For International Clown Week: The Riddle of Madame Pilar-Morin

Happy International Clown Week, which always falls the first week of August. I’d like to kick it off by referring you back to this recent post plugging the upcoming Coney Island Clown Skool and Jelly Boy the Clown’s new book.

As for today’s post, we observe International Clown Week by discussing an international clown: Madame Pilar-Morin (birth surname De Baradat, 1865-1945), born in Spain, trained in France, settled in the U.S. We hasten to clarify that she wore many hats: clown, pantomime, actress, singer, and teacher of acting and voice production, among other reputations.

Many thanks to reader Guy Hamilton for clearing up many of the riddles alluded to in our title! Some remain. Like many performers of her day, her self-reported biography has its fishier touches. She claimed to have once been married to a French Count, and that her last husband, one A. Shibley de Matta, was an Egyptian Prince.

More plausibly, she was said to have been from Barcelona, to have attended Catholic schools, and to have studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1891 she married French pianist and composer Aimé Lachaume (1871-1944), with whom she collaborated. In 1893 they presented a work of their own device called “L’Enfant Prodigue” with a small company at the Boston Museum. Lachaume composed the music, Pilar-Morin wrote the piece and played Pierrot. The couple were still married in 1896, but sometime afterward they drifted apart. Their divorce was not official until 1908. Throughout the 1890s, PIlar-Morin toured vaudeville with a series of of pantomimes, with titles like “In Old Japan”, “A Paris Model”, “Rachel”, “Orange Blossoms”, and “My Cousin (Ma Cousine)”. She was frequently hauled into court on charges of lewdness and obscenity for these works. The issue seems to have been less the content of her stories than her physical body language, which offended the delicate Anglo-Saxon sensibilities of the day.

In 1901 Pilar-Morin starred as the title character in the London production of David Belasco’sMadame Butterfly. She kept this role in her repertoire afterward.

In 1909 and 1910 she made a series of short films for the Edison Company: Comedy and Tragedy (1909), A Japanese Peach Boy (1910), The Cigarette Maker of Seville (1910),  Carminella (1910), The Piece of Lace (1910), From Tyranny to Liberty (1910), The Key of Life (1910), and The Greater Love (1910).

After this she returned to live performance on the circuits, and became a New York based voice and dramatics teacher with some pretty prominent clients, such as opera singer Josephine Lucchese. In 1913 she toured with a self-penned one-act title “La Cordette”, which had a French Revolution setting. The last mention of Pilar-Morin in the press was in 1935.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be necessary to add Pilar-Morin to our roster of sad comedians. She died, at the age of 80, by suicide, when she jumped out the 4th floor window of her New York City apartment. I don’t think there’s a lot of mystery as to why. Alone, forgotten, riddled with aches and pains. Ordinarily most older folks opt for less spectacular exits, but this method seems in keeping with her attention-seeking personality. Saddest of all, perhaps, is that the act did not garner any headlines. Mr. Hamilton uncovered the information, by looking into public records.

Stay tuned! National Clown Day falls on August 3 this year. Look for a related post here then!

For more on the history of vaudeville,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on early film please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.