October 27

Sarah Bernhardt's Birthday
 

It is impossible to understand the celebrity and talent of Sarah Bernhardt without appreciating what theater was before the advent of film and television. While the need to be entertained may not be a God-given right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, it is one of life's important needs. The culture of celebrity of reflects this basic human need. Before film and television there was primarily only music and the theater to meet these needs, The ultimate theatrical personality on the 19th century who met these needs was Sarah Bernhardt, often called "The Divine Sarah."

Sarah was temperamental and unpredictable since she was an unwanted and unloved baby. Suffering from tuberculous, she was a as a pale and somewhat emaciated child, constantly spitting up blood. Her doctors never gave her a chance  of  reaching adolescents. But she faithfully took their worthless medicines and her daily bowl of'-snail soup which was the popular treatment for consumption. Although Sarah credited her cure to snail soup, it was more likely her intense determination that pulled her through the disease.

Bernhardt lived an unprecedented extravagant lifestyle for an actress. She could never make as much money as she needed playing the French theaters, so she made numerous world tours to help finance her lifestyle of a continued series of extravagances interrupted only by moments of excess. These excesses were often reflected in tributes by her adoring public. When she opened Sardou's Théodora, in Rio de Janeiro, she received over ninety curtain calls and the stage was plummeted with flowers, fans, shoes, gloves, jewelry, and the entire clothing of some of her fans. In Buenos Aries, the Argentine government went wild at her performances and gave her 13,000 acres of land. Fortunately, in Peru she received several carloads of guano (bird droppings) to fertilize it. The Peruvians also presented her with an even more unusual gift. What Sarah initially thought to be a pearl necklace turned out to be a rope of human eyes that the creative Indians had developed a process for preserving. When Sarah found out what the "pearls" really were, she claimed to have treasured it more than the jewels presented by her many royal admirers and lovers.

Sarah was also a cocaine addict and in 1915, ten years after a serious injury, her right leg was amputated, confining her to a wheelchair for several months. She continued her career without the use of a prosthetic limb. She carried out a successful tour of America in 1915, and on returning to France she played in her own productions almost continuously until her death. There has only been one film on her life. Glenda Jackson  portrayed her in  a strong performance in The Incredible Sarah (1976), which unfortunately was not a major hit.

Many of the dishes named after "the Divine Sarah" include her favorite liqueur Curacao, including Gateaux Sarah (a Curacao-flavored genois with a peach mousse filling), Soufflé Sarah Bernhardt (a Curacao soufflé) and Canard Bernhardt (a duckling braised in Curacao and white wine).