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"she has the evil eye and is sure to bring bad luck to any one who closely links his destiny with hers" (Alexander Dumas 1844)
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Webmaster's note:
Click on the picture above to zoom in on the portrait of Lola or click on the picture of Lola at the top of the page to see the street poster in full.
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Under the sub-heading of
Disgraceful Acts in Restaurant
the Colonial News reported...
The long-established pancake eating establishment was in an uproar last night after the famous dancer, accompanied as usual by her rag taggle band of besotted gold miners, went on a rampage of vengeance that saw anxious patrons bolting for cover from the flying fists and colourful language. The incident ended in a baton charge by mounted police.
According to shocked witnesses, the untoward sequence of events occured late in the evening when a party of miners, somewhat under the influence of both drink and their spider-dancing accomplice, took it into their heads to teach the staff of the crowded Pancake Palace a resounding lesson for the insult of being served what they declared were under-weight pancakes. Miss Montez, notorious for her mercurial temper, took her horse whip, which accomanies her everywhere, to the pancake cook, soundly thrashing him before being subdued by the combined efforts of several brave male patrons and the police.
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More scandal about Lola Montez.
King Henry LXXII's Bed of Roses
One her first attempt to trap a Prince,
Lola attracted the attention of Henry LXXII of Ruess-Lobenstein-Eberdorf.
She managed to upset everyone with her imperious attitude and contempt for etiquette. She earned the title the "Fair Impure". However the last straw was her penchant for taking a short cut across the royal flower-beds. When a servant scolded her for crossing the garden she apparently beat the servant for her impudence. Lola was banished from the kingdom shortly after. Henry demanded "Leave my kingdom at once. You are nothing but a feminine devil"
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A description of the The "Spider Dance" republished from an article in The New York Times, February 1892.
"She looked her loveliest as she pirouetted into view, her long slender legs in flesh-colored tights, for she no longer danced without the requisite maillot. Her glossy hair, wreathed in flowers, fell to her shoulders. Her skirt consisted of tiers of tinted chiffons creating the illusion of a spider's web, entrapping her as she spun around, constricting her step. With the music slowing down she struggled to free herself and shake off the spiders lurking in her chiffons. As the dance grew more frantic she shed the spiders and stamped then underfoot. They were stage props made of whalebone, cork or rubber. When the music changed to jig Lola spread out her hands and feet like a spider and leaped from one side of the stage to the other. The effect was as grotesque as it was riveting. It all ended with fire and abandon, as she stamped on the last of the fallen spiders. Sometimes she did the dance in pantomime without the props".
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A reporter in the San Francisco Whig (June 3, 1853) writes about Lola.
"Lola comes in--sails in--flies in-arrayed in a costume to which Joseph's coat could never think of comparing. She stands an instant full of fire, action and abandon...Lola apparently represents a country girl in some flowery meadow. She unwittingly gets into one of those huge nests of spiders found during the Spring time in those meadows... She commences to dance and the cobwebs entangle her ankles.
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The front page of The Colonial News reported the shameful incident without restraint.
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