LOLA MONTEZ

One woman who visited the Australian goldfields was the notorious and colourful entertainer, Lola Montez, born in Ireland in 1818 - real name (Dolores?) Eliza Gilbert. After an unsuccessful career start as a dancer in Belgium and Poland, she became the mistress of Franz Liszt, as well as becoming a major influence on Ludwig 1 of Bavaria (who made her a countess and a baroness). She then went to America, singing and dancing in New Orleans and the Californian goldfields.

Lola Montez

PICTURE: A CONTEMPORARY LITHOGRAPH OF LOLA MONTEZ




She came to Ballarat in 1855. Though popular with miners, her notorious "Spider Dance" was denounced and she attacked Ballarat newspaper editor Harry Seekamp with a whip because of his criticism of her.

William Craig, an Irish immigrant, attended one of her dramatic performances. In his memoir, My Adventures on the Australian Goldfields (published in London in1903), he wrote:

There is no mistaking the leading "star" when she makes her appearance. She has evidently inherited the best points of her aristocrative father and her handsome Creole mother. One has only to look at her magnificent dark, flashing eyes, her willowy form, the traces of former beauty, and her lithe, active movements to see that one is in the presence of a very remarkable woman, and it is not hard to believe that she should have been able to bewitch a king and cost him his throne. After her expatriation from Munich she gravitated to California, and again went on the boards. She soon tired of 'Frisco, and now we have her on Bendigo.

The burst of applause that greeted Lola's appearance has subsided, and scarcely a sound is heard but the voice of the speaker as she takes up her part. The diggers are intently watching her. Most of them are conversant with her parentage and antecedents. Although announced as sensational by the bellman and the written notice, the piece is tame and unedifying to most of those present. The subordinate members of the company are amusingly deficient in their parts - the voice of the promptor being distinctly audible in every part of the building, and provoking at times uproarious mirth. Lola's delivery is somewhat imperfect, and not clearly understood by many of her patrons. But they are in a good-natured mood. She is a stranger and a foreigner, and they exhibit an amount of forbearance for shortcomings that is often found wanting in more select theatrical assemblages".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (entry for January 2008):

"On June 30, 1860 - living in New York - she suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed for some time. In mid-December she had recovered enough to walk with a slight limp and went out for a stroll in the cold weather. Her life as a courtesan was over, and her money was by now gone. Lola began to seek out the word of God. In her dying days, she was cared for by a priest - though she reportedly determined first that he was not a Jesuit, having many bad memories of that order- not least from some of those who had held key posts at Ludwig's court.

She contracted pneumonia, lingering for nearly a month before dying one month short of her fortieth birthday. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York where her age tombstone states: "Mrs. Eliza Gilbert / Died Jan. 17, 1861;" it also reads that she was 42 at time of death".

FURTHER NOTES

An Australian musical comedy, Lola Montez, by Peter Stannard, Peter Benjamin and Alan Burke, focuses on the time she spent in Ballarat.

The Elizabethan Theatre Trust production was the first Australian original cast recording of a musical, and the first album produced in stereo in this country. It was originally issued on the Columbia label (EMI No.S330EX 9262) in 1958, but has long been difficult to obtain. A restoration of the recording was re-issued on CD in June 2000 on the "Bayview" label available through Middle Eight Music in Melbourne - Phone (03) 9510 5109.

A revival of the show was the theatre feature of the 1997 Ballarat Begonia Festival.