Paris exhibit celebrates ‘first celebrity’ Sarah Bernhardt

By the time of her death in 1923, Sarah Bernhardt, a pioneering French stage star, was one of the world’s most famous women.

A century later, a French museum featured “La Divine,” the quirky, scandalous, multihyphenate performer considered the first celebrity.

The public is now discovering Bernhardt’s Gothic stories, costumes, recordings, films, photos, jewels, sculptures, and personal belongings at the Petit Palais museum in Paris.

“Sarah Bernhardt was more than a famous actress. She was an early celebrity. Businesswoman, fashion icon, sculptor, theater director, visionary, and courtesan. She defied gender. “Sarah Bernhardt: And the woman created the star” curator Stephanie Cantarutti said, “By self-publicizing, she paved the way for Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé.”

The 400-exhibit centenary show explores her life beyond the stage.
Her career begins: A handwritten log in the official Parisian Register of Courtesans from the 1860s with a portrait and descriptions of this juvenile “courtesan.” Her mother was a courtesan and Napoleon III’s half-brother’s mistress.

From her beginnings on stage after Alexandre Dumas took her to the Comedie Francaise to her most famous roles like Joan of Arc, Phaedra, and Cleopatra, the exhibit showcases the dazzling costumes worn at the Theater Sarah Bernhardt, which were an emblem of Paris at the dawn of the modern fashion industry for Americans. The Theater Sarah Bernhardt at Chatelet is now the Theater de la Ville, and her structure is now a cafe-restaurant.

She famously said she needed to play men to feel free. In the exhibit, Bernhardt plays Hamlet in a French interpretation.

She played several male characters since she felt women’s roles were uninteresting and she couldn’t show her talent. Importantly. Cantarutti stated Bernhardt was bisexual and wore pants decades before Marlene Dietrich.

Oscar Wilde composed Salome in French for her, calling her “the incomparable one.” She influenced Proust. Mark Twain remarked, “There are five kinds of actresses: bad, fair, good, great, and Sarah Bernhardt.” Gustave Flaubert met her in her dressing room.

The actress’ mystique came from her ability to use new media and stage press tales.

She established a reputation for herself during the Universal Exhibition of 1878 by escaping in a hot air balloon over the Tuileries garden and slicing the neck off a bottle of champagne with a sword and tasting foie gras.

She had one lung, one kidney, and later one leg, yet she never complained.

Bernhardt was rumored to sleep in a coffin because of her terrible roles. She erected a padded coffin in her home and hired a photographer to picture her sleeping in it to capitalize on the gossip.

It was famous. Cantarutti said she had a bat-hat.

After adopting Ali Gaga, a pet alligator, the Gothic became her brand. Cantarutti claims Bernhardt fed Ali Gaga champagne, causing liver failure.

Bernhardt conquered America. During her 1912-13 American tour, she was a celebrity despite her French-language performances being incomprehensible.

Queen Elizabeth, her landmark 1912 silent film, launched the tour. According to the museum, Adolph Zukor, who won the U.S. rights to broadcast it throughout her tour, became so affluent that he used the earnings from the film to form Paramount Pictures, then Famous Players Film.

Her lifelong interest was sculpture, which she created in marble and bronze, some of which were displayed at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. Paris’ Musee d’Orsay displays several of her sculptures.

In her autobiography “My Double Life,” Bernhardt wrote, “It seemed to me now that I was born to be a sculptor and I had begun to see my theater in an ill light.”

“Despite it all” was her motto, the exhibit claims.

“Despite her struggles as a courtesan trying to break into a man’s world. “Despite all that and being an amputee, she continued,” Cantarutti remarked.

“Sarah Bernhardt: And the woman created the star” runs until Aug. 27.