The Scandalous Life of Lola Montez
The great writer Aldous Huxley said, “When you met Lola Montez, her reputation made you immediately think of bedrooms.”
Born in1818 in Limerick, Ireland, Lola was the daughter of an Irish soldier and a Spanish beauty. Her father was Ensign Edward Gilbert and her mother was the senorita Oliverres de Montalva. Lola was not yet Lola but she was born as Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert. Later, when she was to become infamous in Europe several rumors would fly about her birth; that she had been born in Madrid, Calcutta, Constantinople, and even that she was the illegitimate daughter of the poet Byron. At one point, Lola even claimed that she had been kidnapped by gypsies, who at their death refused to reveal the name of her true parents.
Lola’s make believe past was no match for her wild future. In 1822 her father was assigned to military duty in Calcutta and the entire family followed him to India. Ensign Gilbert died shortly after his arrival. In 1824 her mother remarried and Lola was brought back to England to be raised and educated. At age 18 an arranged marriage was set up where Lola was supposed to marry Sir Abraham Lumley, an 80 year old judge on the English Supreme Court. Lola had no desire to marry the much older gentleman and when a young officer, Lieutenant Thomas James was sent to plead the judges case she eloped with Mr. James. The newlywed couple went to India but their marital bliss was short lived. James eloped with Mrs. Lomer — the wife of a commanding officer. Lola returned to her family in London and soon became the mistress of Captain Lennox, aide-de-camp to Lord Elphinstone, the governor of India. Her husband, Thomas James, returned to England and dragged Lola through the courts for adultery. Because of all the negative publicity Lola’s mother went into mourning, wearing black and pretending that her daughter was dead.
Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert went to Madrid where she studied dance (for one month) and changed to the stage name of Lola Montez. She performed her notorious spider dance in London, Brussels, and Warsaw. It was while in Warsaw that she met a sixty year old reprobate named Poskievich who was more than happy to share his estate and jewels with the young lady. From there Lola went to St. Petersburg where she was rumored to have had an affair with Czar Nicolas the First of Russia, who gave her a pet bear.
This beautiful Irish/ Spanish lass had not even begun to break hearts yet. The French novelist, Alexander Dumas, described her as having an “evil eye” for all who loved her. She had a brief but torrid romance with the classical music composer Franz Liszt, causing Liszt to break up with his longtime mistress and the mother of his children. Once after a long quarrel, Liszt left their hotel room in a fit of rage but not before using the key to lock her in. Liszt boasted to his carriage driver, “It is true that I understand women. I have already paid for the furniture she will break when she discovers my absence.”
It was Liszt who took her to Paris. In Paris, Lola took to the stage and although the crowds admired her beauty they booed and hissed at her dancing. It was during her stay in Paris that she met Dumas and had a brief affair. Dumas introduced her to his friend, the noted journalist Charles Dujalier. Within a week the two had moved in together only to have Dujalier lose his life a short while later in an absurd duel. This death left Lola a very rich woman.
Lola was drawn towards mysticism and it was a clairvoyant who told her that she would “exercise much influence on a monarch and the destiny of a kingdom.” Lola sought and acquired an interview with King Leopold of Bavaria. Lola inspired plenty of bad royal poetry and acquired the title Countess of Landsfeld. She arrived in Bavaria during a time of civil unrest. Lola tried to use her influence with the king to bring about liberal social reforms. She also tried to close the Jesuits college a move which brought about the end of her stay in Bavaria. King Leopold was forced to banish Lola, pressured to declare that she was a witch. He even sent her to a mesmerist to have the evil spirits driven from her.
Lola returned to her family in England and had soon married for a second time. In this instance the lucky man was Cornet Heald but during her honeymoon her first husband, Thomas James, had her arrested for bigamy.
Lola fled to the Americas first to New York, then New Orleans, and finally in 1853 she came to San Francisco near the end of the gold rush. These were still wild days in California but the newspapers still found room to announce Lola’s presence with banner headlines. One newspaper declared her to be “The very comet of her sex.” There were some very good reasons for her very favorable publicity. During the ship voyage Lola was wined and dined by Patrick Hull, the assistant editor of the San Francisco Courier.
While in San Francisco, Lola took immediately to the stage, performing her notorious spider dance at the Jenny Lind Theater. Lola’s dance was stolen from Fanny Essler’s “Tarantule” and performed with spiders made of cork, rubber, and whalebone being shaken out of her skirt. Her dance costume was Spanish, with full, short skirts, under which she wore flesh colored tights. The dance began with Lola wandering onto the stage and quickly becoming entangled in a spider web. Then she would suddenly discover a spider on her skirt and attempt to shake it loose. Soon she would discover more and more spiders, shaking them from her petticoats and stomping them where they lay on the floor. By the time that Lola had shaken herself free of all the spiders and stomped them all into oblivion, she would bow to the thunderous applause of her audience.
One newspaper in San Francisco ran the following review:
“Spriggins told me there was something peculiar about the Countess’ dancing. There is Mr. Editor… Mr. Spriggins said the Spider Dance was to represent a girl that commences dancing and finds a spider on her clothes and jumps about to shake it off… She kicked up and she kicked around in all directions, and first it was this leg and then it was the other and her petticoats were precious short. The kicking match between Lola and the spiders caused this bashful observer to put his hat over his eyes and just peep over the brim and then a man upstairs began yelling, “Hey! Hey!” and soon everybody was yelling and I took my hat down from my eyes to see what was up. If the Countess wasn’t crazy, I don’t know what on earth was the matter with her. She seemed to get so excited like that she forgot that there was any man at all about there… At that point the audience began stomping on the floor and this shy observer ran out of the theater, frightened that the house would come down, or she’d take her dress right off, and I couldn’t stand it.”
“Why it is nothing to be afraid of when you get used to it,” says Spriggins, “and you went away before you saw it all.”
“But Mr. Editor, I saw more than I wanted to, and I ain’t used to it — that’s a fact.”
Lola Montez’ shows were fabulously successful. Some of the front row seats were auctioned off for as much as $65 dollars a seat; payable in cash or gold dust. Not all of the reviews were favorable however, some lampooned her greatly. A competing dramatic company even began to satirize Lola’s performances, including a man in drag performing the Spy-Dear dance in a play which was a parody of her European adventures. Humor was a devastating blow to the femme fatale character that Lola had created. She tried her hand at Shakespeare and this ended her career on the San Francisco stage.
She married Patrick Hull and the two of them moved to Grass Valley out near Sacramento. Hull soon tired of the rural life but remarkably Lola did not. She had her little exotic camp in Grass Valley where intellectuals and hangers on would attend festive teas. Celebrity guests included the nephews of Victor Hugo and a couple of obscure senators. Lola entertained her guests with her pet parrot and cut quite a striking figure in her nice clothes, and smoking a cigar. Lola also kept her pet bear on the premises and once after the bear had bit her, Lola’s loyal followers insisted on having it put on trial. In this quickly convened kangaroo court the bear was found innocent, because after all who could help but want to get a bite of Lola.
Lola performed one show in the Sacramento and it was something of a disaster. The love starved gold rush miners expected more out of Lola than she could deliver. Her haughty femme fatale character only drew guffaws from the miners. Lola stormed from the stage. The irate miners followed her to her hotel room where they stood beneath her balcony window and demanded their money back, threatening to riot. Suddenly, around midnight, the balcony doors swung open and out stepped the notorious Lola Montez holding a lantern.
Infuriated, Lola challenged the entire audience to a duel. “Apes,” she shouted, “Give me your pants and take my petticoats. You are not fit to be called men.”
The men cheered, spontaneously serenaded her, and then the mob dispersed peacefully.
It was while she was in Sacramento that Lola Montez made her greatest contribution to American Theater. Lola tutored the young Lotta Crabtree who began as a child star touring mining camps and later as an adult, she became America’s finest comedienne.
In 1855, Lola was lured to the next gold rush. This time the miners had struck it rich in Australia and Lola set sail. By this time Lola was getting older and the crowds were getting smaller. Her fame was still enough to bring in some revenue. When the money played out in Australia Lola attempted to revive her stage career with a tour of European theaters. The tour was a major flop. At last Lola came to rest in Brooklyn where she passed away in a flophouse in the Hell’s Kitchen section in 1861.
