╗PARA │PAR@ ` ½TEXT ` ¥Russell, Lillian1861╨1922singer and actorBorn on December 4, 1861, in Clinton, Iowa, Helen Louise Leonard grew up and attended convent and private schools in Chicago. About 1877 or 1878 she was taken by her mother to New York City, where her early training in voice and violin was supplemented by a year of opera study under Leopold Damrosch. Her first stage role was in the chorus of a Brooklyn company performing H.M.S. Pinafore in 1879. In November 1880 she made her New York City debut under the name Lillian Russell at Tony Pastor╒s variety theater. During subsequent appearances for Pastor she continued her studies in voice and acting, and she then toured California as the lead in Babes in the Wood. Returning to New York City, she attained stardom as D╒Jemma in The Snake Charmer, a version of Edmond Audran╒s comic opera Le Grand Mogul, in October 1881, and she then played in Gilbert and Sullivan╒s Patience and The Sorcerer and Offenbach╒s The Princess of Trebizonde. By 1883 she was the prima donna of the McCaull Opera Company. She made her London debut at the Gaiety Theatre in July 1883 in Edward Solomon╒s Virginia and Paul and was a great success there in his Polly, or, the Pet of the Regiment the next year. Returning to the United States in 1884, Russell was in the news frequently because of her flamboyant personal life╤her marriage to Solomon in 1884 was annulled nine years later after his arrest for bigamy, two of her other three marriages ended in divorce, and she was for 40 years a frequent companion of Diamond Jim Brady. She also became known for her frequent contract disputes; at one time she sought an injunction to prevent any theater manager from requiring her to appear in silk tights. Celebrated for her beauty and her clear, pleasant soprano voice, she was dubbed ╥airy, fairy Lillian.╙ For a generation she was the feminine ideal incarnate. Her most difficult roles were in two Offenbach operas, as Fiorella in The Brigands in 1889, and in the title role in The Grand Duchess in 1890. During 1891╨1893 she headed the Lillian Russell Opera Company. Later, under other management, she appeared in such pieces as The Princess Nicotine, The Goddess of Truth, An American Beauty, and The Wedding Day, but the vogue of the sort of buxom beauty she had epitomized was passing. She joined Weber and Fields╒s burlesque company in 1899 and sang in their productions╤Whirligig, Fiddle-dee-dee, Hoity-Toity, Twirly-Whirly, and Whoop-dee-doo╤until they broke up in 1904. Her singing voice fading, Russell essayed straight comedy with Barbara╒s Millions in 1906 and was successful thereafter in other works in that genre, including The Butterfly, 1907, and Wildfire, 1908. After 1912 she appeared only rarely on the stage. She wrote articles on beauty for the women╒s pages of the Chicago Herald and the Chicago Tribune and in 1913 toured the country with a lecture on ╥How to Live a Hundred Years.╙ During World War I she was active in the Red Cross and in Liberty Loan campaigns, and in 1922 she toured Europe as a special investigator on immigration at the appointment of President Warren G. Harding. She died in Pittsburgh on June 6, 1922, 40 years short of her goal. µstyl ` > ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ - !I Ñ !I ┤ !I ╣ !I ╩ !I ╬ 5¬ ╧ !I !I !I J !I X !I Ö !I í !I ª !I ▓ !I ├ !I ▌ !I p !I ü !I º !I ╔ !I ┌ 5¬ █ !I n 5¬ o !I ╡ !I ┴ !I Σ !I ⌡ !I ~ !I ô !I ò !I ⌐ !I ½ !I ╜ !I ├ !I ╥ !I u !I ~ !I Ç !I Ä !I É !I ¢ !I ¥ !I ¬ !I ░ !I ╛ !I ▄ 5¬ ▌ !I
