Annie Hindle: ca. 1847-19??
Annie Hindle was, according to theater historian Gillian Rodger, "the first woman to gain significant attention as a male impersonator in the United States, and most likely introduced this performance style to the American variety stage."[1]
Research by OutHistory in online newspapers and other sources is adding important new details to her life story.[2]Hindle's life is notable for allegedly marrying, while impersonating a man, a first wife, Annie Byan, and after Ryan's decease, a second wife, Louise Spangehl (or Spangehel).
This entry is UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Please help with this research.
A story about Hindle in the Pittsburg Dispatch on July 5, 1892, on the occasion of her second marriage to a woman, gives a fairly detailed account of her life:[3]
This story reports that for the second time in her life Hindle, the "'celebrated male impersonator'", then between 45-50 years-old, had married a woman. On June 26, in Troy, New York, Hindle had married Louise Spangehl (or Spangehel). The ceremony was performed by the Rev. G. C. Baldwin, a Baptist minister who at the time of the wedding claimed that he thought Hindle was a man. Hindle gave her name to the minister as Charles Edward Hindle.
Miss Hindle had been married three times previously. In December 1891, on the Jersey City Heights, Hindle had become a widower and buried her first wife, Annie Ryan, who she had married in the summer of 1886.
In the 1860s she had been the wife of Charles Vivian.
When Hindle was five years old, in England, the woman who adopted her put her on the stage in the pottery district of Hartfordshire. As an adult performer, Annie Hindle traveled to London, and on a whim, one day, put on male clothes and performed a song and became an acclaimed male impersonator.
About 1867 she had come to New York and triumphed on the stage as she had in London:
- She was a blond, about 5 feet 6 inches, with a plump form, well-shaped hands, small feet and closely cropped hair, which on and off the stage she parted on one side, brushing it away from the temples as men do. Her voice was deeper than an alto, yet it was sweet and it sang true with great expression.
The paper says:
- Annie Hindle was the first out-and-out 'male impersonator' New York's stage had ever seen. Ella Wesner had not yet ceased to dance obscurely in the ballet with her sister; Blanche Selwyn, was unheard of; Maggie Weston was yet to come along in the crowded ranks of Hindle's imitators.
The story continues:
- It is a fact that this dashing singer was the recipient of as many "mash" notes as probably ever went to a stage in thsi country. Once she compared notes with H. J. Montague, that carelessly handsome actor at whose shrine so many silly women had worshiped, but Hindle's admirers far outnumbered his, and they were all women, strange as that may seem.
The papers says it was about 1867 that "Charley Vivian", the English comic, met Hindle and fell in love with her, and she with him, and they were married in the fall of 1868 by a Philadelphia minister. They started for the Pacific coast but in Denver they separated. Hindle claimed that they had been married several months and that he had physically abused her. They did not divorce, but went their own ways. Charles Vivian had died in March 1880, in Leadville [Colorado]. The report continues:
- Hindle's next romance came six years later. In all her travels she had carried a "dresser." In the summer of 1886 her dresser was a pretty little brunette of 25 a quiet, demure girl, who made friends wherever she went. One night in June; 1886, Annie Hindle and Annie Byan left the Grand Kapids, Mich., theater, where Miss Hindle was then engaged and drove to the Barnard house.
A subhead in the paper declares: "Married One of Her Own Sort." The story continues:
- In room 19 a minister of the Gospel, Rev. E. H. Brooks, awaited the couple. There was a best man, jolly Gilbert Saroney, a "female impersonator," but there was no bridesmaid. At 10 o'clock Mr. Brooks per formed the marriage ceremony, and solemnly pronounced Annie Hindle the husband of Annie Ryan.
- The female groom wore a dress suit, the bride was in her traveling costume. The minister put a fat fee in his pocketbook, and Mr. Saroney, the female impersonator, and Miss Hindle, the new husband, opened a bottle of wine and smoked a cigarette or two.
- The couple lived together happily five years, occupying a pleasant home on the Jersey Heights. They were respected by their neighbors, it appears, and they were welcomed at all the social gatherings in the vicinity of their home. Miss Hindle did not reappear on the stage until some months after her wife's death. Then she accepted several engagements, and it was during one of these engagements that she met Miss Spangehel, whom she has just married.
Timeline
1847, ca.
Hindle born.
1869, June 24
- "Annie Hindle, female Lingardist", listed as one of the performers.
1869, June 26
- "Annie Hindle, female Lingardist", listed as one of the performers.
1870, November 12=
- Advertising "THE GREAT ANNIE HINDLE" playing matinee performances.
1872, March 30
"Broom [opera house] gives a grand matinee at two o'clock this afternoon, for ladies and children, on which occasion Miss Annie Hindle, the London vocalist, will appear." Memphis Daily Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), March 30, 1872, Image 4
- Advertising "The great original protean change vocalist, Miss Annie Hindle."
1872, November 12
Advertisement for "Tony Pastor's Opera House-Bowery", New York City. "Bowery, Opposite Spring St." [1] The Sun, November 12, 1872, Image 4]
- Advertising "The great original protean change vocalist, Miss ANNIE HINDLE."
1872, November 16
Advertisement for "Tony Pastor's Opera House", New York City. The Sun, November 16, 1872, Image 4
- Advertising "Annie Hindle's Songs and Changes."
1875, October 6
Anon. "GENERAL NEWS OF THE CITY . . . Annie Hindle and Harry Brooks". National Republican, Washington, D.C., October 06, 1875, Image 4
- A story is headed: "ANNIE HINDLE CHALLENGE. The Champion of the World Accepts It.":
- September 27 we published a card from Miss Annie Hindle, dated Cumberland, Md, September 24, challenging Harry Brooks, "champion pedestrian of the world," to walk a match or endurance for from $1,000 to (5,000 a side and the championship of the world, the match to take place in Washington. Miss Hindle requested Mr. Brooks to reply through the Clipper. Whether he has or not we have no means or knowing, but ha sends us the following letter and his form or acceptance. If Miss Hindle desires, the courtesy of replying through The Republican is extended to her:
- 270 Pennsylvania Avenue
- Baltimore, October 6 1875
- To the Editor of the National Rebublicanl:
- Sir: A friend or mine has just handed me a copy or your valuable paper of September 27, containing a copy of Miss Annie Hindle's challenge to me. In reply, will you kindly insert the inclosed from me to Miss Hindle? And allow me to state that I do not like the Idea of a lady challenging me, but claiming the championship or the world, which I think I have honestly and fairly won, I am in duy:: bound to answer the same. Yet I wish Miss Hlndle to know that I claim to be a gentleman, and am willing she shall win the championship of the world If she is able so to do, I therefore offer her the following: reply.
- Your Inserting the inclosed will greatly oblige yours, respectfully, Harry Brooks,
- Champion pedestrian ot tho world.
- HARRY BROOKS' REPLY TO MISS ANNIE HINDLE.
- BALTIMORE, MD., 270 PENNSYLVANIA AVE.
- In reply to Miss Annie Hindle's challenge of September 27, to walk me a match of endurance, end bearing In mind that a lady has challenged me, I hereby agree to walk Miss Hindle for any amount, from $1,000 to $5,0O0 a side, to suit her. I will also give her five hours, or, in other words, I will start five hours In advance of her, and give her every fair chance to bear off the honors consistent with a fair match. If Miss H. means business, let her address me as above.
- Yours, very respectfully, Harry Brooks, Champion of the World.
- P. S. 1 will either walk her distance or endurance, giving her five miles In fifty or one mile in ten. H. B.
1873, April 13
Anon. "Theatre Comique." National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.), April 13, 1878, Image 4
- "Jake Hudd, Robert V. Ferguson, Annie HIndle, Quilter and Goldrich, and the efficient combination of variety stars now engaged at the Comique wlll apear at the matinee this afternoon and the seance to-night.
National Republican, April 13, 1873, Image 4
1882, June 7
Advertisment: "Theatre Comique. Thursday June 8. First Appearance of the Great and Only ANNIE HINDLE." [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014424/1882-06-07/ed-1/seq-3/ The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.), June 07, 1882, Image 3
1882, June 9
Advertisment: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.), June 09, 1882, Image 3
1882, June 10
Advertisement: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.), June 10, 1882, Image 3
1882, June 12
Advertisement: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.)
1882, June 13
Advertisement: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.)
1882, June 14
Advertisement: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.)
1882, June 15
Advertisement: The Evening critic. (Washington, D.C.)
1886, June 7
"Man or Woman?" Grand Rapids Evening Leader (June 7, 1886): 4.
"Married Her Maid: The Strange Story of Charles and Annie Hindle, a Man Masquerading as a Woman." Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald (June 7, 1886): 4.
1886, June 8
"Married as a Man." Grand Rapids Daily Democrat (June 8, 1886): 5.
1886, June 10
"A Curious Marriage." St. Paul Daily Globe, St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 1886, Page 3, Image 3
- [Full story:] A Curious Marriage. Special to tho Globe. Grand Rapids, June 9.— Annie Hindle, well known in vaudeville circles as a male impersonator, was married last night by Rev. Mr. Brooks under the name of Charles A. Hindle to Annie Shan of Cleveland, 0. [Ohio], a comely woman of 30, who has been traveling with Hindle as maid. In 1860 Hindle became the wife of Charles Vivian, an English comedian, and they lived together one day. Hindle now claims to be a man. He has always dressed as a woman.
1886, July 6
The Salt Lake Herald., July 06, 1892, Page 2, Image 2
1891, December 27
"Stranger than Fiction: The True Story of Annie Hindle's Two Marriages." New York Sun (December 27, 1891): 13
1892, July 5
"WEDDED TO A WOMAN. Annie Hindle Gives the Idle Variety Actors on the Rialto SOMETHING NEW TO TALK ABOUT. She Becomes a Bridegroom for the Second Time in Her Life. ONCE HAVING BEEN A FAIR BRIDE. Special Telegram to The Dispatch. New York, July 4." [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1886-06-10/ed-1/seq-3/ Pittsburg Dispatch. (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.) July 05, 1892.[4] See version of this story detailed above in the introduction to this entry on Hindle.
"ANNIE HINDLE'S NEW WIFE. Married in a Dress Suit at Troy to a Young Woman of That Town." The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), July 05, 1892, EXTRA 2 O'CLOCK, Image 1
"ANNIE HINDLE'S NEW WIFE. Married in a Dress Suit at Troy to a Young Woman of That Town."
The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), July 05, 1892, LAST EDITION, Page 2, Image 2
- [This version of the above story is clearer so it is reproduced here:
- ANNIE HINDLE'S HEW WIFE. Married In u Dress Suit at Troy to a Young Woman of That Town.
- Annie Hindle, the female impersonator of music hall fame, who has been once a wife, once a husband, once a widow, and once a widower, has added another chapter to her romantic life by wedding another wife.
- This new wife was Miss Louise Spangehl, a young woman of Troy, and the marriage took place in that city on June 26, the Rev. G. C. Baldwin performing the ceremony which made one woman the husband of another. The Rev. Mr. Baldwin is a Baptist minister, and performed the ceremony in perfect good faith, believing Miss Hindle to be a man, for she came to him with her bride on her arm fresh from a beer garden and In the dress suit which she baa worn in her male Impersonatlon there. Annie is now forty-five years of age.
"ANNIE HINDLE'S NEW WIFE." Same story in a later edition of the same paper: The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), July 05, 1892, SPORTING EXTRA, Page 2, Image 2
"ANNIE HINDLE WEDS ANEW. ONCE A WIDOW, ONCE A WIDOWEER, NOW A HUSBAND AGAIN. The Rev Mr. Baldwin , a Baptist Clergyman of Troy, United Her in Marriage to Louise Spangehl of That City on the Last Sunday in June--A Romantic Story."
- All the variety actors on tho Rlalto had somethtng to talk about yesterday. They had heard that Annie Hlndle. the "celebrated male impersonator," had married again, and that her marriage was as strange in Its main feature as If it had been tho plot of a weird novel of the latter day period. In fact Miss Hlndle had supplied more than the usual basis for a unlque story, because for the second time In her life, she had gone and marrled a woman. The affair has been kept quiet but tho details have leaked out, as theatrical stories generally do.
- On Sunday, Juno 26, In Troy, Miss Annie Hlndle became, not the wlfe, but the lawful husband of Miss Louise Spangehl, who lives In Troy, and is not on the stage. The ceremony was performed In the most good faith by the Rev. G. C. Baldwin, a Baptist minister of Troy, and there Is no reason to dlspute his assertion that at the tlme of tho wedding he believed Miss Hindle to be a man. She had boon performing at a Troy beer garden, and her nightly triumph was achieved In her "male Impersonations."
- In this act she wears men's clothing, smokes cigars, and other wlse conducts herself in the manner of the sterner sex. No doubt the larger portion of her audience was deceived by her cleverness, and perhaps she assured the Troy clergyman that she was really deceiving the public: but it would be Impossible to convince the Rialto throngs that Annie Hlndle Is other than a woman.
- Tho oddity of her recent marriage Is increased by tho fact that Miss Hlndle has three times been marrlod. Once she was a bride; twice she has benn a groom. Once she had a husband, twice she has had a wife. Once she was a widow,
once she was a widower; now she has a husband [wife?] again. If there is anything In the most topsy-turvey chronicles to equal this in its fantasticality, who can toll about it?
- Only last December Annie Hlndle burled her flrst wife. The Sun told all about the strange ceremony at the tlme. [Research Request: GET DOCUMENT.] Only last December Annie Hlndle burled her first wife. The Sun told all about the strange ceremony at the time. [Research Request: GET DOCUMENT.] It told how, on the Jersey City Heights, on a cold December day
there was held a funeral which, in one respect, presented as strange a spectacle as is often witnessed. In describing Annie Hlndle, just as she is to-day--a woman between 45 and 50 yours of age, who In her prime was doubtless an excellent type of what is called the "dashingly handsome" girl, with a face that is masculine in all its lines, eyes that are gray, but lit with a kindly expression, a firmly cut month, and a resolute chin. At that time she was the chief mourner at the funeral of her first wife, Annie Ryan. She had married Annie Ryan In the summer of 1886 and, as in tho Troy affair, the strange wedding was sanctioned by the blessing of a minister of the Gospel. When Annie Ryan died, and her husband, Annie Handle, buried her, the funeral was the oddest thing that had ever been noted on the Jersey City Heights. Miss Hlndle was apparently bowed in grief, and her declaration that she had lost her best friend on earth, was in good faith accepted by the few friends assembled around the dead woman's bier. They will be amazed to hear that within six months Annie Hlndle has found a new wife.
- Miss Hlndlo in a measure deceived the Troy minister who made her the wife of Louis[e] Spangehel. She told him that this was her second marriage, and that her name was Charles Edward Hlndle. She did not tell him that she had never before assumed a male prefix, nor did she reveal to him that long ago in the sixties she was the wife of Charles Vivian.
- [Paragraph added.] When, Annie Hlndle was flve years old the woman who adopted her and who gave her protege her own name put her on the stage in the pottery district of Hertfordshire, In England. The little girl sang well, even so early. There was a fearlessness in her manner that tickled her rough audiences, and they made a favorite of her from the very first. At the outset she sang tender songs, with love as their theme, but as she grew up and
travelled to London she enlarged her "repertory." One day, half in jest, she put on a man's costume and sang a rollicking ditty about wine and women. A manager who listened to her saw a new field open to her. In a week Annlo Hlndle was a "male impersonator." And all London was talking about the wonderful and minute accuracy of her mimlcry.
- [Paragraph added/] About 1807 she came to New York, to triumph here as she had triumphed in London. She was a blonde, about five feet six, with a plump form, well-shaped hands, small feet, and closely cropped hair, which, on and off the stage, she parted on one side, brushing it away from tho temples just as men do. Her voice was deeper than an alto, yet It was sweet and it sang true and with great expression.
- Annle Hlndlo was the first out-and-out
"malo Impersonator" New York's stage hnd eerseoD. Ella Wesner had not yet ceased to dance obscuroly In tho ballet with her sister: Blanche Belwyn was unheard of; Maggie Wes ton was yet to como along In tho erowded ranks of Hlndlo's Imitators. Hut In '07 all the glory was Hlndlo's. all the novelty was hers, and she got all tho money, too. It Is a fact that this dashing singer was the rjcipiont ot as many " masn " notes as probably ovor went to a stage favorite in this country. Once she compared notes with H. J. Montague, that carolessly handsomo actor at whose shrine so many silly womon had worshipped; but Hlndlo's admirers far outnumbered his. and thoy wero all women, strango as that may seem. About this tlmo Charley Vivian, tho English comlque, was travelling through America. Ho was n clevor follow of the Llngard typo a Ann singer, ft dashing dresser, and a gen eral swell. Ho fell in love with Annie Hiudle, who reciprocated his affection, and in the fall of 1808 they wore mar ried by a Philadelphia minister. They started at once for the Paclflo coast as happy, apparently, an a pair of turtle doves. Yet at Donvor a llttlo later Vivian and hi wife sepa rated. Ther never met again. He told his friends that thotr honoymoon had lasted one night Hlndle has since said that he did not tell tho truth. "Ho lived with me," she declares, rathor blttorlr. "se-.oral months long enough to black both oyes nnd otherwise mnrk me; yet I wus a good nnd true wlfo to him." Vivian did not get a divorce. He hnd no cause. Hlndle did not seek one. Bhowusfroo enough. So they travelled apart both In their own way. busy onough. yet unhappy; and In March, 1880. Vivian died In Leadvillc, He had f tot prospered In his latter davs. He should tave had thousands of friends, for ho Itwns who founded the gront Order of Elks. Yet ho was practically penniless when ho died. Hlndlo's next romance came six year's later. In all her travels she had curried a" dresser." In the summer of 1R1) hor drecser was a pret ty llttlo brunotln of 25 p quiet demuro girl, who made Irlends wherover she wont Ono night In June. 1880. Annlo Hlndle and Annie Rinn left tho Grand Rapids. Mich,, Theatro. vthoro Miss Hlndlo was then engaged, and dr'ivo to tho Barnard House. In room lit a minister of the gospel, the Rev. . II. Brooks, an ailed the couple. Thero was a host man, jolly Gilbert Naroney, a fe mnln Impersonator, hut thore was no brides maid. At 10 o'clock Mr. Brooks performed the marriage ouromony. and solemnly pronounced Annie Hlndle tho husband of Annie Ryan. The female groom wore a dross suit: tho bride was In her travelling costume, Tho minister put n fat fee In his pockotbook, ond Mr. Saroney, the female Impersonator, and Miss Hlndle, tho new husbnnd, opened a bottle of wlno and sniol.vd a clgnrottu nr two. Tlio coupln lived together happily five J ears, nccunring a pleasant home on tho ersey Heights. Thoy wero rospnetod by their noighhors.lt appears, and they worn woleomo at nil tho social gatherings in the vicinity of their homo Miss Hlndlo did not reappear on the stngo until somo months after her wife's: death. Then sho accepted several engagements, and it wus during one of theso engagements that sho met Miss Spangehl, whom bhu has just marrlod. The Sun. (New York [N.Y.]), July 05, 1892, Image 1
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Anon. "Man or Woman?" Grand Rapids Evening Leader (June 7, 1886): 4.
Anon. "Married Her Maid: The Strange Story of Charles and Annie Hindle, a Man Masquerading as a Woman." Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald (June 7, 1886): 4.
Anon. "Married as a Man." Grand Rapids Daily Democrat (June 8, 1886): 5.
Anon. "Stranger than Fiction: The True Story of Annie Hindle's Two Marriages." New York Sun (December 27, 1891): 13
Secondary Sources
Duggan, Lisa. Saphic Slashers: .........
Rodger, Gillian. "Annie Hindle". GLBTQ.com. Date Last Updated: August 5, 2004.
Rodger, Gillian. Male Impersonation on the North American Variety and Vaudeville Stage, 1868-1930. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1998.
Senelick, Lawrence. "Male Impersonation." The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Martin Banham, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 674-675.
Notes
- ↑ Rodger's entry about Hindle appears in GLBTQ.com, An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture, General Editor: Claude J. Summers.
- ↑ A search of the newspapers on the Chronicling American website on January 8, 2012, provided "24 results containing “the phrase "Annie Hindle"” and “Annie Hindle”"”. The reference to Hindle on some pages was not highlighted in red so it was not found: see (1) Memphis daily appeal., May 16, 1873, Image 4. (2) National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)), February 24, 1875, Image 4.
- ↑ Anon. "WEDDED TO A WOMAN. Annie Hindle Gives the Idle Variety Actors on the Rialto SOMETHING NEW TO TALK ABODT. She Becomes a Bridegroom for the Second Time in Her Life. ONCE HAVING BEEN A FAIR BRIDE. Special Telegram to The Dispatch. New York, July 4." Pittsburg Dispatch. (Pittsburg [Pa.] July 05, 1892. Image 9. Image and text provided by Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA. Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1892-07-05/ed-1/seq-9/
- ↑ Image 9. Image and text provided by Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA. Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1892-07-05/ed-1/seq-9/
[[Category:theater] [[Category:transgender]
