So the first part of my Hippodrome book that I’ve been able to fully research and draft an article about is the New York Hippodrome’s water tank and the mermaid performers who used it.
I’d love to be able to write about the experience of the performers using first-hand accounts. Unfortunately, women who wore spangled swimsuits and headdresses and worked in 1905 Times Square mega-theaters are not always the people whose papers get preserved in public archives. I’m really hoping there are some family members who kept their diaries and letters. According to the one Pinterest post I’ve found with names written on the pictures, these were the original Hippodrome mermaids: 1. Marion Pardue 2. Bernice Elser 3. Beryl Clifton 4. Hattie Dorsell 5. Kitty Watkinson 6. Angelina Pesslone 7. Margaret Townsend 8. Juanita Davis.
I’ve seen Margaret Townsend’s name other places too, as the “Queen of the Mermaids.”
If you recognize these names from family lore, please get in touch with me! I would love to write my book as a group biography of the women performers who made the New York Hippodrome so spectacular.