‘Come
Down Ma Evenin’ Star’
Lillian
Russell
Music:
John Stromberg
Lyrics:
Robert Smith
Recorded
March 22, 1912
2:49
Like her
19th century predecessors Lola Montez and Lillie Langtry, she first
won praise as a performer, then as an ideal beauty and glass of fashion.
Finally she was celebrated simply for being herself – set so firmly in the
minds of the public that she had endorsement deals.
She was
the daughter of a newspaper publisher and a writer/feminist. She studied voice
with the great Leopold Damrosch, and despite her mother’s disapproval she was soon
the best-known singer of operetta in the country. She was classy, charming and
voluptuous, embodying the ideal Victorian female figure -- large-bosomed,
corset-cinched, topped with a round, cherubic face.
Like many
prominent female performers, she had a tumultuous personal life, studded with
four marriages and many affairs, mostly with rich and powerful men. Newspapers
tracked her incessantly. When Alexander Graham Bell initiated long-distance
telephone service in 1890, Russell sang over the line.
“Come
Down Ma Evenin’ Star” was written for Russell by composer John Stromberg for
her starring role in the popular 1902 review Twirly Whirly. He held it back from her, saying it wasn’t ready. He
committed suicide weeks before opening night, and the music for the song was
found in his pocket. His lyricist put words to it, and it became Russell’s
signature song.
It’s a
sweet, wistful ballad of yearning, of a kind just ready to fall out of favor.
Its sentimental strains were the last delicate gasp of the silk-and-lamplight
niceties of the period. Russell made this recording in 1912, a decade after it
became a hit, and eight years after Russell had stopped singing (but not
performing) onstage.
Why did
Russell record it? Significantly, she never allowed herself to be recorded live
save for this disc, and a handful of film snippets. She didn’t need the income,
certainly, being financially independent. Or the publicity. Perhaps she
listened to the recording playback and found, like so many people, that her
voice was unbearable. (She is a bit nasal and strained here.)
Interestingly,
though, her performance here is technically top-notch, warm, clear, and expressive.
It verifies the abilities of performer lost to popular consciousness,
remembered if at all as a “sex symbol.”
The
National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all
the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Up
next: Lovey’s Trinidad String Band recordings.
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