Alice Atherton

Alice Atherton (born Alice Atherton Hogan, c. 1854; died February 4, 1899) was an American dancer, comedian, actress, and theatrical performer whose career spanned the late nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Cincinnati to William Hogan (1827–1907), a Kentucky-born brush maker, and Sarah Bennett, she began performing as a child, appearing as a baby in a production of The Sea of Ice at Robinson's Opera House in Cincinnati. Some obituaries listed her birthplace as St. Louis, which was the city of her marriage. Atherton demonstrated a natural gift for impersonation from an early age, a talent that would define much of her professional identity throughout her career.

Her rise to prominence came through her association with Lydia Thompson, the English dancer, comedian, actress, and theatrical producer credited with introducing Victorian burlesque to the United States in August 1868. Thompson recruited Atherton as one of her company for Ixion, her first American production, which combined wit, parody, song, dance, and spectacle and achieved considerable acclaim. The show also drew fierce criticism from those who considered it to transgress the boundaries of propriety, and a wave of anti-burlesque sentiment in the New York press during the summer of 1869 drove middle-class audiences away and sent the Thompson troupe on tour across the United States and Canada. Atherton's Broadway appearances between 1870 and 1872 included Ixion alongside Chow Chow, Luna, Dick Whittington and his Cat, and Lucretia Borgia, M.D. Further productions such as Sinbad followed, and Atherton developed a reputation across the 1870s through the 1890s as a versatile performer equally capable as a comic singer, a virtuoso whistler, and a mimic. Her laughing song became her signature piece and earned her the informal designation of Laughing Alice.

It was during the Thompson company's engagement at Wood's Museum in New York in October and November 1870 that Atherton, then approximately sixteen years old, first performed alongside William Frederick Bryer, an English performer who worked under the stage name Willie Edouin. The two married on December 27, 1873, in St. Louis, and together became fixtures of the Coville burlesque companies. Edouin organized the entertainment Dreams, or Fun in the Photograph Gallery, a piece constructed to showcase Atherton's skill for impersonation and one that helped establish the comic skit as a recognized stage form. In 1878 she attracted the attention of producer Edward E. Rice and made a notable impression as the squaw in his burlesque Hiawatha, an association that continued for the succeeding two decades. During this period she also performed alongside James T. Powers, and her image appeared on promotional picture cards issued between 1880 and 1892 by Thomas H. Hall Tobacco to advertise Bravo Cigarettes, examples of which are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Atherton relocated to London with her husband in 1883 and spent the greater part of the final fifteen years of her career performing in British music halls. The German-born British composer and conductor Meyer Lutz wrote the song Eyes of English Blue for her during this period. In 1885 she appeared at the Prince's Theatre in Bristol and the Novelty Theatre in London in The Japs; or, The Doomed Daimio, a burlesque by Harry Paulton and Mostyn Teddea, sharing the stage with Harriet Vernon, Lionel Brough, and Edouin. On February 25, 1888, Edouin began his first managerial tenure at the Royal Strand Theatre, producing Katti, the Family Help, in which both he and Atherton played lead roles. In 1894 Atherton starred as Jane in Jaunty Jane Shore at the same theatre. She returned to the American vaudeville stage in 1897, setting aside the tights associated with her burlesque career in favor of skirts for her new engagements.

Atherton and Edouin had two daughters, May Atherton, born February 18, 1875, and Daisy Atherton, born September 30, 1876, both in London. Both daughters pursued theatrical careers under their mother's stage surname. Daisy appeared in Broadway productions including The Torch-Bearers and later performed in Vitaphone Varieties during the 1920s. Atherton's sister Lavinia Hogan performed under the name Venie Atherton and maintained an active stage career on both sides of the Atlantic until 1926.

Atherton died on February 4, 1899, of pneumonia at her apartment in the Hotel Audubon at 1416 Broadway in New York City. Her illness had begun with a cold contracted approximately a month earlier in Boston, which forced her to cancel engagements in Boston and Brooklyn as well as a final week's booking at Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater. She had been moved from the Clarendon Hotel in Brooklyn to the Hotel Audubon the previous Sunday and died at 7:30 in the morning following a sudden deterioration after her condition had appeared to be improving. Her funeral service was held at the Little Church Around the Corner. The Chicago Tribune on February 5, 1899, described her as an actress of merit best known for her laughing song, and the London Illustrated News also marked her passing the following week.