Lessons of history: How to boost newspaper sales with Sarah Bernhardt

June 20, 2010

Sarah Bernhardt selling newspapers in Salt Lake City, March 28, 1913 - Utah Historical Society image

Sarah Bernhardt, in fur, selling newspapers in Salt Lake City, March 28, 1913 - Utah Historical Society image

Just get the most famous actress in the world to hawk the newspaper on the street.

In this photo Sarah Bernhardt sells newspapers to a group of men in the street in Salt Lake City (probably State Street, but perhaps Main Street; I have not identified the building behind her in the photograph).  The photograph is from the Shipler Company Collection at the Utah Historical Society.

In 1913, Bernhardt was in the early autumn of her career, with several movies but not many plays in front of her.  She had lost a leg to gangrene from a badly-treated broken knee in 1905 (in Rio), but still acted in plays that she produced herself, and in movies.

The photo is dated 1913.  Bernhardt conducted a tour of the U.S. in 1915.  One may wonder if the date was misread from a handwritten note.

I wonder: Who are other people in the photo?