the notorious lola montez [ 36:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup

This week’s podcast grapples with the unbelievable legend of Lola Montez, the gorgeous Irish peasant girl with the soul of a grifter and the heart of a despot. She lived about three lifetimes’ worth of adventure, turning Europe upside down and provoking a revolution in Bavaria before conquering Gold Rush-era San Francisco with her scandalous “Spider Dance”.

Join me as I bravely trail this tempestuous adventuress across the world from London to Paris to Munich to San Francisco. Lola Montez was the inspiration for the phrase that’s probably already ringing in your head — “whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. She was self-created diva royalty who, in her own words, was “always notorious, never famous”.

For further edification:
» Research files from Bruce Seymour’s Lola Montez : a Life, an incredible resource
» Biography and photos
» Gravesite information
» Lola’s Grass Valley house
» George Macdonald Fraser’s “Harry Flashman”
» King Ludwig I of Bavaria– Wikipedia
» Ein Koenig und Seine Anregungen – Berliner Zeitung, 1998

random episode from the archives:
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Musical support:
Thanks to Torchomatic for this week’s music, “Glass Roof” – provided through a Creative Commons license.