Newspaper Coverage

It was not unusual for Caroline Siedle to be mentioned in newspaper blurbs about upcoming productions, but on several occasions her costumes were singled out for description and particular notice. A few examples follow - often with misspellings of her name.

From the Jennings Daily Record, December 8, 1902, concerning The Daughter of Hamilcar: 

The most unique feature of the production of Blanche Walsh's new play based on "Salammbo" are the costumes designed by Mrs. Seidle. 

 

The dress which Miss Walsh wears in the first act is composed of several layers of silk gauzes, the outside of which is black, the next two of different shades of blue, and the last of pink. Under this nothing is worn except fleshings. Each gauze is embroidered with poppies and other floral suggestions of the period, the outer gauze being decorated with vari-colored gems surrounded by thousands of gold spangles. 

 

Ten seamstresses were at work on these spangles for two weeks night and day, each separate spangle having to be sewn on by hand with silk thread. The general effect of the costume amounts to a sensation, as the whole scheme of transparencies betrays the natural outlines of the figure with more or less definition according to the varying poses of the actress and the position of the lights thrown on her.

Another descriptive mention can be found in a January 2nd, 1906 review of It Happened in Nordland, from The Evening Star of Washington D.C.; Sadly, I've not seen any images of these particular costumes!

“It Happened in Nordland” is a vehicle constructed to convey (Lew) Fields, several other comedians and comediennes and a galaxy of pretty and talented girls through a kaleidoscopic series of beautiful stage pictures. For instance, a song (sung) by Harry Davenport, entitled “Absinthe Frappe”, is rendered with the assistance of a chorus clad in filmy garments of greenish hue, and employing tiny electric lights of the same shade. And so, for every number there was a change of costume by the very hard-worked, but superbly trained chorus.

A pair of gowns seen in the 1900 production In the Palace of the King merited a full, if somewhat hyperbolic, description in the Jersey City News, November 4, 1901. Photos from the production are from the collection of The Museum of the City of New York: 

The clothes worn by Miss Viola Allen in "The Palace of the King," are of interest to the student of dress and the artist, says Anne Rittenhouse, in the Philadelphia “Press.”

Not a woman in the audience but wonders where she found such costumes and where such needlework was done.

The play is in the time of Phillip II of Spain, and, therefore, brings to the modern playgoer an atmosphere little known.  

Spanish court ladies dressed magnificently in those days. Spain was mighty, and its women showed its wealth in superb brocades, ropes of jewels and magnificent needle work.

It is no easy task to get up such gowns. Mr. Marion Crawford, the author, treated his subject with historical accuracy, and it was only fair to him that the gowns should not transgress any law of the times.

I was very much interested in two gowns especially. These were worn by Miss Allen. One was a mantle, not a gown, but voluminous enough to have served as a room robe. The needlework was so beautiful on these and the work so intricate that I was sure they were not picked up at an hour’s notice.  

Miss Allen was glad to tell of them, and the story of their making will surely interest every woman. 

Mrs. Seidle took hold of the task of getting the star’s gowns as soon as Mr. Crawford’s story was decided on. She went to Madrid for the purpose and there got admission into the famous museum, which holds many wonderful souvenirs of Spain's past greatness. 
Costumes are preserved there that belonged to royalty in the days when the armada was to be feared. 

Mrs. Seidle studied these clothes for weeks. She sketched them also. The white ball costume she copied exactly; this is the one Miss Allen wears when she goes to the ball. And the dark, splendid mantle was also copied after one on exhibition. To hold these in the hands is to know just what skill and care has gone into their making. 

Yards and yards of silver embroidery are on the satin gown. And the mantle, made of a specially woven fabric, is one splendid showing of cloth of gold and gold embroidery. Just such handiwork does the traveler see in the priests’ robes in the rich towns of France and Spain. 

All the clothes worn are marvelous in texture and coloring, but these two pieces are not only splendid but of exceeding interest because they are exact reproductions of famous ones and because of the skilled needlework shown on them.

And one more example, this time for the 1903 production of The Runaways. Caroline Siedle isn't mentioned by name, but the gowns in the story are her creations:

COSTLY GOWNS IN "THE RUNAWAYS"

 

The comic opera queens, the singers who attend Miss Erminie Earle in "The Runaways," include some of the prettiest show girls on the stage. They are ten in number and are one of the features of the song hit, "Susannah of Urbana," in which their gorgeous gowns form the ever-twinkling background for the comedian. These gowns just escape the ground, to give the dancers freedom of action, and are of white silk net spangled with silver and appliqued with black velvet ribbon. The drop skirts are of rich orange silk, and when the girls dance, the color effect is brilliant, especially when a moving picture effect is turned on them by the calcium light. Two million spangles of the lightest weight, known as gelatin spangles, are employed on these gowns, and as each one is attached to a short cord of silver bullion to secure a better effect as the dancers whirl-about, it required three weeks work by a girl to complete the spangles of each gown. Nor was the work finished when the gowns left the costumers. One man is now employed every day in the sewing room at the theater to keep the gowns in repair, as the rapid movements of the dancers send the spangles flying in a shower over the stage every night.

 

Unfortunately, the tinted postcard shown above doesn't give the effect of the orange silk skirts!