Today is the birth anniversary of Lillian Russell, the most popular female entertainer of the 19th century.
On May 8, 1890, Lillian Russell became the first person to have their voice carried over a long distance telephone line. From New York City she sang Sabre Song to Boston and Washington, DC.
Though she never married him, Russell was the companion of "Diamond Jim" Brady for 40 years. Brady, in 1895, was the first person in New York City to own an automobile.
Russell married her fourth husband, Alexander Pollock Moore, at the Schenley Hotel in Pittsburg, which is not the University of Pittsburgh student union building.
Lillian Russell was a performer in vaudeville, burlesques, operettas, and musical theatre, notably working with Tony Pastor, the father of vaudeville, and composer Edward Solomon, who she married and then subsequently divorced when she found out he had never divorced his previous wife.
Russell appeared in one motion picture, Wildfire (1915), that starred Lionel Barrymore, who is most well known for playing Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.
In 1940, there was a movie made of her life which starred Henry Fonda.
Who is your favorite female entertainer?
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