Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #66, the Divine Sarah, Sarah Bernhardt (for full my bio go here). I’m guessing many of our readers have seen at least short clips of some of her silent films…but here’s a new one on me: a record album of Bernhardt from 1903 — you can hear her voice!
To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t miss Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.