Adah Isaacs Menken

Adah Isaacs Menken
Adah Isaacs Menken, age 19
Born	Adah Bertha Theodore June 15, 1835(1835-06-15) New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Died	August 10, 1868(1868-08-10) (aged 33) Paris, France

Adah Isaacs Menken (June 15, 1835 – August 10, 1868) was an American actress, painter and poet.

Life and career

There are significant inconsistencies in the various accounts of Menken's early life. In her autobiographical "Some Notes of her life in her own Hand,",^[1] Menken claimed she was born Marie Rachel Adelaide de Vere Spenser in Milneburg, Louisiana. Elsewhere, she claimed her birth name was Dolores Adios Los Fiertesorn. ^[2] Ed James, a journalist friend of hers, wrote about her origin after her death: “Her real name was Adelaide McCord, and she was born at Milneburg, near New Orleans, on June 15, 1835”. ^[3] No one agreed with James, and the census data of 1850 indicated that her real name was Ada C. McCord, born in Memphis in late 1830.^[4] As a child, she was an exceptionally bright student, and somewhat of an incredible scholar. She was fluent in Spanish and French, and received significant recognition for her poetic works before the age of 18. ^[5] She was a young dancer in the Ballet of the French Opera House in New Orleans, and, in later childhood, moved to Havana where she was crowned “Queen of the Plaza”. ^[6] Eventually she worked in San Francisco. Menken was known for her poetry and painting, though both were poorly received. In 1859 she appeared on Broadway in the play "The French Spy. Her work was not highly regarded by the 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".

She converted to Judaism^[7] and married a Jewish musician, Alexander Isaac Menken. The commentators continued to be cynical, saying that a marriage to a rich husband was the only way to sustain a flagging (acting) career. The marriage to Alex Menken was short-lived. Alex Menken became frustrated and overwhelmed by his “irresponsible and frivolous” wife, who insisted upon smoking cigarettes in public and refused to settle down with him. ^[8] Alex Menken separated from and later divorced Adah, though she remained committed to Judaism her entire life. Adah Menken was legally married six times, many of whom she met on her cross-country performance tours.^[9] Her second husband was John C. Heenan, the American prizefighter. As she had not yet secured a legally recognised divorce from Alex Menken, Adah Menken was accused of bigamy. At the time, John Heenan was one of the most famous and popular figures in America, particularly on the east coast and especially in New York, his home town. The press were quick to point this out as they continued to accuse her of marrying solely to maintain her celebrity status. However, everyone who knew her well said that she genuinely loved the gregarious and outgoing Heenan. The marriage lasted less than a year, but Menken continued to identify herself as Mrs. Heenan, despite the rebuttal from his representatives. ^[10]

In 1860-61, she contributed a series of poems to the New York Sunday Mercury, as well as a glowing piece praising Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass in 1860 as "centuries ahead of his contemporaries".^[11][12][13]

Menken as a French Spy, 1863

Adah Isaacs Menken had a fighting spirit. She never became discouraged by the bad publicity and outrageously public scandal and sorrowful embarrassment. She starved in New York City, performing small parts, reading Shakespeare and giving lectures around town. ^[14] By luck of coincidence, she met Charles Blondin. He had a soul as daring and spirited as hers: he was famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Menken and Blondin became interested in each other and she said that she might marry him, if they could perform a couples’ act above Niagara. Blondin refused saying that he would be “distracted by her beauty” when he was above the whirlpool and he would fall to his death. ^[15] Instead, the two carried out an affair and a Vaudeville tour together, both eventually tapering off.

The end of the tour led her to the office of business manager Jimmie Murdock. She expressed a desire to become a great actress, riding solely on her magnificent talent for comedy and tragedy. Mr. Murdock politely and diplomatically dissuaded Menken from that ideal. He knew that she had not any substantial acting talent, but an incredible affinity for captivation of other sort. ^[16] He presented Ms. Menken with the breeches role of noble Tartar in Mazeppa. At the climax of this hit sensation, Tartar is stripped of his clothing, tied to his horse and sent off to his death by a group of horrendous captors. ^[17] This was a thrilling and compelling moment for the audience, despite the fact that the climactic scene was achieved with a Tartar dummy strapped to a horse led with sugar cubes. Menken was more than interested in this role, she wanted to increase the already spectacular effect by performing the stunt herself. ^[18] She would have to be dressed in nude tights and “appear naked on stage”. ^[19] Obviously, Mazeppa took off, quickly becoming the most popular show in San Francisco. ^[20]

Menken’s rising popularity and resonance in the performance community gained the attention of two more husbands.^[21] With the end of her fifth marriage, Menken suddenly had the urge to travel. She wanted to take Mazeppa to Europe, and swiftly conquered London and Paris alike. She became increasingly adored by important figures such as Charles Dickens, Tom Hood and Charles Reade. ^[22] She continued touring Europe as her dynamic character for years.

She lived a performer’s life about Europe until a life of performing quickly caught up to her. She fell ill in the London fog and was forced to cease performances of Mazeppa. ^[23] Menken’s fame and fortune dissipated just as quickly they had come, and she lived an impoverished, grey existence. Her last attempt for lucrative art came in the publishing of a volume of her Victorian Poems.^[24] She earned enough to move back to Paris, in favor of the more pleasant weather. She died in the prayers of a priest with the last words to a friend still wet on the page: “I am lost to art and life. Yet, when all is said and done, have I not at my age tasted more of life than most women who live to be a hundred? It is fair, then, that I should go where old people go” ^[25]

Much of the information pertaining to Menken's racial and religious background has been questioned in more recent historical biography, particularly in Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

References

• Bloom, Harold (2007). The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer through Robert Frost. New York: Harper Perennial. p. 716. ISBN 978-0-06-054042-5. 
• Diamond, Michael (2003). Victorian Sensation. Anthem Press. pp. 268–271. ISBN 978-1-84331-150-8. 
• Dickson, Samuel (1955). Tales of Old San Francisco. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0488-5. 
• Lloyd, Alan (1977). The great prize fight. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-29780-1. 
• Wright, Alan (1994). Tom Sayers : the last great bare-knuckle champion. Sussex, England: Book Guild. ISBN 0-86332-929-2. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adah Isaacs Menken

• 1905 Magazine Article with several photos
• Brief biography at the Jewish Virtual Library
• Portrait gallery from NYP Library Billy Rose Collection
•  "Menken, Adah Isaacs". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Menken, Adah Isaacs". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.