Gertie Granville

When I first saw this cabinet card from around 1880 of Gertie Granville, I thought she must be a sharpshooter in a Wild West Show.  She carries that rifle like a tool, her "indian maiden" style dress makes her look frontier-ish, plus the photograph was made in San Francisco, and that's the far west.  But Gertie was not an understudy to Annie Oakley, as it turns out.  She started out as a 19-year old kid performing with Barnum's circus in 1870.  She moved on to Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels, showing that Gertie could sing and dance for her supper.  After two young marriages ended, she became wife of Tony Hart of the Harrigan and Hart, the nationally famous stage duo in 1882.  The 1880s were a time of excess, with money flowing in the US.  But only eight years later Gertie was dead with Tony following in 1891.They must have played hard, those theater folk.  They enjoyed a lifestyle as adventurous as the urban Victorian culture could offer.  Their costumes were great, their visage appealing, and their photographs a delight.  Thanks, Gertie, your not quite gone from memory yet!