Let's begin with the actors. The most famous touring actor of our period was the French tragedian Sarah Bernhardt. Her performances were legendary, where she specialized in death scenes. She died frequently at a great length. Her tours were equally legendary and lengthy. She performed all over Europe, toured the United States nine times and even went to South America and Australia. In the U.S. she was famous for her farewell tours, of which there were several. Wherever she went she was a spectacle. On occasion, performing in a large tent to accommodate the huge numbers of spectators who wanted to see her. The sheer scale was mind-boggling. When she arrived in the U.S. on her first American tour in 1880, she was forced to pay duty on her luggage, which included 300 pairs of gloves, 75 pairs of shoes, and over 40 dresses. The authorities assumed that these quantities were trade goods. She was refunded in the end. And the publicity was marvelous. Bernhardt tours are interesting not just on account of their scale. But because they document a truly global theater star. Wherever she went, from London to Sydney, from Cincinnati to Santiago de Chile, she was celebrated. Her performances were always in French. But it mattered little whether audiences understood what she said or not. At the back of the tent they certainly couldn't understand a word. On her tour to Australia in 1891, audiences were issued booklets with English translations, so they could follow the plot. But in a Sarah Bernhardt performance, it was not the plot that mattered. It was her. Why then such adulation? There's no doubt that she was the leading French actress of her age. But why should she be of interest in Australia in 1891, where few people understood French? The answer is connectivity. By this time the world was interconnected by thousands of newspapers, most of them regional. But they obtained the news from a network of international news agencies providing the papers with news. Remember our first session when we looked at digital newspapers and Sarah Bernhardt in Australia? Well though she only visited Australia once, she was continually in the news. In fact, if we enter the phrase "Sarah Bernhardt" and the dates "1862", when she made her stage debut, and "1923", when she died, we receive over 14,000 hits. And these are just the Australian newspapers. If we do a similar search in the American equivalent, "Chronicling America", 1862 to 1922 - unfortunately it does not allow us to enter 1923, the year of her death - we still get over 17,000 mentions. Clearly the "Divine Sarah", as she was known, was a continual media presence. Accessible from the comfort of you own home via your local newspaper. There's no doubt that Sarah Bernhardt combined a live presence as a performer with a mediated presence via newspapers and magazines. She is also available on photographs and posters. When she began making films after 1900, she had all the media covered. And the connectivity circuit was complete. [MUSIC]
