the sharp-witted American impresario who had made the offer – that he never haggled about terms, proved to be an idle one as far as Lillie was concerned. She haggled until he agreed to give her the same terms as he had given Sarah Bernhardt the year before. Abbey knew that she would be worth it. The denunciation of Sarah Bernhardt from almost every pulpit in the United States had filled Abbey's pockets most gratifyingly; there was no reason, he reckoned, why the appearance of the Prince of Wales's mistress should not prove equally rewarding.
And so it did. The crowds that flocked, not only to see Lillie's arrival in New York on 23 October 1882, but to theatres throughout the country, came to satisfy their prurient curiosity, not to pay homage to great art. Lillie might parry journalists' questions about her relationship with the Prince of Wales but this never stopped newspaper cartoonists from depicting the two of them in suggestive situations. A particularly telling cartoon showed Lillie downstage, with the footlights throwing her shadow, shaped like the Prince of Wales, on the curtain behind. 'The shadow that draws the American dollars' ran the caption.
But the American public had no need to rely on reminders of her past romance for their thrills. Before many weeks had passed, Lillie was supplying New Yorkers with fresh grounds for gossip. Never one to turn her back on a wealthy admirer, the twenty-nine-year-old Lillie took up with a dark, good-looking, twenty-two-year-old multimillionaire named Freddie Gebhard. For the next few years Gebhard was her constant companion. They were seen everywhere together. 'He became famous in two continents,' Lillie afterwards announced, 'because I loved him.' 1 The boot, in fact, was on the other foot: it was Freddie Gebhard who was in love with Lillie. There was apparently nothing that the besotted young man would not do for her. He bought her expensive jewellery, he paid for her sumptuous clothes, he set her up in a luxurious house in West Twenty-third Street and, most generously of all, he provided the means of travel with which she was to become most closely associated in the minds of her vast public: the $250,000 railway carriage known as 'Lalee' which carried her across the States on her many tours.
The word 'Lalee', Lillie assures us, means 'flirt' in some unspecified Indian dialect (one would have described Lillie herself as something more than a flirt) and 'Lalee' was certainly the last word in luxurious travel. The carriage was seventy-five feet long, with a white roof, a 'gorgeously' blue exterior decorated with wreaths of golden lilies, polished teak platforms, a salon with walls covered in green and cream brocade, a bedroom whose
eau de nil
walls, ceiling and furniture were padded to resist the shock of a collision, a bathroom with silver fittings and rose-coloured curtains, two guest compartments, a maid's compartment, a pantry and a kitchen. Underneath were ice chests, big enough to accommodate a whole stag. With Lillie travelled her English butler and several maids.
In this palace-on-wheels (the rest of her company were accommodated in much humbler carriages) Lillie travelled the length and breadth of the country, bringing to many far-flung communities if not exactly culture, then certainly excitement. During the six years that she spent touring the United States, Lillie played everything from Shakespeare (one tactful critic described her Lady Macbeth as 'astounding') to contemporary drawing room comedies. Mr Bancroft had long ago told her, Lillie would say airily, to ignore all reviews: 'it is always best to await the criticism which is supplied by the box-office receipts.' 2
Whatever her limitations, Lillie always gave value for money. If the town had no theatre, she would act on some rigged-up stage. Sheplayed to audiences of gold miners and cowboys just as happily as she did to overdressed socialites in New York, Chicago or San Francisco. In her elegant clothes
And so it did. The crowds that flocked, not only to see Lillie's arrival in New York on 23 October 1882, but to theatres throughout the country, came to satisfy their prurient curiosity, not to pay homage to great art. Lillie might parry journalists' questions about her relationship with the Prince of Wales but this never stopped newspaper cartoonists from depicting the two of them in suggestive situations. A particularly telling cartoon showed Lillie downstage, with the footlights throwing her shadow, shaped like the Prince of Wales, on the curtain behind. 'The shadow that draws the American dollars' ran the caption.
But the American public had no need to rely on reminders of her past romance for their thrills. Before many weeks had passed, Lillie was supplying New Yorkers with fresh grounds for gossip. Never one to turn her back on a wealthy admirer, the twenty-nine-year-old Lillie took up with a dark, good-looking, twenty-two-year-old multimillionaire named Freddie Gebhard. For the next few years Gebhard was her constant companion. They were seen everywhere together. 'He became famous in two continents,' Lillie afterwards announced, 'because I loved him.' 1 The boot, in fact, was on the other foot: it was Freddie Gebhard who was in love with Lillie. There was apparently nothing that the besotted young man would not do for her. He bought her expensive jewellery, he paid for her sumptuous clothes, he set her up in a luxurious house in West Twenty-third Street and, most generously of all, he provided the means of travel with which she was to become most closely associated in the minds of her vast public: the $250,000 railway carriage known as 'Lalee' which carried her across the States on her many tours.
The word 'Lalee', Lillie assures us, means 'flirt' in some unspecified Indian dialect (one would have described Lillie herself as something more than a flirt) and 'Lalee' was certainly the last word in luxurious travel. The carriage was seventy-five feet long, with a white roof, a 'gorgeously' blue exterior decorated with wreaths of golden lilies, polished teak platforms, a salon with walls covered in green and cream brocade, a bedroom whose
eau de nil
walls, ceiling and furniture were padded to resist the shock of a collision, a bathroom with silver fittings and rose-coloured curtains, two guest compartments, a maid's compartment, a pantry and a kitchen. Underneath were ice chests, big enough to accommodate a whole stag. With Lillie travelled her English butler and several maids.
In this palace-on-wheels (the rest of her company were accommodated in much humbler carriages) Lillie travelled the length and breadth of the country, bringing to many far-flung communities if not exactly culture, then certainly excitement. During the six years that she spent touring the United States, Lillie played everything from Shakespeare (one tactful critic described her Lady Macbeth as 'astounding') to contemporary drawing room comedies. Mr Bancroft had long ago told her, Lillie would say airily, to ignore all reviews: 'it is always best to await the criticism which is supplied by the box-office receipts.' 2
Whatever her limitations, Lillie always gave value for money. If the town had no theatre, she would act on some rigged-up stage. Sheplayed to audiences of gold miners and cowboys just as happily as she did to overdressed socialites in New York, Chicago or San Francisco. In her elegant clothes
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