Why exotic dancer Lola Montez started a pub brawl in Ballarat

After copping a bad review in the Ballarat press, burlesque star Lola Montez took her trusty whip to the pub to settle the score.

Irish singer and dancer Lola Montez, who was the high profile mistress of Bavaria’s King Ludwig I.

Among the glittering stages of Nineteenth Century Europe, there was no starlet more famous and divisive as the bohemian temptress known as Lola Montez.

Born as Eliza Gilbert, and scorned by her soldier husband, she took the exotic stage name and embarked on a career of provocative performance that made her renowned the world over.

A Spanish dancer, talented singer and high-end prostitute to Europe’s elite, Montez’s signature whip followed her everywhere – as did the stench of scandal.

She was the high profile mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who gave her the title of Countess.

And when it came time for Montez to tour Melbourne, a storm of controversy followed the woman regarded by the Australian press as a “female Lucifer”.

But it was her all-in brawl with a stock whip in a Ballarat hotel that would earn her true notoriety.

Lola Montez in her final years and, right, a cartoon of her leaving the elite of Europe to embark on a global tour. Picture: State Library of Victoria

The ‘spider dance’ shock

When the announcement was made about Lola Montez’s 1955 tour of Australia, including Melbourne and the Victorian goldfields, there were murmurs of apprehension.

After all, it was like inviting a cyclone to a picnic.

Even before she arrived in Melbourne, a pall of controversy followed the persistently provocative Montez.

In Sydney, a performance of her salacious “Spider Dance” was deemed so inappropriate, her deportation was considered.

As she set sail for Melbourne, a fight with one of her touring company led the sheriff to board her steamship with intent to arrest her, but Montez retreated to her cabin.

Lola Montez during her career in Europe and, right, portrayed in the 1958 musical about her visit to the Victorian goldfields.

As the vessel left port with the sheriff still on board, she sent him a message saying he could enter the cabin and arrest her if he wanted, but she was completely naked.

Overcome with embarrassment, the sheriff left the ship at the next port amid the laughter of passengers and crew, and was laughed at again when he arrived back in Sydney.

At Melbourne’s Theatre Royal, Lola Montez toned down her now notorious Spider Dance after a storm of criticism followed her from Sydney.

But it was still shocking enough.

Attendants claimed the burlesque-style show saw Montez lift her skirt so high that it was totally clear she wasn’t wearing any undergarments.

A Dr Milman of Melbourne petitioned mayor John Thomas Smith to ban any future performances by Montez, which led to a council of magistrates deciding there was little that could legally be done to stop the controversial shows.

Queen of the goldfields

After bringing a blush to the cheeks of Melbourne, Lola Montez carried her tour to the heaving Victorian goldfields.

This time there was little hint of snobbery among the audience.

When Montez put on her raucous show for the diggers, they loved it.

She became a starlet of the goldfields and a smash hit among the miners and merchants of Ballarat who fawned over her bohemian charm.

But not everyone was so impressed.

Firebrand newspaper editor Henry Steenkamp, a keen miners’ advocate who played in a key role in the Eureka rebellion, wrote a scathing review of Lola Montez’s character and previous exploits, painting her as morally bankrupt and a subversive influence on Ballarat society.

Montez responded in a harsh and unsophisticated way: she confronted Steenkamp and attacked him with a stock whip.

Nineteenth Century caricatures of Lola Montez beating Henry Steenkamp and Mrs Crossby beating Lola Montez. Pictures: State Library of Victoria

While staying at Ballarat’s United States Hotel, she heard Steenkamp had entered the premises, so she rushed downstairs and started thrashing him with the whip.

But Steenkamp, according to witnesses, fought back, leading to each holding a tight grip on the other’s hair before hotel patrons intervened and Steenkamp slunk away.

That night, at a performance packed out with miners, Montez claimed she had challenged Steenkamp to a pistol duel but he had declined.

“You have heard of the scene that took place this afternoon,” she said.

“Mr Seekamp threatens to continue his charges against my character. I offered, though a woman, to meet him with pistols.

“But the coward, who would beat a woman, ran from a woman.”

The main street of Ballarat in the 1850s, including the United States Hotel where Lola Montez’s infamous whip attack took place.

Long after Montez had left Victoria, Steenkamp used his newspaper to claim she had been involved in another ugly incident with a Ballarat local named Mr Crossby, but this time it was Mrs Crossby who emerged to give Lola Montez a beating.

The fight with Steenkamp became legendary in Ballarat and has been dramatised and re-enacted at Sovereign Hill’s replica of the United States Hotel.

Although her short, tempestuous visit left a lasting impression on Victoria, raucous living took its toll on Lola Montez.

Three years after her Australian tour, while living a quiet life in America after finally shunning the spotlight, she fell gravely ill with the tertiary effects of syphilis.

She died a month short of her 40th birthday and was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, beneath a modest headstone inscribed with her birth name, Eliza Gilbert.

Her life and achievements spurred numerous stage productions, including the 1958 Australian musical Lola Montez, which relived her time on the goldfields.

Originally published as Why exotic dancer Lola Montez started a pub brawl in Ballarat