Today's celebrities expect a following of paparazzi recording every facet of their lives, but Adah Isaacs Menken—the poet and legendary star of the 1860's stage who almost bared it for all—was one of the first to manipulate newspaper reports and photographs to create a public persona.

Case Western Reserve University historian Renee Sentilles explains in her recent book "Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of the American Celebrity" (Cambridge University Press, 2003) how Menken found the media of her day could create and likewise destroy the celebrity.

The Case assistant professor of history aptly named her book because Menken "performed" different revisions of herself-including performing on stage nearly naked-to elicit particular responses. Today's American studies scholars find a maze of public and private identities in search of the real Menken.

Sentilles searched public, church, census and other records in Louisiana and other places of Menken's past to discover that there was something true in most of her assumed identities.

She found in letters to Menken's friends and associates over the year and in news clips that Menken was a chameleon who altered her identity to reflect current social norms, situation and locale to
give her audience what they wanted.

"Her life story is as much about American culture as it is about Menken and how she was created and gave birth to the American celebrity," the historian said.

Sentilles uses the actress's life as a spyglass onto American culture in the era leading up to and following the Civil War. She trains the lens on the actress' life as focal point to examine the theater, popular and frontier culture, sentimental and romantic literature and other facets of American life.

The historian also looks at gender roles of women of the era to discover that the Victorian women "were far more complex than most of us realize."

Gender questioning abounded during the Civil War, according to Sentilles, and Menken's cross-dressing roles upon stage "tapped into this questioning."

After a bout of scandal that involved drinking with men in Dayton, Ohio, Menken learned early in her acting career that "she needed to get her name in the media if she wanted to get contracts and fill theaters, and there were two quick routes to fame: direct contact and scandal," according to the author.

"Scandalous publicity could make an unknown actress known," Sentilles said.

She writes in her book, "Menken became famous for being Menken. She moves through a variety of things to keep her constantly before the public eye."

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