Ena Bertoldi
{{Short description|British contortionist appearing in kinetoscope films (1878 – 1906)}}{{Infobox actress
| name = Ena Bertoldi
| image = Ena_Bertoldi.jpg
| caption = Illustration of Ena Bertoldi in Toledo Evening Bee (1892)
| birth_name = Beatrice Mary Spink
| birth_date = 1878
| birth_place = Sheffield
| death_date = 1 April 1906
| burial_place = Lambeth cemetery, Tooting
| occupation = Contortionist
| years_active = 1886-1901
| known_for = Kinetoscope films
| notable_works = Bertoldi (Table Contortion)
Bertoldi (Mouth Support)
| spouse = Albert George Spink
}}
Ena Bertoldi (born Beatrice Mary Claxton) (1878 – 1906) was an English contortionist who was the subject of one of the first kinetoscope films.
Career
She was born Beatrice Mary Claxton to performer and agent Thomas Claxton Gregory, and began performing in circuses at the age of eight.{{Cite web |title=Ena Bertoldi Contortionist, Ferndale Road (1904) |url=https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/ena-bertoldi-contortionist-ferndale-road-1904 |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=www.layersoflondon.org}}{{Cite book |last1=Herbert |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UB7cAAAAMAAJ&dq=ena+bertoldi&pg=PA23 |title=Who's who of Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey |last2=McKernan |first2=Luke |date=1996 |publisher=British Film Institute |isbn=978-0-85170-539-2 |pages=23 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Toole-Stott |first=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55cNAQAAIAAJ&q=ena+bertoldi |title=Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography, 1500-[1962] Based Mainly on Circus Literature in the British Museum, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque Nationale and on His Own Collection. With a Foreword by M. Willson Disher |date=1962 |publisher=Harpur, distrubutors |pages=7391 |language=en}} In 1891, she travelled to America and performed with the Howard Athenaeum Specialty Co. In 1894, she performed at Koster & Bial's theatre{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPeR5uWxMZgC&dq=ena+bartoldi+actress&pg=PA51 |title=New York Dramatic Chronicle |date=1894 |pages=51 |language=en}} and at the Union Square theatre as part of the B.F. Keith circuit.{{Cite book |last=CHARLES |first=MUSSER |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lG9ZAAAAMAAJ&q=ena+bartoldi+actress |title=EDISON MOTION PICTURES |date=1997 |publisher=Smithsonian |isbn=978-1-56098-567-9 |pages=96 |language=en}}
Along with many of the circus and vaudeville acts at Koster & Bial's, she went to New Jersey to make films for the Thomas Edison Kinetoscope system at the Black Maria studio.{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Tara Isabella |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=peSXEAAAQBAJ&dq=ena+bartoldi+actress&pg=PT125 |title=Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians |date=2023-06-29 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-1-5293-6471-2 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Kalinak |first=Kathryn |date=2019 |title=The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, Popular Music, and the Invention of Moving Pictures |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/filmhistory.31.4.03 |journal=Film History |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=61–91 |doi=10.2979/filmhistory.31.4.03 |jstor=10.2979/filmhistory.31.4.03 |issn=0892-2160|url-access=subscription }} Her films, filmed in the spring of 1894 and released that year, were Bertoldi (Table Contortion) and Bertoldi (Mouth support). {{Cite book |last=Spehr |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hcWCDgAAQBAJ&dq=ena+bertoldi&pg=PA328 |title=The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson |date=2008-11-17 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-86196-936-4 |pages=328–30 |language=en}} The films were shown at the Holland Brothers parlour, where patrons paid twenty-five cents to watch a twenty- to thirty-second film through a slot in a wooden box.{{Cite book |last=Gaudreault |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3h9RrEokcrwC&dq=beatrice+mary+claxton&pg=PA23 |title=American Cinema, 1890-1909: Themes and Variations |date=2009 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4443-4 |pages=23; 35 |language=en}}
In 1898 – 9, she carried out a twelve-month contract for G.A. Payne for £1300, earning her the nickname 'Queen of Contortionists' by the Royal Magazine.{{Cite news |last=Holmes |first=H.J. |date=May 1899 |title=A Queen of Contortionists |work=The Royal Magazine}} She claimed to be able to carry out her feats 'without feeling.'
Personal life and death
In 1896, Beatrice married fellow performer Albert George Spink, who appears in the 1927 short film Dandy George and Rosie.{{Cite web |title=Albert George Spink {{!}} Actor, Writer |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2127949/?ref_=tt_ov_wr_1 |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}} She filed for separation from him in 1904 on the grounds of physical abuse. She died on 1 April 1906 of alcohol abuse.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fyw_AQAAMAAJ&q=ena+bartoldi+actress |title=The Era Almanack, Dramatic & Musical |date=1905 |pages=79 |language=en}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertoldi, Ena}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0078187/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm Ena Bertoldi] at IMDb
- [https://www.victorian-cinema.net/bertoldi.php Ena Bertoldi] at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema
Category:Entertainers from Sheffield
Category:19th-century circus performers
Category:British circus performers