Throwback Thursday
by chuckofish
Did you know that Lillie Langtry visited St. Louis in January, 1883? Well, she did and she caused quite a stir. St. Louisans, we are told, were “agog over her presence” and why wouldn’t they be? Oscar Wilde, it was said, was inspired by her beauty to write Lady Windemere’s Fan. Daughter of an Anglican dean, the Very Reverend William Corbet Le Breton, Langtry was one of the first international superstars.
When Col. A.B. Cunningham, an editor of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, was denied access to her quarters at the Southern Hotel for an interview, he stormed past her servants to find the lady breakfasting en negligee with Fred Gebhard, her manager. The Globe ran a scathing story about the actress, claiming that her success was due soley to her notoriety and urging St. Louisans to ban her stage performances as a protection to the city’s morals. Gebhard called Cunningham an infamous liar, whereupon Cunningham challenged him to a duel. After Lillie persuaded Fred not to accept, Cunningham posted placards around town denouncing him as a coward. The city’s other newspapers had a grand time writing of the whole affair, and Lillie’s performances were sold out.
Some things never change, right? Our expectations of the press certainly…
Anyway, all this talk of Lillie Langtry made me think of the The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) which stars Paul Newman as the infamous Bean,
who is obsessed with “the Jersey Lilly”. Langtry is played by the beautiful Ava Gardner, who makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film.
The movie, directed by John Huston, is a bit strange, but I saw it again recently and I enjoyed it. There is a lot of humor in the screenplay by John Milius, but the underlying tone is sad and elegiac and the music by Maurice Jarre supports that. Paul Newman raises the bar once again. So if you are looking for something to watch, check it out.
Meanwhile I’ll raise a toast tonight to the lovely Lille Langtry.
(Information regarding Langtry’s visit to St. Louis from Frances Hurd Stadler, St. Louis Day By Day)
dual personalities 
She certainly has a tiny, tiny waist! How can she breathe? I’ll have to watch Judge Roy Bean again — I remember finding it weird and kind of boring until the end which made me cry!
Such a tiny waist! And very interesting!