Lillian Russell - Come Down Ma Evenin' Star

Lillian Russell was a very popular singer and performer of her era. Considered the ideal of beauty, she had strong opinions about priorities, and was often annoyed at people who fawned over her looks.

The following is taken from a 1914 newspaper interview:

"[Russell thanks the interviewer out of the blue.] "What for?" I inquired.

"For not having asked me a single question about the way I preserve my good looks. Everyone always asks that first. For a few minutes you have let me forget my face, and I want to forget it. I get very tired of it--very, very tired of it. I hate a mirror sometimes.
"What, after all, is there great in being beautiful? To be a great woman, a great person, one must have suffered, even suffered in great crises. What have I done that I should be famous--nothing but powdered a bit gently the cheeks that God gave me and smoothed the hair that I was born with, laughed and proven a faultless set of teeth. Any grinning idol, well painted, can do as well, but the real women, the big women, are those who toil and never write of it, those who labor and never cry of it, those who forfeit all and never seek reward. Begin this article with the name Lillian Russell, but end it with the name of such as was Cynthia Leonard." "

Russell later became an advocate for woman's suffrage.

(Picture credits go to many websites via google search! :D )

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lillian
• Russell
• vintage
• victorian
• opera
• minstrel
• old
• recording

[PlusSizeAngel]

Gorgeous pictures. And it was wonderful to read that she seemed to have something between her ears. too.

[meandrousart]

That's the best part. : D And I love the old fashioned way of speaking "What, after all, is there great in being beautiful?" I wish I knew how to phrase things that way. Sometimes I wonder if I might be able to try culturing my voice a little. Wouldn't it be great to speak so elegantly?

[irismcooper]

Alice Faye played Lillian Russell in a movie for which I cannot remember title.

Lillian Russell was so pretty, pretty.

Meandrousart, thank you for sharing these vintage clipings with all of us.

Iris

[meandrousart]

<3 I was lucky to have found it somewhere online, but now I don't remember where! x...x

[grlykool]

Uhm she had a "typical" hollywood life, married a lot, lots of lovers. But yeah it was great people didn't have to be waifs. People back then were no more moral than we are now. They just had more tact about it.

[Deb545]

I just finished watching the movie of Lillian Russell with Alice Faye entitled "Lillian Russell". Excellent film and I didn't even know until the film was finished that she really did exist!!

[smenkare27]

I love this song--I have used it many times in recital and it never fails!

[ducdebrabant]

This was recorded after she was no longer in her vocal prime, and had given up singing operetta in favor of doing plays and singing in vaudeville (where the load wasn't so heavy). She sounds pretty good to me, but I'd love to know what she sounded one or two decades earlier.

[cooledge47]

Wow she was beautiful. And this song was so peaceful and I felt like I was there in the 1900's.

[Onlymusical]

How did she preserve her good looks?

[gmmix]

This really is a very special posting. Thanks much for providing it. Russell appeared three times in my hometown of Reading, PA, the last time of which she was no longer a young woman.  No matter, the locals flocked to the Academy of Music to get whatever seats were available. Tickets sold out in three hours. 300 were willing to stand.

[opelske]

@Spikesjade

Lucky you! Have you read that early bio from the 1930's? The author (can't remember his name) wrote bios of Lillian and also Diamond Jim Brady. I love the vaudeville era and especially collect items relating to Lillian Russell and Diamond Jim Brady. I have two shelves devoted to them, with dainty hankerchiefs, her only record that she made, the early bio, the new bio, etc. Lovely, graceful lady that she was!

[opelske]

@gaberadvansky

By the turn of the 19th Century, the Gibson Girl was in and the meatier look was out. At least back then it was more about fashion. No one called it a disease. She sure was beautiful!

[Spikesjade]

I found out a couple of years ago that I am related to her and I am proud. She is beatuiful and smart and fought for women's right like her mom did before her.

[irismcooper]

Thank you so much for that information. She really looked like a Gibson Girl.

Iris