Continued, It Girl
The showgirl has a power that no one else does.
Financiers trade in money, lawyers deal in documents, railroad men lay steel.
But who else has the power to hold the heart and soul of hundreds at a time?
Moving them across time and space in their own minds—why, it’s a temporary madness she can conjure.
—Evelyn Talbot, in a letter written to Mr. Anthony Comstock, published after her death
But the problems come once she does drive them mad.
Did I know I’d be a sensation? Did I know I’d drive them mad? Not yet, not right then.
Did I even want all of that? Not in any clear sort of way.
I just knew that I needed to climb. Up and out of that hole, higher and faster until the trouble that had been chasing us for years could no longer reach us.
So I did what I had to do. I did all that I could to ensure that we were leaving the past behind. Never thinking that to leave one trouble behind means to invite the next one in.
I played the part, and they played theirs, too.
Scene one, scene two.
I never imagined what was coming next.
Places, everybody, places!
Lift the curtain.