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Eugene Fougere
Eugenie Fougère was an American vaudeville and music hall singer based out of Paris and the United States. She was known for her rendition of the popular "cakewalk dance," which in her on style included "negro" rhythms and paces. She was also notorious for her luxurious jewelry and costumes; So much in fact she was mentioned by name in the classic Frank Wedekind tragedy Erdgeist (Earth Spirit). During act I, the character Lulu stated in response to a question about her dancing, "I learned in Paris. I took lessons from Eugenie Fougère. She let me copy her costumes too."

Life & Career
She became known in Paris for her "racially ambiguous" dancing techniques that she applied to ragtime and the popular "cake walk" dance of the time. A popular theorist of "negro dance," Andre Levinson, complied that it is impossible for Europeans to recreate the moves seen by African dance, and that is why the public is amazed by it.

She had a small history with The Boston Theatre, appearing on the evening of December 9th, 1894 to sing and perform, with renown cornet player Allesandro Liberati appearing onstage later that night. The theatre would later introduce a summer vaudeville series under the management of one Nagib Hashim to last several months with the goal of boosting profits for the theatre. The series began on April 2, Eugenie appeared during the week of April 30th, 1900-- five weeks after the premiere, the series closed.

Writer Rae Beth Gordon noted that "The popularity of performers like Mlle de Tender and Eugenie Fougère was comparable to that of Elvis Presley a little more than half a century later." Later in the same publication, she wrote, "This was followed by another revue, this time at La Cigale, where she appeared 'in the costume of an American Negro.'" Gordon continued, "At least in this original fantasy, she told the journalist, 'I felt my old self again.' The incorporation of blackness by this white singer suggests that the motivations for adopting a black persona and the effects of such a masquerade went beyond the purposes of simple exploitation. Fougère felt more at home in a black body — or, at least, in a body ruled by black rhythms and movements — than she did in a white body deprived of the opportunity to express itself with no holding back."

In 1902, she contacted Enrico Alfano to ask for help in returning some of her missing jewelry. Within a few days, Alfano tracked down the thieves and restored the jewelry. The case hit the newspapers and Alfano was arrested for complicity with the thieves, but was absolved.

1903 Murder and Later Appearances
The date and the cause of the death of Eugenie Fougère is still very unclear.

On the night of September 18th, 1903, several claims in newspapers were made that Fougère was murdered along with one of her housemaids during the night in her villa at Aix-les-Bains. The crime was supposedly committed by thieves who wanted to obtain her jewelry. On September 21st, The Deseret News reported "French Singer Eugenie Fougere, the well-known music hall singer, was murdered during Friday night in her villa at Aix-les-Bains. A female servant was also murdered, and another was so maltreated that she has lost her reason. Robbery was the motive for the crime."

However, despite the general acceptance of the tragedy in time, several more reports of her whereabouts and career came post-1903. Again, writer Rae Gordon said that she returned to stage in 1920, quote, "after a long hiatus." In 1909, she reportedly made an appearance in Montreal to much shock and scandal because of the routines in her performance. A Montreal Gazette stated the next day that, "Mademoiselle Eugenie Fougère, the French music hall actress, who was announced to appear at Bennett's as headliner during this week, made her first and last appearance at that theatre yesterday afternoon. Although such acts as she presented might be quite acceptable in the music halls of London and Paris, they certainly should have no place in the bill of any Montreal theatre." The manager of the theatre told Eugenie that she would not be allowed to appear again.

Many other sources reported in 1906 that the singer was convicted of shoplifting a night dress, lingerie, and other items one particular night after leaving a London-based textile company, Lewis & Alleby's.

Alessandro Liberati
Alessandro Liberati was a noted cornet player.

Early Life
It is very likely that the first lessons Liberati received were from his parents; father Carlo, and mother, Felicetta, both of whom were considered to be very talented musically; his father being skilled both on the bugle and the keyed trumpet. Liberati began studying cornet at age twelve, and when he was fourteen, Alessandro made his public debut on the cornet, performing an aria from Il trovatore. He enlisted in the Papal Army in 1864, and he played with the First Cacciatori Band of Rome for two years, and in 1866, he performed on the bugle in Garibaldi’s army. He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion in 1871 and was captured as a prisoner of war in the Franco-Prussian War.

Career
From 1866 to 1872, Liberati performed throughout Italy on his cornet whilst conducting bands and teaching the cornet. In 1872, Patrick Gilmore heard of Liberati and asked him to be a special soloist for his Peace Jubilee taking place that year. Soon he became director and cornet soloist of all Canadian Artillery Bands. In 1875, he was asked to be the director of the Michigan national guard band and Detroit’s police bugle band.

One year later in 1876, he became an official American citizen and his bands were asked to perform at the nation’s Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Here he was made able to hear many outstanding musical organizations, like Gilmore’s Band and Jacque Offenbach’s Orchestra. In 1877, he joined J. Thomas Baldwin’s Boston Cadet Band as cornet soloist, playing at the opening of the Brighton Beach Hotel on Coney Island. Carlo A. Cappa persuaded Gilmore to hire Alessandro as an alternate cornet soloist in 1878, and by 1879, he was getting equal billing with such names as Arbuckle, Bent, Emerson, and Levy. Liberati may have been hired by Gilmore as a "hedge" against a possible feud between Levy and Arbuckle.

During the winter seasons of 1879 and 1880, Liberati played first trumpet (on cornet) with the Philharmonic Society of New York.

He was special soloist at the 1878, 79, and 80 Interstate Expositions of Chicago, and in 1881, special soloist at the exposition in Central Park. He was engaged as soloist in various venues, e.g., the 1881 Yorktown Centennial Celebration (likely with Harvey Dodworth’s Thirteenth Regiment Band), the West End Resort in New Orleans (1883), and the Southern Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky (1883). He performed for Grover Cleveland’s visit to the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York, and for Cardinal Tascheru’s visit to Quebec, Canada on June 20th, 1886.

In 1886, Liberati conducted one of the bands at the Twenty-third Triennial Conclave of the Knights Templar in St. Louis, Missouri. The event was organized by Patrick Gilmore to benefit the children at a widows’ and orphans’ home. Also in that same year, he performed solos at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and he was Bandmaster of the Seventy-first Regimental National Guard Band in New York City.

In 1889, Liberati formed his own band and billed it "The World Renowned Liberati Band". One of the many responsibilities of the group was to play between acts of the C. D. Hess Grand Opera Company. The World Renowned Liberati Band traveled extensively and developed a reputation in America and Canada.

In September 1899, his re-organized Grand Military Band of 112 pieces was chosen by the Grand Army of the Republic to lead a parade through the streets of Philadelphia in honor of the Union Army Veterans of the city. He rode on a black stallion, wore his uniform decorated with many medals, and performed on a golden cornet, while he directed the band. He directed the band for many years, until as late as 1922 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Liberati played cornet solos at Washington Park on the Delaware, near Philadelphia in the summer of 1902, and later that year, went on two concert tours, the first one of major cities between Philadelphia and Dallas, Texas, where he played at the State Fair; the second terminating in New York City, just before Christmas.

Alessandro also made a number of recordings for Edison in the 1890s. They show him at his best, unlike Levy’s recordings mentioned earlier.

One of his more famous students was Albertus L. Meyers, cornetist for Sousa's Band on tour beginning on 4 July 1925, leaving Sousa after the Willow Grove engagement on 13 September 1925. Meyers then became the long-time conductor of the Allentown Band.

It is interesting to note that Alessandro played with false teeth for years, and like Bent, was one of the best soloists that Herbert L. Clarke ever heard.

Personal Life
On June 2nd, 1903, while traveling in Kansas City, Liberati was involved in a car collision. The New York Times reported "An automobile containing Signor Liberati, the cornet virtuoso, and several prominent business men, was struck by a street car today while touring in the outskirts of the city. The machine was completely wrecked and all of the occupants were cut and bruised."

He married his wife, Elsie, in 1881. They lived in New York and had one daughter.