Isaac Russell (1879-1927), the Utah-born, Pratt family-descended, Stanford-educated professional journalist left Utah and the Deseret News for the East, where he could better exercise his interests in politics and in using the power of the press to investigate political corruption and to effect change in the world. He remained closely allied with the Church in both New York City and Chicago, and often used his contacts and his pen in defense of the Church in various issues – while still being critical of political trends within the Church and the foibles of individual Church leaders.
In the fall of October 1926 he complained to a friend in Salt Lake about M.R. Werner’s lazy and derivative biography of Brigham Young published the previous year. Werner had, he said, drawn too heavily on a better biography from a few years earlier, and had “simply jazzed it up in a sexy style with snappy remarks to get pornographic laughter.”
I saw the thing work out the other day in a sorry mess of a way for I passed a low burlesque theater on State street here [Chicago] and happened to notice a picture of Brigham Young on the outside advertising matter. I went in and found a whole burlesque chorus kicking up their tootsies to the chorus:
“Brigham Young, Brigham Young, Brigham Young.”
The name was repeated as a chant at the end of all kinds of questions by the chief hoofer of the chorus.
Hoofer: “Who married every gal he saw?”
Chorus, with a big dance across the stage: “Brigham Young, Brigham Young, Brigham Young.”
And so it went on through a whole play full of Danite murders, blood atonements, marriages wholesale and all that. It was simply Werner put on the Burlesque stage.
(You’ll have to settle for an image of Isaac Russell. Believe-you-me, I would show you the burlesque line if I could!)
Wow. That almost makes the Book of Mormon play feel tame.
Crazy! Yes, Bruce, the burlesque described here makes “The Book of Mormon” musical seem tame.
This Isaac Russell seems like a very interesting guy. Your descriptions of him are intriguing (a defender of the Church while still having a critical eye, Utah-born but Stanford-educated and living in the East, etc.). Thanks for this post!
Ken Cannon is the Isaac Russell expert, David. I can’t link to it because it triggers a pdf-download, but you could google “Kenneth Cannon Isaac Russell” and find a 2016 Utah Historical Quarterly (vol. 84, no. 3) article that makes a great introduction to Russell.
Okay, my surreal meter is pegged. Never, without the use of recreational pharmaceuticals, could I have imagined a chorus line dancing to chants of “Brigham Young, Brigham Young.” Kicking up their tootsies indeed.
Here’s a relatively tame chorus line from Chicago in 1929. https://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/photo-chicago-civic-opera-house-service-club-revue-chorus-line-with-ostrich-feathers-1929/photo-chicago-civic-opera-house-service-club-revue-chorus-line-with-ostrich-feathers-1929-2/
Too bad not to have found a picture of the 1926 burlesque line or poster. I was also hoping to find the sheet music on one of the Americana sites, but no luck so far.
Thanks for the report. 🙂
Ditto to David Y. The link and PDF both add so much. As usual, the comments are just as outstanding as the post.