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“Elsslermania” in New Orleans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Paul S. Hostetler
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Extract

The American theatre patron of the 1840's knew what he liked in entertainment, and he expressed himself vigorously on the subject. His tastes were highly eclectic. Melodrama and romantic spectacle were his dramatic staples at a theatrical buffet which also included phrenologists, magicians, ventriloquists, jugglers, automatons, and a whole range of human physical oddities from Siamese twins to Belgian giants, not the least of which was one Hervio Nanno who, although handicapped by withered legs, boasted hands and arms of such strength that, dressed as a green fly, he literally could climb all over the theatre and auditorium.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 1969 , pp. 121 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1969

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References

NOTES

1. Maynard, Olga, The American Ballet (Philadelphia, 1959), p. 18.Google Scholar

2. Anderson, John Q., “Fanny Elssler and Ralph Waldo Emerson,” Dance Magazine, XXVIII (July, 1954), 20.Google Scholar Cf. Haskell, Arnold L., Ballet Retrospect (New York, 1964), p. 47Google Scholar, who says “he had been a copyist to Mozart, who interested himself in the child.” While Herr Elssler might possibly have worked for Mozart, any association of the latter with Fanny is a clear impossibility since the composer died nineteen years before her birth.

3. Vaporeau, G., Dictionnaire Universal des Contemporain (Paris, 1858), p. 656.Google Scholar

4. Ibid. Cf. Minnigerode, Meade, “The Divine Fanny,” Bookman, LIX (March, 1924), 17Google Scholar, in which her age at this time is given as “barely fourteen.”

5. Anderson, p. 20.

6. Minnigerode, p. 18.

7. Vaporeau, p. 656.

8. Anderson, p. 22.

9. Minnigerode, p. 18.

10. Maynard, p. 18.

11. (London, 1832), p. 339.

12. Haskell, p. 47, and Anderson, pp. 20–22.

13. Moore, Lillian, “Ballet on Bunker Hill,” Literary Digest, CXXIV (September, 18, 1937), 27.Google Scholar

14. As quoted in Anderson, p. 22.

15. Ibid.

16. Moore, p. 27.

17. She is reported to have earned $85,000 during her two-year stay in America. See Minnigerode, p. 24.

18. “Fanny Elssler at New York,” Fraser's Magazine, XXIX (1844), 283.

19. As quoted in Odell, George C. D., Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1928), IV (1834–1843), 359–360.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., p. 360.

21. Moore, p. 27 and Minnigerode, p. 24.

22. Moore, Lillian, “Fanny Elssler-Transatlantic Traveller,” Dance Magazine, XXVII (June, 1953), 25.Google Scholar

23. Moore, , “Ballet on Bunker Hill,” p. 27.Google Scholar

24. Notarial Acts of William Christy, January 20, 1841, Notarial Archives, Civil Courts Building, New Orleans, Louisiana.

25. New Orleans Bee, March 4 and 5, 1841.

26. Daily Picayune, March 9, 1841.

27. Ibid., March 11, 1841.

28. Ibid., March 19, 1841.

29. Ibid., March 31, 1841.

30. Spirit of the Times, April 3, 1841.

31. Memorial, Holland, Sketch of the Life of George Holland (New York, 1871), p. 44.Google Scholar

32. She performed under contract for ten nights plus one night for her own benefit; the twelfth performance was a benefit for J. M. Field at which she donated her services.

33. Daily Picayune, April 3, 1841.