Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-12
ACTRESSES
Whose Photographs Sell Readily-PattI'
Bernhard and Materna, and Maud
Branscome Much Admired, but
Mary Anderson Understands the Business
Better and Poses TO Better Advantage
-Geistinger aud Nilsson.

"The business of photogrsphing actresses"
said a prominent dealer in stage pictures 10
a New York Times reporter recently, was
started In this city fifteen or twenty years
ago. For some years the pictures nao an
eItr aordinsry sale at high prices, and up to
the present time their popularity has been
consta ntly on the increase. The business
has, however, for some time past ceased to
be very profitable to the first class photogra-
pliers who produce the originals, owing TO
The fact that thousands OF cheap copies have
been thrown on the market, and people Will
scarcely pay fifty cents for picture when
they can get the same thing, with little
less finish, for five cents. The demand has
now grown to be universal, and every peddler
and small shopkeeper has In his stock the
likenesses of half the actresses in the country
in every possible variety of pose. OF course,
many Of the photographs airs copyrighted, but
the dealers in the cheap pictures easily over
come that difficulty in the case OF foreign
star by sending abroad for her likeness,
there being no International copyright law;
and in the case Of domestic beauty, all
her pictures cannot we'll be copyrighted. it
being too expensive to pay. A New York
photographer is said to have paid Oscar
Wilde $500 for the exclusive right to take
that aesthetic gentlemsn's portrait and to
present him in his various bewildering atti-
tudes to the American public. Nine. Patti
and Materna are said to have received the
same amount, and Sarah Bernhardt $500 1t
Is reported that Mrs. Langtry has already
consented for like consideration to permit
the same artist to perpetuaie her lovely
features by the aid Of high lights and SEN
sitive plate.
THE actress whose photographs are most
in demand at present" continued the Pho
tographer, sis Mary Anderson. She has sat
for her picture more times than any other
woman that ever lived. She is shrewd
business woman, and her photographs are a
great advertisement for her. Besides, she
doubtless receives large royalties from the
sale of her pictures. 1t is no exaggeration
to say that her photographs outsell those OF
any other actress ten TO one. She has been
taken, il may be thousand times, by every
frsl-class photographer in the country, in
every possible attitude and char>e.sT. phe
underst. TING arI OF being photographed.
Sae knows how to pose and what expression
TO assume. Many women pretty as she lose
their beauty in q picture. Maud Branscome
is not remarkably handsome, but her photo
graphs are works of art. The wonderful
sale Of Mary Anderson's pictures is dne,
however, more 10 her popularity with
the people than to anything else. This
is what determines the sale of a pho
the thousands. He is not particularly good
looking, but he is very popular. Beecner
always sells well, and Talmage used TO have
heavy sale, especially a caricaiu-e called
sralmags on HE'LL which Represented him
with his mouth wide open, pounding the
pulpit. But somehow he has gone of, and
the last time / went down East they said
For Gods sake don't bring us any more oil
him.
"The popular actors cell we'll, too; men
like Booth, Mccullough, Barrett and EN-
met, and of literary celebrities, Mark Twain,
Bret Harte, Bry ant, Emerson aud Longfellow
command ready sale. But Of the actresses,
as said, Mary Anderson is away ahead
After her comes Fanny Davenport, Kate
Claxton, Lolita, Annie Pixley, Catherine
Lewis, Maud Granger, and others whose
names don't occur TO me at the moment
Lillian Russell is a new star who sells well
too. When an actress gets married the sale
of her pictures invariably falls. When Bern
hardt came to this country, the demand fol
her pictures became enormous. No less thar
100000 copies were sold while che was here
When she went away the sales died off al
once. 1t is the same way with all foreign
stars-PAtti, Geisuuger, Nilsson and the rest
when they are away their photographs do
not sell.
"Nothing has ever found 80 extraordinary
market as the G ,rfield pictures. Tue day
after the president died th > rush for them
that had characterized his illness was
trebled. I want 100000 cheap photo
gradhs of Gen. Garfield and family, in all
the styles you have, at forty-eight hours
notice. i couldn't supply him, OF course,
but / kept 800 negatives running, got out
10000 day for three months, and couldn't
begin to fill the orders.
"The best pictures of variety actresses are
made by Boston photographers and in San
Francisco. About six years ago this class
| of picture came greatly into vogue, and the
ingenuity at the photographers was ex.
hausted 10 the effort to invent new poses and
attractive novelties in undress. The popu,
| larity of these pictures Is undiminished
Vast numbers of them sell, and the face Of
every pretty votary of the so-called lyric
stage is familiar to the very street urchin
| through the medium of the shop
windows and the stalls on which theil
licensees are exposed for sale at five
cents piece. OF variety actresses, LYDIA
| Thompson for long time took the lead. with
Pauline Markham, whose figure was pro-
| nounced by George Francis Train the finest
he had ever seen. Mabel Stanley, of the
Rentz-Stanley molasses blondes, Lulu Morti.
mer, Asline Stanley, and other stars of the
bOufs, all sold we'll, and Dolly Adams, the
water-queen, whose figure was displayed in
an Abbreviated bathing suit with absoiu
fidelity to natures outlines. When the Sol
dene Troupe created such a fIrore in 1876
the photographs of the various members OF
the company sold largely, and no young
mans dressing-table was complete without
two or three. Large numbers were sold at
Yale and II avard, where the young men
went wild over the troup,, club being
formed at the latter institution of learning
called the sPicuic Club" whose orgsniz ion
only continued during the time Solene and
her company were in town, and whose object
was TO make every night during their stay in
Boston pilgrimage TO the theater where
they performed, there to occupy the boxes
and the front rows in the parquet, and to
act the part of a very disorderly claque. In
regard to variety actresses, the popular taste
has seemed 10 run aluo't entirely 10 limbs,
as if people must always see as much for
their money as possible. With dresses that
begin low and end high, aud with barely
enough clothing to make nakedness visible,
the dira of the boufe extravaganza has
learned TO depend on her shaps for her sue
cess. Often the line of conventional pro-
priety is drawn very fine indeed, to overstep
which would render the photogra phe. anne o.
able TO the law and subject him TO the at
tention of Mr.. Anthony Comstock. To sat
isfy the morbid taste of pictorial immortality
several really frst-rafe photographers, nota-
ably one in Boston, publish certain class
of pictures anonymously through the whole
sale dealers, who sell them ON the ely.
=@"Of opera singers those whose pictures
have sold beet are Kellogg, Gerster, Patti,
Vslleria, Minnie Hauk, Nilsson and Cam
panini. Some actresses will not permit their
photographs to be sold, but they are rare.
Nine. Thee's picture was taken by Mora, but
che will not have it sold. However, we just
sent over to Paris for photograph OF her
and copied it, so that a poor picture of her
sold instead OF good one.