Carrie Wisler
I don't always go looking for story ideas, sometimes I just stumble into one. Like this story about Carrie Wisler. Recently I was roaming around one of my favorite websites called World Web Playing Card Museum. It is run by Alexander Sukhorukov and has almost 23,000 pages of playing cards. If you have never seen it you really should. Just click on the link below.
In a section called "Unknowns" I came across this card shown below. Was this a Joker or some kind of advertisement? Even the card back was pretty neat.
In a section called "Unknowns" I came across this card shown below. Was this a Joker or some kind of advertisement? Even the card back was pretty neat.
But what year was this from? I thought if I could identify the card back design that it might narrow it down. From its look I decided to look through the website for U. S. playing cards of the late 1800s. I finally found it under the Russell & Morgan Printing Company. It was described as a Capital 188 first printed about 1886. Then I went to a perpetual calendar of that time period and looked for when January 28th fell on a Wednesday like the card stated. Those years were 1885, 1891 and 1903. Using my Newspapers.com website, I started with 1885 and searched for a person called "Carrie Swain". Soon I found this article in the Richmond, Virginia, Dispatch newspaper;
I now have almost all my answers. It appears it was not a Joker card it was just a throwout or handout card to advertise her upcoming show. But who was this Carrie Swain? Of course I had to know. And if you want to also learn about this very interesting forgotten lady then just keep reading..........
Caroline "Carrie" Madeline Wisler was born April 7, 1860 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia, to emigrant German parents. Her father was a shoemaker. She had an older brother and two sisters.
At age five her parents sent her to school everyday, but it was of little interest to her. She preferred to skip school and play hookey with the boys. Making mud pies and doing "boy things" were more fun. She even liked dressing like a boy. Being an athletic tom boy was what she wanted to be.
In early 1873 her father saw better opportunities in California and moved to San Francisco, leaving the family in Philadelphia. A few months later his wife died. Carrie and her older brother made the trip across country to join him.
In San Francisco Carrie discovered vaudeville shows and the allure of performing. Soon the teenager found someone to teach her some dance steps and she ran away to be on stage. One night, by accident, her brother was at a show she was dancing in. Shocked at seeing his sister on stage, he ran home to tell his father. "Come down to the theater, Pap, and see Carrie. She's dancing without any clothes on!" he told him. She was not naked, she was wearing tights.
Besides dancing, she was soon singing and doing somersaults and handstands in her acts. Newspapers would report that she was a mezzo-soprano with an almost a three octave range. What we would consider a trained singer today, in her case it was natural ability. Her stage name was now Carrie St. Leon.
Her talent soon attracted attention from the theatre manager, Sam Swain. He was not only attracted to the teenager's talent he was also attracted to her. In February 1876 Sam and Carrie were married. He was 28 and she was 16. Carrie's act was now called Sam & Carrie Swain. They left San Francisco and headed to Los Angeles, where they became the headline act at the Wood Opera House.
Sam was a singer and not an acrobat. His forte was singing minstrel songs in blackface. Carrie has now become what is called a Protean Actress. This is an actress who could undergo complete changes in makeup and costume for each character if needed while playing all the parts very quickly. Even assuming male parts. They soon started a traveling company called Jack In The Box and toured across the country performing "The Tourists in a Pullman Car".
Carrie stayed in shape by swimming. This activity also brought her notoriety a number of times in her career. In 1880 she saved the daughter of the San Francisco Call newspaper owner from drowning and received a medal from the Humane Society. When touring in Detroit she would swim across the Detroit River to Windsor, Canada, and back non-stop. A distance of almost 4 miles. In 1883 she was saving lives again with her swimming. That year she saved 3 people from drowning while at Bayport, Long Island, and 4 at New Haven, Connecticutt. Again she was presented with a medal. While in Atlantic City in 1885 she swam 2 ½ miles in 58 minutes (in the ocean) beating a professional swimmer. Nowadays this would make her fast enough to compete as an Olympic triathlon swimmer. Later in life, at age 66, she would swim several miles in a charity race in the English Channel and win.
The Jack In The Box company was doing well for several years. A play, written for her, called "Cad, The Tom Boy" was made to show off all her talents. In 1882 Carrie is doing so well she treats herself to a pair of earrings. At the time they cost $2,000 which today would be $58,000. But Sam said he was feeling worn out and wanted to take a break in 1883. Carrie agreed to keep performing while Sam went to the island of Bermuda to recoup. She even put money in an account for him each week to cover his expenses. But Sam was not in Bermuda. He was in New York City with another woman and Carrie found out. After being caught Sam ran off to El Paso, Texas, and started a dining hall. In March 1884 Carrie sued him for a divorce. Sam didn't even bother to come to court to contest it.
After the divorce she went to El Paso to see Sam. His dining hall business was going under. But while she was there she met promoter Harry Newland and signed a deal with him to tour in Europe. Sam packed up and moved on to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started his own opera house entertainment business. Carrie kept her company on the road and kept it successful.
While in New York in 1885 a theatre critic made an interesting observation of her act...........
The “devine flip-flap” is what some reckless Frenchman would call the style of drama that has broken out at the Union Square Theatre. An attractive young woman calling herself Carrie Swain undertakes to hold an assemblage and carry an entire drama by the possibility of her back-bone, and her voice and the versatility of her legs and her talent.
You are to imagine a robust young woman. With a deal of animal grace that is seen in a cat, and with a rich mellow voice, who wins all her applause by trying to be as unwomanly as possible. She sings a song at the footlights. It is intended to be pathetic. At the end of each verse she turns a handspring on the stage.
Agility thus accomplishes what ability will not.
The whole exhibition is vulgar, coarse and painful to good taste. But, it excites the admiration of the class of men who will make a ring in the street to see a drunken woman demean herself.
This girl will probably fill the Union Square with rude people for weeks.
And the inequity of it all is that the entertainment gets classed with the drama.
This girl is a fair type of a class of quickwitted, uneducated, natural tomboy, with good looks, who gets upon the stage, and then everytime the fact that they have not the impulse of good taste in them. They will do anything to draw money. The burlesque business is the full of them.
After appearing next in Richmond, Virginia, that started this search Carrie works her way back to Los Angeles and the Bear Opera House where Frank Gardner is working.
Frank Lacroix Gardner was five years older than Carrie and had been born only about a mile from her in Philadelphia. But, Frank had spent most of his life there before going west. In Philadelphia, he had leased several theatres, but had lost them due to not having things in writing. He had assumed a handshake was good enough until lawyers got involved. He lost.
Frank was managing the Bear Opera House when Carrie's show arrived. There was an instant attraction and Frank was soon running the Jack In The Box troupe. Carrie quickly became known as Mrs. Frank Gardner even though once again Frank did not bother to have any paperwork done. Frank didn't need a marriage certificate, he already had one on file back in Philadelphia, where he had a wife and three children. His wife was Annie Graham, a former well known leading lady of the California theatrical circuit.
That September the troupe hit the road for their 48 week season. Their tour will include Australia. The trip extends to 2 years and will be life changing.
At the Royal Theatre in Melbourne Carrie commenced with her 'Cad: The Tomboy' and added realism to her show. The highlight of this production was the use of real water where a child is thrown from a wharf. Carrie would swim and save the child amid ovations from the audience. "Miss Swain must have some nerve to jump into cold water from a draughty stage these freezing evenings." a newspaper reported. They also called her "a charming singer, a fearless gymnast, and a vivacious actress."
Another performance is added to her tour. Frank has now written a new play for Carrie based on the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Carrie plays a character named Topsy. This would be her only performance in blackface since she had started out with Sam Swain.
Frank was a good business man in spite of his previous failure in Philadelphia. In Australia he talked Carrie into investing into new local gold mines. She was obviously the one with the money. He convinced her to spend thousands on stock that was worth pennies at the time. But this time Frank found a winner.
While in New York in 1885 a theatre critic made an interesting observation of her act...........
The “devine flip-flap” is what some reckless Frenchman would call the style of drama that has broken out at the Union Square Theatre. An attractive young woman calling herself Carrie Swain undertakes to hold an assemblage and carry an entire drama by the possibility of her back-bone, and her voice and the versatility of her legs and her talent.
You are to imagine a robust young woman. With a deal of animal grace that is seen in a cat, and with a rich mellow voice, who wins all her applause by trying to be as unwomanly as possible. She sings a song at the footlights. It is intended to be pathetic. At the end of each verse she turns a handspring on the stage.
Agility thus accomplishes what ability will not.
The whole exhibition is vulgar, coarse and painful to good taste. But, it excites the admiration of the class of men who will make a ring in the street to see a drunken woman demean herself.
This girl will probably fill the Union Square with rude people for weeks.
And the inequity of it all is that the entertainment gets classed with the drama.
This girl is a fair type of a class of quickwitted, uneducated, natural tomboy, with good looks, who gets upon the stage, and then everytime the fact that they have not the impulse of good taste in them. They will do anything to draw money. The burlesque business is the full of them.
After appearing next in Richmond, Virginia, that started this search Carrie works her way back to Los Angeles and the Bear Opera House where Frank Gardner is working.
Frank Lacroix Gardner was five years older than Carrie and had been born only about a mile from her in Philadelphia. But, Frank had spent most of his life there before going west. In Philadelphia, he had leased several theatres, but had lost them due to not having things in writing. He had assumed a handshake was good enough until lawyers got involved. He lost.
Frank was managing the Bear Opera House when Carrie's show arrived. There was an instant attraction and Frank was soon running the Jack In The Box troupe. Carrie quickly became known as Mrs. Frank Gardner even though once again Frank did not bother to have any paperwork done. Frank didn't need a marriage certificate, he already had one on file back in Philadelphia, where he had a wife and three children. His wife was Annie Graham, a former well known leading lady of the California theatrical circuit.
That September the troupe hit the road for their 48 week season. Their tour will include Australia. The trip extends to 2 years and will be life changing.
At the Royal Theatre in Melbourne Carrie commenced with her 'Cad: The Tomboy' and added realism to her show. The highlight of this production was the use of real water where a child is thrown from a wharf. Carrie would swim and save the child amid ovations from the audience. "Miss Swain must have some nerve to jump into cold water from a draughty stage these freezing evenings." a newspaper reported. They also called her "a charming singer, a fearless gymnast, and a vivacious actress."
Another performance is added to her tour. Frank has now written a new play for Carrie based on the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Carrie plays a character named Topsy. This would be her only performance in blackface since she had started out with Sam Swain.
Frank was a good business man in spite of his previous failure in Philadelphia. In Australia he talked Carrie into investing into new local gold mines. She was obviously the one with the money. He convinced her to spend thousands on stock that was worth pennies at the time. But this time Frank found a winner.
Frank (shown on the left) had invested her money in the Broken Hill Mine and the Coolgardie Gold Mine. Broken Hill turned out to be a massive ore body containing the world’s richest source of silver, lead and zinc generating over $100 billion in wealth over the years. The Coolgardie Gold Mine was not one single mine, but rather a generic term to describe a diverse group of mines - in essence, a mining locality. These mines would produce over 87 tons (almost 3 million ounces) of gold over the next 125 years. Frank and Carrie became multi-millionaires almost overnight.
Frank had become richer than his wildest dreams, but his actual wife in Philadelphia was destitute and looking for him. After not locating him in San Francisco she learned he was in Australia. When booking a ship to sail there a friend of Frank's at the ship company found out and alerted him. Before the real Mrs. Gardner got to Australia Frank and Carrie were already headed to England. By the time they arrived there they were worth about $11 million each. In today's money that would be over $340 million each.
Eventually the real Mrs. Gardner would catch up to him and demand a divorce and money. Frank paid her a measly $100,000 ($3 million) and his son $10,000 ($300,000). It also came out that Frank may have not yet been divorced from another woman he had married before Annie.
The rest of Frank's life should fill a small book. Surprisingly, none has ever been written. I shall give a basic picture of his life I have found out. He would become especially well known for his large mining and other interests in Mexico, South Africa, Australia and Russia. He was at one time chairman of twenty six different London corporations and many of them were large dividend payers. Frank would own a large, successful racing stable in England and hired America's top jockey Tod Sloan to work with him. He was an intimate associate of royalty and King Edward VII of England. They would tour Europe extensively in Gardner's automobile. In 1899 he joined with Léon Emmanuel Serpollet to manufacture the first steam powered automobile called the Gardner-Serpolle.
Eventually the real Mrs. Gardner would catch up to him and demand a divorce and money. Frank paid her a measly $100,000 ($3 million) and his son $10,000 ($300,000). It also came out that Frank may have not yet been divorced from another woman he had married before Annie.
The rest of Frank's life should fill a small book. Surprisingly, none has ever been written. I shall give a basic picture of his life I have found out. He would become especially well known for his large mining and other interests in Mexico, South Africa, Australia and Russia. He was at one time chairman of twenty six different London corporations and many of them were large dividend payers. Frank would own a large, successful racing stable in England and hired America's top jockey Tod Sloan to work with him. He was an intimate associate of royalty and King Edward VII of England. They would tour Europe extensively in Gardner's automobile. In 1899 he joined with Léon Emmanuel Serpollet to manufacture the first steam powered automobile called the Gardner-Serpolle.
Carrie would also live the high life in England and Paris, but her and Frank drifted apart. She was not happy about the real Mrs. Gardner. Carrie hardly performed anymore except for social events. But, she did take voice lessons with a well known voice coach in Paris for her singing that she enjoyed. Frank and Carrie's lives were front page news.
In 1903 Frank started losing money in some bad investments. And he had been dating Amadorine Leopoldine Anne Marie Louise Brouillet for two years. Carrie had been living in Paris on her own since 1901 on a few million he had transferred to her account. She now wanted her fair share. To make sure she didn't lose her part she decided to file for divorce. Her claim being that she had been the bread-winner and had put up the money in the beginning that made them wealthy.
She packed her 32 trunks of stuff and went to visit her brother in San Francisco to file for divorce in 1905. She wanted $200,000 ($6 million) a year and a divorce.
The court ruled against her saying that she was never married to Frank. She claimed they had been married August 8, 1886 but Frank had destroyed the paperwork. Besides, they said, he had still been married to Annie Graham. She repacked her trunks and returned to her home in Etretat on the coast of France. She starts using the name Carrie Swain Wisler.
Carrie did not give up. She then sued Frank from a business angle. Since they had not been legally married, she was at least his common law wife. She claimed she had invested the initial $6,000 ($200,000) in the mines when Frank was penniless. The basis of his fortune was based on her money. She wanted $40,000 ($1.2 million) immediately as a first installment. The Paris courts ruled in her favor.
Frank had married Amadorine Leopoldine Anne Marie Louise Brouillet in 1902. He and his new "Annie" traveled to the United States for a while. On his 1914 passport application to return to France I found an interesting statement. It said, in part, that he is traveling back to France with his wife Annie, he has no family in the U. S., he is suffering from heart disease and he is not responsible for paying taxes because he has less than two thousand dollars.
The statement of "no family in the U. S." is not true. His 37 year old son is alive and living in Chicago. When Frank dies in Paris in 1930 his son writes U. S. President Herbert Hoover to help him receive some of his father's estate in France because he is now a destitute World War I veteran. He receives no help.
Carrie and Frank spend their remaining years in Paris. She even becomes friends with the latest Mrs. Gardner. When Frank dies in 1930 his death is kept quiet per his wishes. His obituary was not posted until after his burial in Paris. It mentions nothing about Carrie or his theatrical past.
Carrie did not give up. She then sued Frank from a business angle. Since they had not been legally married, she was at least his common law wife. She claimed she had invested the initial $6,000 ($200,000) in the mines when Frank was penniless. The basis of his fortune was based on her money. She wanted $40,000 ($1.2 million) immediately as a first installment. The Paris courts ruled in her favor.
Frank had married Amadorine Leopoldine Anne Marie Louise Brouillet in 1902. He and his new "Annie" traveled to the United States for a while. On his 1914 passport application to return to France I found an interesting statement. It said, in part, that he is traveling back to France with his wife Annie, he has no family in the U. S., he is suffering from heart disease and he is not responsible for paying taxes because he has less than two thousand dollars.
The statement of "no family in the U. S." is not true. His 37 year old son is alive and living in Chicago. When Frank dies in Paris in 1930 his son writes U. S. President Herbert Hoover to help him receive some of his father's estate in France because he is now a destitute World War I veteran. He receives no help.
Carrie and Frank spend their remaining years in Paris. She even becomes friends with the latest Mrs. Gardner. When Frank dies in 1930 his death is kept quiet per his wishes. His obituary was not posted until after his burial in Paris. It mentions nothing about Carrie or his theatrical past.
Carrie stayed socially active in the Paris scene and was very popular. The well known French artist Louise Abbéma painted her portrait in 1908 for an exhibition. (Shown on the left)
Her home on the French coast would be taken over by German troops during World War II and trashed.
Carrie died "of old age" on June 20, 1944 in Paris, just two months shy of seeing her adopted hometown liberated by Allied forces. She is buried in the Cimetiere des Batignolles on the northwest side of Paris.