Editing Sarah Bernhardt (section)

===''La Dame aux camélias'' and first American tour (1880–1881)===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|thumb|''Frou-frou'' (1881)]]

In April 1880, as soon as he learned Bernhardt had resigned from the Comédie Française, the impresario Edward Jarrett hurried to Paris and proposed that she make a theatrical tour of England and then the United States. She could select her repertoire and the cast. She would receive 5,000 francs per performance, 15% of any earnings over 15,000 francs, plus all of her expenses, and an account in her name for 100,000 francs, the amount she owed to the Comédie Française. She accepted immediately.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=148–149}}

Now on her own, Bernhardt first assembled and tried her new troupe at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique in Paris. She performed for the first time {{Lang|fr|[[La Dame aux Camélias]]}}, by Alexandre Dumas ''fils''. She did not create the role; the play had first been performed by Eugénie Dochein in 1852, but it quickly became her most performed and most famous role. She played the role more than a thousand times, and acted regularly and successfully in it until the end of her life. Audiences were often in tears during her famous death scene at the end.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=146–147}}

She could not perform ''La Dame aux Camélias'' on a London stage because of British censorship laws; instead, she put on four of her proven successes, including ''Hernani'' and ''Phèdre'', plus four new roles, including ''[[Adrienne Lecouvreur]]'' by [[Eugène Scribe]] and the drawing-room comedy ''Frou-frou'' by Meilhac-Halévy, both of which were highly successful on the London stage.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=150}} In six of the eight plays in her repertoire, she died dramatically in the final act. When she returned to Paris from London, the Comédie Française asked her to come back, but she refused their offer, explaining that she was making far more money on her own. Instead, she took her new company and new plays on tour to Brussels and Copenhagen, and then on a tour of French provincial cities.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=142–145}}

She and her troupe departed from Le Havre for America on 15 October 1880, arriving in New York on 27 October. On 8 November in New York City, she performed Scribe's ''[[Adrienne Lecouvreur (play)|Adrienne Lecouvreur]]'' at [[Booth's Theatre]] before an audience which had paid a top price of a stunning $40 {{USDCY|40|1880}} for a ticket. Few in the audience understood French, but it was not necessary; her gestures and voice captivated the audience, and she received a thunderous ovation. She thanked the audience with her distinctive curtain call; she did not bow, but stood perfectly still, with her hands clasped under her chin, or with her palms on her cheeks, and then suddenly stretched them out to the audience. After her first performance in New York, she made 27 curtain calls. Although she was welcomed by theatre-goers, she was entirely ignored by New York high society, who considered her personal life scandalous.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=163}}

Bernhardt's first American tour carried her to 157 performances in 51 cities.<ref>{{IBDB name|9688|Sarah Bernhardt}}</ref> She travelled on a special train with her own luxurious [[Sleeping car|palace car]], which carried her two maids, two cooks, a waiter, her maître d'hôtel, and her personal assistant, Madame Guérard. It also carried an actor named Édouard Angelo, whom she had selected to serve as her leading man, and, according to most accounts, her lover during the tour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Silverthorne |first=Elizabeth |title=Sarah Bernhardt |url=https://archive.org/details/sarahbernhardt0000silv |url-access=registration |series=Women in the Arts series |year=2003 |publisher=Chelsea House |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0-7910-7458-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sarahbernhardt0000silv/page/77 77–78]}}</ref>{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=159}} From New York, she made a side trip to [[Menlo Park, New Jersey|Menlo Park]], where she met [[Thomas Edison]], who made a brief recording of her reciting a verse from ''Phèdre,'' which has not survived.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=166}} She crisscrossed the United States and Canada from Montreal and Toronto to Saint Louis and New Orleans, usually performing each evening, and departing immediately after the performance. She gave countless press interviews, and in Boston posed for photos on the back of a dead whale. She was condemned as immoral by the Bishop of Montreal and by the [[Methodist]] press, which only increased ticket sales.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=166}} She performed ''Phèdre'' six times and ''La Dame Aux Camélias'' 65 times (which Jarrett had renamed "Camille" to make it easier for Americans to pronounce, despite the fact that no character in the play has that name). On 3 May 1881, she gave her final performance of ''Camélias'' in New York. Throughout her life, she always insisted on being paid in cash. When Bernhardt returned to France, she brought with her a chest filled with $194,000 in gold coins.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=188–196}} She described the result of her trip to her friends: "I crossed the oceans, carrying my dream of art in myself, and the genius of my nation triumphed. I planted the French verb in the heart of a foreign literature, and it is that of which I am most proud."{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=174}}