its six-week run was followed by another of Mazeppa. Her celebrity status well established in England, and with numerous prominent admirers at her side continuously, Menken felt very much "at home" there.

In 1866, believing the time was right for another American tour, Menken played New York and other major cities to packed houses. Having divorced Robert Newell in 1865, she also married once more on August 19, 1866. Her fourth husband was James Paul Barkley, a wealthy American about whom little is known. The fact that a pregnant Adah sailed for Europe three days after the ceremony, never to see Barkley again, certainly limited his relevance. Obviously, the marriage was designed to minimize the scandal of Menken's impending motherhood.

Adah Menken went to France this time, to give birth to her child and to conquer the Paris stage. Louis Dudevant Victor Emmanuel Barkley was born in November. Menken soon went into rehearsal for the opening of The Pirates of the Savannah (Les Pirates de la Savane), which was received by both audiences and critics with unbounded praise. The Theatre de la Gaite sold out every night as patrons gawked at Menken wearing revealing costumes. Artists and writers flocked to her side once again, including Théophile Gautier and the elder Alexander Dumas, with whom some scandalous photographs were taken. While in France, Menken would develop a close relationship to another woman, Amadine Aurore Lucie Dupin, the novelist known by the pseudonym of George Sand . The aging author became a trusted advisor and supporter of the American actress who claimed her place as the Paris sensation of 1867; Sand also served as godmother to Adah's son.

When Pirates closed, Adah Menken stood as one of the great celebrities of the Western world. A powerful ambitious drive and diverse talents had taken her to the grand position she coveted since childhood. She defied Victorian convention while earning a huge salary. Prominent writers and artists sought her company. Newspapers and magazines reported her every move, and stories about her, true and false, maintained her fame. But Menken was hardly satisfied. She believed true immortality would come with the publication of her best poems, and she set to work on such a collection, Infelicia.

Much of Adah Menken's success as an actress stemmed from her personal beauty, willingness to push the limits of convention in revealing her body in public performances, and gift for generating publicity. It is unlikely her talents as a stage performer would have, on their own, made her famous. But there was more to Adah Menken than the "Naked Lady" persona. As she once remarked, she was "possessed of two souls, one that lives on the surface of life, pleasing and pleased: the other as deep and unfathomable as the ocean: a mystery to me and all who know me." Menken's poetry reflected this depth. "Judith," one of the best received of her poems, addressed a martial theme:

And the Philistines spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim
They shall yet be delivered into my hands.
For the God of Battles has gone before me!
The sword of the mouth shall smite them to dust.
I have slept in the darkness—
But the seventh angel awoke me, and giving me a sword of flame, points to the blue-ribbed cloud, that lifts his reeking head above the mountain.
Thus I am the prophet.
I see the dawn that heralds to my waiting soul the advent of power.

Of this poem and dozens of others, literary critics have found much to praise of Menken's natural talent, though her technique could hardly match the great poets she admired so much.

As she awaited the appearance of Infelicia, Menken took Pirates to London in 1868, where it was received with little enthusiasm by English audiences. By many accounts, her performance lacked the energy of previous efforts. The tired actress, probably suffering from ill health, gave her last performance on May 10 at Sadler's Wells Theater. She then returned to Paris to prepare for that city's opening of the play, still anticipating the publication of Infelicia. Tragically, Adah Menken would experience neither goal. While rehearsing on June 9, she collapsed on stage, and was bedridden for the next month. Physicians could not provide a clear diagnosis, though they assured her she would recover. The doctors were wrong. On August 10, Menken died, probably of peritonitis and tuberculosis. Initially buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, her coffin was moved by Ed James to the Jewish section of Montparnasse Cemetery in 1869. George Sand arranged for a secret adoption of Menken's son to a good home. His identity remained secret, and nothing is known about his life after his mother's passing.

Eight days after Adah Menken's death, Infelicia was published in London, dedicated to Charles Dickens. The great novelist, like Whitman, Swinburne, and other admirers counted among the leading literary figures of the age, knew that Menken was neither a brilliant actress nor writer. But Dickens believed that Menken possessed the heart and intellect of a great poet. Swinburne wrote on his copy of Infelicia, "Lo! This is she that was the world's delight." Adah Isaacs Menken was a woman of various talents and extraordinary ambition, and few Americans of any era have lived a more fascinating life.