Russell, Lillian [née Helen Louise Leonard] (1861–1922), singer and actress. The first great prima donna of the modern American musical stage, known to her admirers and the press as “Airy Fairy Lillian,” she was born in Clinton, Iowa, where her father was the owner and editor of the local newspaper. She grew up in Chicago and then New York, where she studied singing with Leopold Damrosch. Her professional debut was in the chorus of E. E.
Rice's 1879 production of
H.M.S. Pinafore. One year later Tony
Pastor hired her, gave her her stage name, and featured her in his vaudeville. It was in his travesties of
Olivette,
The Pirates of Penzance, and
Patience that Russell caught the eyes and ears of New York's critics and playgoers. Her performance in the
Patience parody led to her being cast in the Bijou Theatre's regular 1881 production of the comic opera, although her first major assignment had come several months earlier when she played the leading feminine role in Audran's
The Grand Mogul (also known as
The Snake Charmer). Between then and 1899 she appeared as the star of no fewer than twenty‐four musicals, many of them written expressly for her. These included
Polly (1885),
Pepita (1886),
Dorothy (1887),
The Grand Duchess (1889),
La Cigale (1891),
Princess Nicotine (1893),
La Périchole (1895),
The Tzigane (1895),
An American Beauty (1896), and
The Wedding Day (1897). In her prime, Russell was a gorgeous, well‐proportioned, if ample, blue‐eyed blonde. “Her voice,” wrote one of her biographers, “while never rich, was at least a clear, full‐throated, lyric soprano of true pitch and impressive quality.” At the same time she was notorious for not pay‐ing bills, for not honoring contracts, and for walking out both on her shows and her several husbands. When her popularity began to wane slightly, she joined Weber and Fields in their famous music hall, remaining with them until 1903. It was in their 1902 production
Twirly‐Whirly that she sang “Come Down, Ma Evenin' Star,” the only song she was ever to record. A musical version of
The School for Scandal was written for her in 1904 and called
Lady Teazle. Except for an appearance in the 1912
Weber and Fields reunion with
Hokey Pokey, it marked her last performance in a musical. She continued to act in vaudeville and in nonmusical plays until shortly before her death, but it was commonly accepted that she was living on her reputation. Biography:
Lillian Russell: A Biography of America's Beauty, Armond Fields, 1999.
