Morris tribune., 1885-03-18
POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHS.
Pictures of Humanity and How They sen
to the Public-Great Men Ignored nut
6s Great Women In Demand.

~ L J
Twenty-Five wears ago when cartes de
yisite were all the rage, every man,
woman, and child, no matter how
humble their means, owned an album
in which tiny pictures were preserved
At that time the three chief picture
takers of this country were Brady,
Fredericks, and Quincy. Mr.. Brady,
as the files of the Herald abundantly
disclose, began collection OF local,
national, and universal celebrities,
which, shortly after the breaking out
of our civil war, he removed to Was IL
ington, whence, as a base, OF opera
tons, he sent with every great army
corps his representatives to preserve In
pictorial form records of the great bat
ties of the day, with portraits of the
men who participated in them. That
vast collection is somewhere stored,
but at present makes no figure IN the
public eye. ,U.
Some years ago the new style OF
picture. called the imperial, was in
PRODUCED. At first it found but little
favor, as there were no albums large
enough to contain pictures of that size.
Other artists followed, and as art and
science kept pace with capital new
galleries We're formed, until to-day the
entire city is sprinkled with frames
containing portraits, pictures of va
rious kinds, and of all sorts and sizes,
done for miraculously small sums OF
money. Instantaneous photographs
are speciality with some, babies
pictures occupy the time of others,
groupings utilize the eye OF this expert.
and fancy portraiture enlists the talent
of that.
In an interview with well-known
photographer he said: The first
popular demand, in my experience,
occurred along about the time when
Beecher, Wendell Phillips, Garrison,
and their friends were prominent in
the public eye, but the sale OF photo
graphs to any extent, so far as my eX-
perience goes. did not begin until
along about 1866. The first women
for whose pictures there was any noted
demand were Fanny Davenport, Clara
Morris. and Adelaide Nelson. Very
few pictures were sold of Ristori, but
thousands were sold of Miss Davens
port, and other thousands of Miss
Morris, although the greatest favorite
of early times was Adelaide Nelson. l
never shall forget the first time she
sat for me. She was dressed in her
magnificent Juliet costume, and as she
turned quickly one breadth of her ex-
quisite dress caught the charcoal on a
frame behind, and by it was absolutely
ruined. Thr wing up her hands and
her eyes at the same time, she said, ~
dear! what shall 1 do? My dress is
ruined!' | suggested, after examina~
ton, that all She would need was a
single breadth, whereupon she became
uuieted and sat for pictures, thousands
and tens of thousands of which were
sold.'
do you still sell pictures of Neil
son?'
Yes. many thousands and thou
sands of them
Did you pay her anything for that
privilege"
'.Certainly not. The first person !
ever paid was Sarah Bernhardt. y
,"How much did you give her?'
Fifteen hundred dollars at first, and
l sold thousands and tens of thousands
of her pictures, on European orders as
well as local orders. 1t is singular
fact in connection with this sale of
photographs that in Europe, as soon as
a celebrity dies, the orders for his or
her pictures increase maFVeiously,
while here it is exactly the reverse.
For instance?"
..Well, take the case of Horace
Greeley. A few months prior to his
death his picture sold very rapidly,
and the presses were kept going all the
time, but as soon as he died the de-
mand fell off, and now we don't sell
one picture of his where in other days
we sold thousand. The same is true
of Farragut, who at one time was very
popular, but now we rarely, if ever, iIl=
deed, are asked for one of his pictures"
r. elbow about Patti?'
"Oh, Patti sells enormously, and
will until she dies. She poses easily
and gracefully, and makes a very fair
portrait as well as pretty picture"
'Did you have to pay her anything
for the privilege"
"Oh, yes; $1,000. But one of TIE
greatest cards of recent years is Mrs
Langtry. We have sold SO many pict-
ures of her l should really be afraid to
make an estimate, but scores of thou
sands of her photographs are sold every
year" ,-. - !. .- ....
Did you pay her anything for the
privilege?' -s.
eyes; $1,000, of which $1,000 were
paid in cash and $500 in works of art. "
"But these are all women. Don't
you ever sell pictures of men?'' .-.....
eyes; but men as rule don't sell as
we'll as women, if they are great pepu5
lar favorites. 1t seems more difficult
to work them off A popular actress,
a successful singer, attracts admira-
ton as we'll as homage, and everybody
appears to want to have her picture,
whereas a man as rule, nobody cares
any thing about. The two great ex-
ceptions were Montague, formerly of
Wallack's, and George Rignold, who,
you remember, played here as Henry
V. Why, it was with difficulty we
could keep pace with our orders.
Schoolgirls from all over the country,
young women everywhere, wanted
their pictures. The craze-I can
hardly call it anything else-of admira-
ton for those people reminded me of
the admiration that in olden times fol-
lowed Lester Wallack and George
Jordan, the two ha1dsomest men in
the city"
did you ever pay percentage to any
MANI"
~ eyes; I paid Oscar Wilde percent.
age, and for a time his pictures sold
with marvellous rapidity; in fact, it
would be surprising to know how many
photographs of that man were taken
from one end of the country to the
other Perhaps the greatest favorite
that we have ever known, however,
was Mary Anderson. Her pictures in
every style, in every position, meet
with instant popular favor on both
sides of the Atlantic. In Europe she
sells fast, and here it would be I'M
possible to exaggerate the demand"
GLOW about the opera-bouffe sing
ersP''
"Well. opera-bouffe singers as a