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Gary
Borders, publisher of the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, came across
a reference in a publication from New York to the nation's "first
sex symbol," a lady who rode naked upon a horse. Gary asked for the
"rest of the story." One of the yields of long life is a memory chocked
with random information. I recalled the lady but not the name; a query
to good friend Ab Abernethy, who asked his wife Hazel, yielded the
lady's name: Adah Isaacs Menken.
All three of us remembered articles written by the late Lucille Fain
about Menken and her "bare all" performance. We also are indebted
to Pamela Palmer and Thurman Wilkins, who wrote more recent articles
about this "Lady Godiva." |
Adah Isaacs Menken
at age19
Wikimedia Commons |
For
a lady who revealed so much of herself physically, Menken left various
trails about her past. Consensus has decided that Menken was born
near Chartrain, Louisiana, in 1835, but at least one historian thinks
this miracle occurred in Nacogdoches.
She is identified ethnically as Creole, Jewish, Spanish, quadroon,
and various combinations. She was married seven times--or was it only
four husbands?--but a marriage registration in Livingston,
Texas, argues for the first occurring there, to Alexander Isaac
Menken. Her birth name was Adah, but sometimes she was called Adele,
even Delores.
What seems certain is that nature blessed Menken with the figure of
a goddess but limited talent for her official profession, the theatre.
The image of Jayne Mansfield comes to mind.
Menken began performing with a circus -- riding a horse, a skill significant
for her later fame -- first acted in a theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana,
and was on the stage in New York by 1859. I remember a song from "Showboat"
that applies: "Life Upon The Wicked Stage Is Nothing For A Girl."
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Adah Isaacs Menken
Wikimedia Commons |
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Menken
acted in various plays, marriages, and love affairs, and scandals
left her with a tarnished reputation. Apparently reasoning the name
the same as the game, she exploited her notoriety by accepting a
part in "Mazeppa," a play based on a poem by Lord Byron.
In the part, her costume apparently consisted only of a cloak that
often parted to reveal Menken wearing a flesh-colored body suit,
but in the theatre lights, it looked as if she wore only her birthday
suit. The finale featured an apparently naked Menken, lashed astride
a horse that galloped about the stage.
Well. I tell you, Menken owned that town for a while, then took
her show on the road. She attracted large crowds in American cities
and in London, and also considerable condemnation from enforcers
of Victorian morality. Naturally, that was good for business, too.
I wish this story had a happier ending. While still the rage, Menken
moved on to Paris and Vienna to more triumph. But back in London,
those who came to see the "naked lady of Nacogdoches" ride her horse
apparently had seen enough, and her show closed. She died alone
in August 1868, in Paris, of tuberculosis complicated by peritonitis.
Was Menken
ever in Nacogdoches?
No one knows. But just the other day there was this girl on a horse...
© Archie
P. McDonald, PhD
All
Things Historical Dec.
8, 2002 column, modified Oct. 21, 2012
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
Related Topics:
Texas
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Texas Theatres
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