The "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty", Mike Kelly & Ms. Montague

[George Thompson]

The phrase was originally applied to Ms. Montague, by Forepaugh, a circus operator, for publicity purposes.  The entry on Mike Kelly in the American National Biography describes "the Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty" as "a moniker borrowed from a stage actress of the day".  "In February 1887 Spalding, the president of the Chicago club, sold Kelly's contract to the Boston Beaneaters for the then-unheard-of sum of $10,000, the first sale of a "star" player in baseball's early history."

As for what shortened Mike Kelly's career -- he was the inspiration for the song "Slide, Kelly, Slide" and is in the baseball Hall of Fame -- no doubt the distractions of being a celebrity were a part of it, but I think that his career was hampered and his life cut short (he died in his mid/late 30s) by his lack of "good training habits and self-discipline" (the ANB again) which is to say, he was much given to the drink, "the fault of many a good man", as Si Daedalus says in Ulysses.

As for the caddish remarks on Ms. Montague's inadequate supply of beauty: piffle!  "It is perhaps unnesessary to add that the beauty is a great fraud, and that hundreds of prettier girls visit the show every day."  What do the rubes in Atchison, Kansas know about beautiful dames?  It's true that she was a good solid welterweight, (147 lbs, according to the NPG) but that was the taste of the times.  Her picture is there in the NPG to refute all such cavils.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Sam Clements <sclements at NEO.RR.COM>
Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2003 9:11 pm
Subject: Re: The "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty"

> George,
>
> Using ancestry.com, I found an 1889 cite in the Atlanta
> Constitution,  Dec.
> 30. p.18, col 1.   It is talking about plays and athletes trying
> to be
> actors.
>
>     The other eminent and good man who is creating a sensation in
> this line
> is the very honorable Michael Josephus Kelly, the ten thousand-
> dollar Beauty
> of the Boston baseball club.  "Kell" is just now being used as the
> drawingfeature in Charlie Hoyt's laughable shot, "A Tin soldier."
>
>
> This at least gives a baseball connection to the phrase before
> your 1890
> cite.
>
> PS--King Kelly only had one more good year after that.  Was it the
> actingthat did him in?
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George Thompson" <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 4:43 PM
> Subject: The "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty"
>
>
> > A while ago I posted a biographical sketch of Ben Henderson,
> pitcher for
> the Portland Beavers, who used the word "jazz" in an interview in
> 1912.  One
> of the stories quoted in the sketch referred to Henderson as the "ten
> thousand dollar beauty" (see the 1911 passage below), a phrase
> that puzzled
> me, since Henderson, having no bargaining leverage, couldn't
> possibly have
> gained a contract that would have paid him $10,000.  A participant
> to the
> 19th Century Baseball list suggested that Henderson's contract had
> been sold
> for that sum by one team to another, a more likely speculation.
> >
> > However, it appears that "ten thousand dollar beauty," was a
> catchphrasethrough the end of the 19th C and the first few decades
> of the 20th, meaning
> "the featured attraction".
> >
> > The passages below were all found through Proquest's Historical
> Newspapersdatabases.  The 1882 passage is evidently playing on the
> familiarity of the
> expression.
> >
> > 1882:   A THIRTY TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR BEAUTY.  How a Discarded
> Romeo Got
> Even with His Faithless Juliet by Publishing Her Derelictions and
> Their Cost
> to Him before the Audience She Was Fascinating.  [caption to an
> illustration]
> >         National Police Gazette, February 18, 1882, p. 1.
> >
> > 1890:   The young woman may even have been good looking, or even
> pretty,four years ago, but at the present she could not get an
> engagement with a
> ten-cent show as the "ten thousand dollar beauty," but she carries
> a glib
> tongue in her head. . . .
> >         Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1890, p. 2, col.
> >
> > 1905:   "Drawing Cards" in Baseball.  The Individuality of
> Certain Star
> Players Makes Them Popular with the Fans.  ***   Baseball never
> had a bigger
> "card" than Mike Kelly, the famous "ten thousand dollar beauty,"
> of the
> Boston team.
> >          National Police Gazette, September 9, 1905, p. 7
> >
> > 1906:   NICK ALTROCK, SHOEMAKER.  Sox Pitcher Quit Awl and Last
> to Go Into
> Baseball.  Father of  Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty Proud of Son's
> Work in
> Second Game of Series.  [headline]
> >         Washington Post, October 14, 1906, section S, p. 2, col.
> >
> > 1906:   "In the parades," she went on, "I ride the big elephant,
> and am
> known as ten thousand dollar beauty."
> >         Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1904, section F, p. 2, col.
> ("The Greatest Show on Earth", by Antony E. Anderson)
> >
> > 1910:   LOUISE MONTAGUE DEAD.  Was Famous "Ten Thousand Dollar
> Beauty" of
> Forepaugh's Circus.  [headline]  Louise M. Montague, once heralded
> over the
> country as the “Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty,” died on Tuesday at
> her home,
> 104 Manhattan Avenue.  Louise Montague was an actress with Edward
> E. Rice's
> company in "The Corsair," and later became a star of David Henderson's
> "Sindbad the Sailor."  Adam Forepaugh, determined to make her
> beauty the
> feature of his circus, and in 1878 he engaged her to travel with
> his circus.
> She was advertised as the "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty."  and rode
> in the
> parades in a gorgeous chariot especially constructed for her.  New
> YorkTimes, March 17, 1910, p. 1, col.
> >
> > 1911:   Ben Henderson, pitcher and "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty"
> of the
> Beaver squad, who fell off the water wagon at Stockton with such
> eclat that
> he had to go to a hospital to recuperate, now seems to have fallen
> off the
> map.  Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1911, section III, p. 1, col. 6
> >
> > 1919:   [a horse show will include a category for polo ponies,]
> and so the
> public will be able to see in the ring some of the "ten thousand
> dollarbeauties" that have hitherto been seen only on the playing
> field.> New York Times, October 5, 1919, p. 120, col.
> >
> > This is the last occurence of this phrase turned up through these
> databases, except for an instance of it used with historical
> reference, from
> the 1930s.
> >
> > For those yearning to know more of Miss Montague's beauty, here
> are two
> items from 1881, when she won Forepaugh's prize:
> > THE HANDSOMEST WOMAN.  Her First Appearance in Forepaugh's
> Parade To-day.
> [headline]  Miss Louise Montague, the queen of beauty, who has
> been so
> fortunate as to secure Forepaugh's $10,000 offered for the
> handsomest woman
> in the world, will arrive in this city from Philadelphia early
> this morning.
> . . .   {She will ride in the parade to the showgrounds.]
> >         Washington Post, April 4, 1881, p. 3, col.
> >
> > Miss Montague's claims to beauty is that she is a demi-blonde
> with classic
> features, a charming blue eye and a beautiful light complexion.
> Of medium
> height, she possesses a full and symmetrical figure.  Her weight
> is 147
> pounds.   A mass of wavy dark chestnut hair, combed well down over the
> narrow Grecian forehead, gives her somewhat of a matronly air,
> though it
> adds ten-fold to her beauty.
> >         National Police Gazette, April 23, 1881, p. 12.  For
> those who
> want ocular proof, the NPG offers an engraving from a photograph,
> also on p.
> 12.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
> NorthwesternUniv. Pr., 1998.
> >
>