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12/04/1861-06/06/1922
Lillian Russell was born Helen Louise Leonard on December 4, 1861, in Clinton, Iowa. She is famous for her singing, stage performances, and women’s rights advocacy. Her most famous song was “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star” (1902). She was also notable for being the first voice to be carried by Alexander Graham Bell’s long-distance telephone line. Russell moved to Pittsburgh in 1912, after her marriage to local newspaper publisher Alexander Moore. She involved herself in community affairs, including army recruitment and social events. She is buried in Allegheny Cemetery.
Lillian Russell was born Helen Louise Leonard on December 4, 1861, in Clinton, Iowa. Her parents, Charles E. Leonard and Cynthia Leonard, moved to Chicago when Helen was three. Charles made a living as a newspaper publisher, while Cynthia was a women’s rights advocate. Helen attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart until age fifteen. There, she learned how to dance and play the tambourine. Her first stage role was in Time Tries All (1877). In 1879, Helen’s parents separated and she moved with her mother to Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, she sang under famed Vaudeville theater-owner Tony Pastor. During this time, Pastor gave Helen the stage name Lillian Russell, a name she used the rest of her life. As noted by The Catholic Telegraph in April 1892 she was "growing handsomer and sweeter voiced year by year … and is said now to be the most beautiful woman in America" (6). Many men, including Diamond Jim Brady, one of the wealthiest men in America, wanted to be with her because of her beauty. Russell's first three marriages ended in divorce.
In 1890, Alexander Graham Bell chose Russell to be the first voice carried by his long-distance telephone line. On May 8, she sang Offenbach’s "Sabre Song" from the opera Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein to President Grover Cleveland. She was stationed in New York and sang to audiences in Boston and Washington D.C. Other notable engagements in her early years included appearing in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore, an opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, which depicted differences between British social classes. Russell performed at the castle-like Casino Theater in Manhattan during the 1890s. She then entered the company of comedy duo Joe Weber and Lew Fields in 1899. She earned more than $1,200 per week, an impressive salary for a woman at the time. A notable production during her Weber and Fields era was Lady Teazle, significant for being a "musical version of The School for Scandal" (Enss). When Russell performed, her magnificent soprano voice was a sensation. As actress Marie Dressler noted, "I can still recall the rush of pure awe that marked her entrance on the stage. And then the thunderous applause that swept from orchestra to gallery, to the very roof" (Patrick).
Russell’s signature song, "Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star" was written and composed by John Stromberg in 1902 for his production Twirly Whirly. While the show was being rehearsed, Stromberg refused to give Russell the sheet music, telling her the song was not ready. After his premature death, the song was found in his coat pocket. When Russell performed it, it immediately became a hit.
In 1912, Russell moved to Pittsburgh, and on June 12, she married Alexander Pollock Moore, publisher of The Pittsburgh Leader. The two had met in 1896 and had gotten to know each other while attending Carnegie Music Hall. They married in the Schenley Hotel, today known as the William Pitt Union, where there is a room named in her honor. Soon after her marriage, Russell began to make a mark in Pittsburgh. She attended the opening of the William Penn Hotel in 1916. Events like this were exclusive to the lavish and well-known stars of the time.
From an early date, Russell’s visibility as an actress and singer provided her with opportunities to comment and be heard about women’s issues. Like her mother, Russell was an advocate for women’s suffrage. One of Russell’s most important moments related to women’s rights activism was her refusal to wear tights in the production Queen’s Mate (1887). Russell detested how wives in her era were not considered separate entities from their husbands. She stated:
"Marriage is not an ideal institution as it is … the idea that as soon as a man marries you that he should assume the airs of a proprietor and tell a woman where she should go and whom she should meet and why, especially if she is a women of feeling, is irksome" (Enss).
Due to her refusal to wear tights in the show, she was taken to court under her contract with James C. Duff, and she lost $2,000 in royalties. Russell didn’t mind. Although the scene was only ten minutes long, her advocacy for women everywhere was enduring, giving some the confidence to stick up for themselves in a world dominated by men.
Russell’s activism continued in the Pittsburgh community during World War I. She was named an honorary Colonel of the U.S. Marine Corps, and on a Recruiting Day in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, she enlisted 259 men. At other times during the war, she signed up soldiers, sold Liberty Bonds, boosted troop morale, and aided those who suffered injuries. She continued in political affairs after the war. In 1922, President Warren Harding appointed her as a commissioner to study immigration conditions, largely because she was a staunch Republican and supported his restrictive policies toward immigrants. She helped his cause by giving speeches and going on a fact-finding mission in Europe. As Russell described, "The booking agent who arranged the tour of three-and-one-half weeks gave me a grasshopper’s life, jumping from city to city … I made three or four speeches a day in 15 states" (Giaimo). Her efforts helped pass the Immigration Act of 1924. This is not an accomplishment to be celebrated, however. Today the act is seen as racist, because it established a quota system based on older immigration statistics, thus increasing the number of Northern and Western Europeans who could enter, and sharply curtailing immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. It also blocked all immigration from Asia (“The Immigration Act of 1924”).
Getting sick after a fall overseas in Europe during her work for the Harding administration, Russell returned home to Pittsburgh to rest. Unfortunately, after weeks of being bedridden, her physical state did not improve. She passed away on June 6, 1922, at her Pittsburgh mansion on 6744 Penn Avenue, attended by her daughter Dorothy Calbit, her niece Mildred A. Martin, and physician C.B. Shieldecker. She was sixty-one years old. Russell was interred in a private mausoleum at Allegheny Cemetery. After her passing, a large number of testimonials were made, including one by Secretary of Labor James J. Davis: "Mrs. Moore was one of the ablest, most patriotic and sincere women it has ever been my pleasure to meet … her death is a loss to the people of the United States" ("Lillian Russell Dies of Injuries" 19). Crowds arrived to her funeral two hours early, showing how beloved she was. Pallbearers included senators, close friends, relatives, and show business royalty. Her husband, Alexander Pollock Moore, died in 1930 and was laid to rest next to her. The inscription on her mausoleum reads, "The World Is A Better Place For Her Having Lived."
- Allegheny Cemetery Historical Association. “Lillian Russell the ‘Beautiful English Ballad Singer’ and Star of Stage and Screen.” Pamphlet. Allegheny Cemetery, http://alleghenycemetery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/russell.pdf. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- "An Old Stage Favorite Gone.” Philadelphia Inquirer, 11 June 1922, pp. 32. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1830790982.
- Clarke, Kevin, and Kurt Ganzl. “Lillian Russell (1860-1922) Revisited: The Amazing Life of a ‘Scandalous’ Operetta Diva.” Operetta Research Center, 5 Apr. 2020, http://operetta-research-center.org/lillian-russell-revisited-amazing-life-19th-century-operetta-diva/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Dupont, Aimé. Lillian Russell in an American Beauty. 1896, New York Public Library. NYPL Digital Collections, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8ecfb544-8351-dc09-e040-e00a18066962. Accessed 20 July 2023.
- English National Opera. “An Introduction to HMS Pinafore.” EN, https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/operas/an-introduction-to-hms-pinafore/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Enss, Chris. “Wild Women of the West: Lillian Russell.” COWGIRL Magazine, 11 May 2022. https://cowgirlmagazine.com/wild-women-of-the-west-lillian-russell/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Fields, Armond. Lillian Russell: A Biography of “America’s Beauty.” McFarland, 2008.
- Giaimo, Cara. “Warren G. Harding Was the First Celebrity-Endorsed President.” Atlas Obscura, 1 Sept. 2016, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/warren-g-harding-was-the-first-celebrityendorsed-president. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- "Hardings Express Sorrow at Death of Lillian Russell Moore.” The Gazette Times, 7 June 1922, pp. 2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1856100170.
- Hirschl, Beatrice. “Lillian Russell: Actress Played a Part in Pittsburgh.” Trib Live, 25 Aug. 2002. https://archive.triblive.com/news/lillian-russell-actress-played-a-part-in-pittsburgh. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- “The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act).” United States, Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, Office of the Historian. Milestones, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Lee, Marianne. “A Grande Dame Named William Penn.” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, vol. 17, no. 2, Spr. 1991. Pennsylvania Heritage, http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/grande-dame-named-william-penn/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- "Lillian Russell Dies of Injuries." New York Times, 6 June 1922, pp. 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/docview/98714705.
- “Lillian Russell Eulogized.” New York Times, 19 June 1922, pp. 11. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/ docview/99517235.
- “Lillian Russell Extolled by Many." New York Times, 7 June 1922, pp. 19. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com//docview/99551213/.
- “Lillian Russell, Queen of Beauty, Won Love and Happiness in Waning Days of Vivid Life.” [Philadelphia] Evening Public Ledger, Night Extra, 8 June 1922, p. 15. Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive, https://panewsarchive.psu.edu/lccn/sn83045211/1922-06-08/ed-1/seq-15/#words=Lillian+Russell. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- “Lillian Russell Opera Co. in Lady Teazle.” Theater program. Historic Pittsburgh, https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735037984790#page/1/mode/2up. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- “Lillian Russell: Saratoga Socialite.” Saratoga.com, https://www.saratoga.com/aboutsaratoga/history/lillian-russell/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Lynn, Hannah. “Actress and Singer Lillian Russell Moore, Buried in Allegheny Cemetery, Turns 156.” Pittsburgh City Paper, 4 Dec. 2017, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/Blogh/archives/2017/12/04/actress-and-singer-lillian-russell-moore-buried-in-allegheny-cemetery-turns-156. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- "Nation Pays Homage to Lillian Russell.” Philadelphia Inquirer. 9 June 1922, pp. 2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1830783721/.
- Morell, Parker. Lillian Russell: The Era of Plush. Random House, 1940.
- Patrick, Neil. “Lillian Russell - The First Modern Female Celebrity in America and Synonymous with American Operettas.” The Vintage News, 4 Oct. 2016, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/04/26/lillian-russell-first-modern-female-celebrity-america-synonymous-american-operettas/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
- Przybylek, Leslie. “About the Cover: Lillian Russell.” Western Pennsylvania History, vol. 103, no. 1, Spr. 2020. https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/view/63155/62112.
- "Thousands at Rites for Lillian Russell." New York Times, 9 June 1922, pp. 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, https://www.proquest.com/docview/98654381.
- Urban Archive. “The Casino Theater.” Urban Archive, https://www.urbanarchive.org/stories/KVP4HSYLZka. Accessed 20 July 2023.
- “What Will You Choose?” The Catholic Telegraph, 14 Apr. 1892, p. 6. Catholic News Archive, https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=TCT18920414-01.2.48&srpos=4&e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-lillian%2Brussell-------. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.