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The New Consolidation. The Gaiety Burlesque Co. & Lilly Clay’s Company of Ladies Only in The New Adamless Eden.

Cincinnati: The Strobridge Litho Co., [c. 1886]. Chromolithograph, 37” X 26” plus margins.

A delightful theater poster advertising The New Adamless Eden—a novel, all-female musical production that toured the U. S. in the late nineteenth century.

The Lilly Clay Company of London, managed by M. B. Leavitt, performed An Adamless Eden in America during the 1884-1885 season, following popular performances in London and Paris. The production advertised by the present poster combined The Gaiety Burlesque Company of London with the Lilly Clay Company and appears to be slightly later. A different poster for An Adamless Eden held by the Library of Congress describes the cast as “A coterie of charming and cultured English and American Lady Artists,” noting that the show was produced with “Regal Splendor and Magnificence,” and consisted of “Lady Comedians, Lady Vocalists, Lady Specialists, Lady Instrumental Soloists, Lady Musical Directors, Lady Ticket Sellers, Lady Doorkeepers, Lady Ushers.”

The plot seems to be largely forgotten, but in any case the music, the dancing and the spectacle would have been the main attractions. The poster depicts a foreground filled with lady musicians, and a stage alive with singing and dancing ladies set against an Edenic backdrop with palm trees and classical architecture. The woman conducting in the center of the orchestra pit is likely Lilly Clay, as the Library of Congress poster identifies her as the conductor. The Adamlessness is slightly marred by the presence of a few token men in the audience.

Rare. Not in OCLC, nor does google yield any trace of it.

CONDITION: Good, trimmed to border at top, horizontal crease half way across center of image, a few other minor creases, recently reinforced with Japanese tissue on verso.

Item #3419

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