Olga Nethersole and the Sapho Scandal

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​In early 1900, actress Olga Nethersole and several of her colleagues were indicted for their roles in the production of a play. Find out what caused them to be called "of wicked and depraved mind and disposition" when Christine covers the scandal that made New York City headlines.

Podcaster: Christine

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Further Reading

Alphonse Daudet, Sappho, to Which is Added Between the Flies and the Footlights, Little, Brown, & Company, (1899).

Joy Harriman Reilly, "A Forgotten "Fallen Woman": Olga Nethersole's Sapho", When They Weren't Doing Shakespeare: Essays on Nineteenth-Century British and American Theatre, Eds. Judith L. Fisher and Stephen Watt, University of Georgia Press (1989): 106-120.

​Katie N. Johnson, "Censoring Sapho: Regulating the Fallen Woman and the Prostitute on the New York Stage", ATQ, 10:3 (1996): 167-186.

Theresa Saxon, "Sexual Transgression on the American Stage: Clyde Fitch, Sapho, and the "American Girl"", Literature Compass, (2013): 735-747.

​"Indictment for "Sapho"", The New York Times, Mar 23, 1900.

"Jury Soon Acquits Miss Nethersole." The NewYork Times,  Apr 06, 1900.

"Nethersole Arrested", The evening world,21 Feb. 1900, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers,Lib. of Congress.

"Nethersole, Olga,--1870-1951--Performances." - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress).

"Olga Nethersole Was Arrested", The St. Louis Republic,February 22, 1900.

"Olga Nethersole", Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

"Olga Nethersole Dies at Age of 80", The New York Times, Jan 11, 1951.​

​Announcement of Olga Nethersole being appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Supplement to the London Gazette, December 31, 1935.

​Collection of papers from People's League of Health.

​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)