Pauline Markham

Pauline Markham, born Margaret Hall or Hale in England in May 1847 and died 20 March 1919, was an Anglo-American dancer and contralto singer who worked the burlesque and vaudeville stages of the latter nineteenth century. She trained as a singer under Manuel García at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and critic Richard Grant White later described her voice as vocal velvet and her arms as the lost arms of the Venus de Milo. Her Broadway career spanned from 1868 to 1890, encompassing productions including Ixion, Lurline, Christopher Columbus, or the Discovery of America, Chow Chow, and Luna.

Markham began performing as a child, taking principal boy parts at the Princess Theatre in Manchester. Her London debut came on 15 November 1867 at the Queen's Theatre, where she played Rose in Wigan's The First Night. She returned to the same venue the following June for another Wigan production, Time and the Hour. Later that year she joined Lydia Thompson's company of British Blondes and traveled with the troupe to New York, where they opened on 28 September 1868 at Wood's Museum on Broadway at 30th Street in the burlesque Ixion, or the Man at the Wheel. In the piece Markham portrayed the goddess Venus opposite Thompson's King Ixion, and the production ran for 102 combined matinee and evening performances before closing on 26 December 1868. The British Blondes are credited with introducing Victorian burlesque to American audiences, and Markham's early years with the company brought her considerable fame.

The following February she joined Thompson for a long run at Niblo's Garden in Forty Thieves, a burlesque of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. In August 1869 she appeared at the Union Square Theatre, then known as the Grand Theatre Tammany, playing the central role of Florizel in The Queen of Hearts, or Harlequin; the Knave of Hearts, that Stole the Tarts, and the Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe. By October 1869 the press reported that investments had made Markham a fortune on Wall Street, a period during which she was earning upwards of $150 per week at a time when an experienced actor might expect $50 for a week's work.

On 17 October 1870 Markham opened with Thompson at Wood's Theatre in a burlesque of the Wallace opera Lurline. Eleven days later she was seriously injured in a carriage accident on Harlem Street in New York, with at least one newspaper erroneously reporting her dead. After a relatively short recuperation she joined the cast of the December revival of The Black Crook at Niblo's Theatre, taking on the role of the fairy queen Stalacta. The Black Crook, a musical about an English ne'er-do-well who discovers his noble birth and resolves to reform, had first been produced at Niblo's in 1866 with a run exceeding 300 performances. Markham became so identified with Stalacta that some later chroniclers mistakenly placed her among the original 1866 cast. The revival ran for 122 performances and returned to New York multiple times, as well as touring the country. During this period it was not uncommon for Markham to receive bouquets of flowers festooned with jewelry from admirers after performances.

The British Blondes' engagement in Chicago in 1870 produced one of the more dramatic episodes of Markham's career. Wilbur F. Storey, editor of the Chicago Times, published a critical editorial about the troupe's show at McVicker's Theatre on 24 February 1870. That evening Thompson, Markham, and Henderson, the company's manager, confronted Storey on Wabash Avenue. Thompson produced a whip concealed in her skirt and struck the editor repeatedly; Markham then took the whip and continued the assault until bystanders intervened. All three were arrested and later pleaded guilty to assault. Markham received a fine of $150, while Thompson and Henderson were each penalized $200.

In 1871 Markham, with the assistance of Richard Grant White, published The Life of Pauline Markham. The following year she appeared at Wood's Museum with Belle Howitt in burlesque productions including Who Cried for the Rain, Red Riding Hood, and The Three Musketeers, among others. In 1873 she toured with her own company in a piece described as a fairy burlesque of the Golden Butterfly, and that fall returned to Niblo's Theatre to revive her role in The Black Crook.

In late November 1873 reports emerged that Markham had eloped with Randolph M. McMahon, a former Southern Civil War officer whose reported rank ranged from Colonel to Major General in various accounts. Days before the elopement she had failed to appear for a performance of The Black Crook at Niblo's, and it was subsequently discovered the couple had left the city to evade detectives pursuing McMahon over an unpaid hotel bill. Markham later described McMahon as abusive and controlling, stating he allowed her only twenty-five cents for meals. News accounts suggest the two remained together for at least five years, with McMahon serving as her manager.

By May 1874 Markham was reported singing for private circles in New Orleans. The summer of 1875 found her back in London at the Haymarket Theatre, supporting Charles Wyndham in Brighton. She appeared in Dancing Dolls, a variety show at the Globe Theatre in August 1876, before returning to America to tour with Adah Richmond's Burlesque Company. That fall she performed on the legitimate stage in Boston at Howard's Athenaeum as Fanny Vanderbilt in The Charity Ball and later appeared in a production of Robin Hood. In February 1878 the press linked her to a scandal involving a former governor of South Carolina and the issuing of fraudulent bonds; Markham denied any involvement and stated that the men named in connection with the scheme were not persons she permitted herself to associate with. The following year her company toured the west presenting H.M.S. Pinafore.

In 1883 Markham married Randolph Murray, an actor-manager and former member of the British Army. A scandal followed when the press revealed that Murray had not dissolved an 1880 marriage before wedding Markham. He claimed to have been intoxicated at the time of the earlier ceremony and that his first bride had deserted him.