By Parley Pearce, Photo of painting by Vicky Pearce

Editor’s note:  You can see Vicky Pearce’s original rendition of LOLA by visiting HAMLEY’S STEAKHOUSE in Pendleton, where Lola resides looking out at the admiring crowds who stream by.  ATH

Lola was arguably one of the most colorful women of the American west. Born Eliza Gilbert, in Limerick, Ireland, to a 13 year old mother, her father died when she was 7. When her mother remarried, she was shipped off to school in paris where she developed her gift for languages. Finished with school at 19, she eloped with a lieutenant who soon thereafter ran off with a captain’s wife, leaving Eliza on her own but not without friends.

Two admiring gentlemen, Lord Malmesbury and Lord Brougham helped her launch a career as a “spanish dancer” and she changed her name to Lola Montez. for years Lola drifted about europe taking dancing engagements. Life was interesting and her string of lovers grew. Over the next few years, her lovers would include the Czar of Russia, the viceroy of Poland, and the composer Franz Liszt, considered to be the great lover of the age.

She seemed to cast a spell over men everywhere. Men died in duels for Lola’s affections. Once while dancing in Munich, the theatre manger fired Lola. Lola went directly to the palace of the King to appeal her case. Still in costume, she charged right into King Ludwig’s private study, demanding justice. Surprised and taken back, the King attempted to be urbane and sophisticated and inquired if her lovely figure was a work of nature or art. Lola, finding herself in control of the situation, snatched a pair of scissors from his desk and slit the front of her dress to the waist, thrusting her dazzling bosom into the King’s face. Before she left, she received a substantial engagement at the Munich theater, and the manager was fired. King Ludwig fell desperately in love with Lola. He built her a palace and gave her an ample allowance directly from the public treasury, and he himself designed a marble fountain at her palace which sprayed perfumed water in an arched plume.

In what became known as “the scandal of the century”, Lola began to rule his Kingdom and run the country’s affairs as she saw fit. She reintroduced Napoleonic law. Eventually Ludwig was forced to abdicate the throne and Lola fled the country.

At age 35, and needing a fresh start, she set off for the American west, the California gold rush. She opened a saloon in a boisterous mining town called grass valley. Lola’s saloon was over the top, a show stopper of the first order. It featured Louis XVI cabinets, ormolu mirrors, Ludwig’s jewels, kanaka houseboys, a pet bear, a swan bed, gold leaf everywhere, and one extra large deep-red-top billiard table with dragon carved legs and every govenor, senator, millionaire she could haul into the place. The nightly show had one act, Lola at her loosest. It was popular beyong words. Lola was a star at last. Her famous riske dance was called “the spider dance” and involved her dancing around lifting her skirts high as though the floor was covered in spiders.

Lola died young at age 43 following a stroke. She had toured America on a speaking tour, and written a book about beauty secrets and how to prevent wrinkles.

Victorians referred to her as “la grande horizontele.” in America she was known as the highest priced courtesan in the country.

Her home in grass valley, California is on the national historic register and is open as a museum. Many books and even big budget movies have been made about her life. Many artists have done renditions of Lola. This folk art piece was done by Vicky Pearce and painted on wood from an old shipping crate containing leather delivered to Hamley’s over 100 years ago.

Home | Contact | Top