Madcap May

by Richard Kurin

  One widely distributed commentary was especially biting.

  The worst thing about this May Yohe—“Putty” Strong mess is that it will probably furnish the lady with an excuse to get back on the stage. Even the columns of slush being unloaded upon their readers by the newspapers of New York do not constitute an affliction comparable to that.

  There is no end of sympathy for the poor mother of young Strong, whose notorious affair with the wife of Lord Francis Hope has been a scandal from one end of the world to the other, and who has succeeded in dragging the honorable Strong name into the dust, but there can be no sympathy for either of the principals.

  Young Strong deliberately threw away an honorable position in the army that he might bask in the smiles of a woman whose pose has been that of a man-devourer, and it was his inevitable fate to go down to ruin.

  With the woman it is the familiar story of age throwing away everything in its fascination for youth, the young lover soon tiring and seeking other fields. An older woman takes long chances when she undertakes to hold the love of a man much younger than herself. When she deserted Hope, who was apparently foolish enough to put faith in her, and ran away with the young army officer, the Yohe woman went into a game in which she had scarcely a chance to win. There is absolutely no ground for sympathy for her.27

  The writer took the view that May’s vanity and illusion caused the affair—her misguided attempt to keep a younger man. Because of Strong’s thievery, deception, and cowardice, May and many women might have challenged that interpretation, seeing instead her loyalty, her willingness to support her man, and her steadfast sense of justice, had not the story taken another, decidedly strange, and totally unexpected twist.

  A few days after the settlement, on July 25, reports came out of London that Strong had arrived in England, not Japan. He claimed he had “pawned about $8,400 worth of May’s jewelry at her request and for her benefit, and she had received the entire proceeds.” He said, “I have never had one dollar of May Yohe’s money … As to the story that I rifled her safety deposit box, that is absurd on its face. May Yohe never had any safety deposit box that I know of … I had one in my own name at Knickerbocker which I suppose my family has opened as I gave them full authority to do so.”28

  May, in New York, reacted to these reports, “I’m not saying anything. Just watch me.”29 The same day she boarded the steamer Fürst Bismarck under the name Mrs. Batchellor and headed to London. Newspapers reported that May had set out to give Strong a “horsewhipping.” In London, Strong was said to be switching hotels, trying to hide from May, and worried that she would take out a warrant for his arrest.

  May arrived in London on July 31 claiming that Strong’s denial “is all a batch of lies.”30 She also said, “Strong’s story that he paid back anything is another lie.” When told that Strong had said he had got his money from the sale of his library, May responded, “Well, he brought all his library to my house in an old steamer trunk; it must have been valuable. He is the greatest liar I have ever known.”31

  May noted that she had “suffered all this outrageous treatment to save his mother and my own.” May said she was determined to travel to any and all places Strong had pawned her jewelry. “I am anxious to get to Genoa, where I have tickets for a tiara diamond heart and other things he pawned … I may land in Kamchatka before I get through.”32

  May then checked into the Great Western Hotel in Paddington, intending to stay the night and continue on to the Continent the next day. But she received a messenger who brought with him a packet of letters from Putnam Bradlee Strong. May decided to check into the Savoy under the name Lady Francis Hope. She spent the day reading and re-reading the letters. Strong urged forgiveness and professed his love. He also intimated he might commit suicide unless May joined him in Paris.

  Dear Maysie,

  Excuse the shakiness of my writing, but I’m nearly crazy. My nerves are all unstrung. Oh, Maysie, how could you accuse me of stealing? You know I’m no criminal. This will be delivered by a man who knows my address and who will send me your answer by mail or wire. If you still love me, write or telegraph, preferably the latter, as the letter might reach me too late. Remember that I’m yours even until the next world. Yours lovingly,

  BRADLEE33

  Then, despite her outrage, sense of indignity and humiliation, despite her reaction in New York to the idea of reconciliation, May dropped a bombshell. She told reporters, “I care only for Bradlee. Where is he? Why don’t they bring him to me? Why does he write me if he does not love me? I would forgive him in a minute if he would only say that he is sorry.” She added, “He can have everything I have got if he will only come back.”34

  She wrote a note to him:

  Come back immediately. I forgive all.

  MAYSIE35

  May’s dramatic turnaround, for her, the triumph of love over distrust and revenge, was not seen quite so charitably by others. The press proffered its speculation. How could she so easily and quickly reverse direction? Had the drama in New York been a scam—a plot by Strong and Yohe to soak his family for funds?

  Strong was thought to be near Paris. Apparently he was still unsure about May, thinking she might file a warrant against him. There were rumors that she’d been in contact with Scotland Yard. May decided to head to Paris. She stumbled leaving her carriage to catch the train to the continent, was hobbled, and had to be carried to the coach. In Paris on August 3, she had to be ferried in a litter and chair. Strong, however, was not there. He’d been ill in Lisbon and was still there when May found him. By mid-August, the newspapers revealed the startling turnabout in Lisbon:

  May Yohe and ‘Major’ Putnam Bradlee Strong are united once more. They are living happily together in the apartments at the Avenida Palace Hotel here and are registered as Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson.36

  Said Strong in an interview,

  Miss Yohe and myself are perfectly happy together. We intend to get married as soon as her decree of divorce is made absolute, which will be September 25.

  Where we will be then I don’t know.

  Miss Yohe is thoroughly disgusted with all of this fuss. There has been no collusion between Miss Yohe and myself. She had no idea of following me and did not know where I was until I wired her on Monday in Paris.37

  When an American correspondent asked, “Do you intend to return to the States,” Strong replied emphatically, “No.” May Yohe joined in, “We will never return to America.”38

  What the press did not hear was the account of the couple’s actual reunion. Years later May wrote about the finale of her trans-Atlantic and cross-European quest to track Strong down:

  I walked straight up to him. He held out his hand, caught mine and pulled me to him and kissed me just as if nothing had ever happened and as if this were a reunion after a lonesome separation. I wanted to begin scolding him right away, but he merely smiled at me.

  “Don’t get fussed up—Maysie,” he said. “There’s no use fighting when it is so hot. Have you any money? I’m broke.”

  When I reproached him for the theft of my jewels, he merely laughed. “Oh, why bring it up,’ he said. ‘Both of us needed a little excitement—we were stagnating.”39

  Whatever anger and trepidation May might have felt, her romantic side won out. As she euphemistically put it, they checked into the same hotel and stayed together for the next week.

  Following their Lisbon recoupling, the pair sailed for Argentina, arriving in Buenos Aires the first week of September. They rented a place, lived as a married couple, and, shunned by some, welcomed by others, they joined the city’s most exclusive club, the Jockey Club, and awaited word from England that the divorce from Lord Francis was finally official. According to May, when word did come, Strong again tried to delay the scheduled marriage. May would not stand for it.

  Bradlee … you swore to me when I eloped with you that come what might, whether we were happy or whether we tired of each other, you would go to the ends of the earth, if ne
cessary, to marry me the minute I should be freed by Lord Francis. Every time you have deserted me and I have taken you back, you have made the same promise. Now you will have to make good.40

  May invoked a local code of male honor to threaten Strong. She told him that if he didn’t marry her, she would tell other gentlemen at the Jockey Club that he’d deceived and dishonored her. She threatened that he’d be posted a cad. Every member would regard this as a dishonor. First one, then another, would challenge him to a duel. It might be with pistols, it might be with swords. He might win the first, and even the second, but at some point he would lose and “be killed.”

  In the face of May’s onslaught—marry or die—Strong had no choice. The cowardly but gracious Strong responded, “Maysie dear. You know I can hardly wait when I realize you are going to be my wife at last. Come, let’s hurry.”41 The wedding, a civil marriage, took place on October 3, 1902, a week after May’s divorce from Lord Francis was final. May sent a dispatch to her New York lawyer which was widely circulated to U.S. newspapers:

  Married; Buenos Ayres; 2nd.

  MAY STRONG.42

  It wasn’t clear whether “2nd” referred to the mistaken date or whether May considered this her second marriage to Strong.

  Lord Francis Hope, too, was waiting for the divorce to become final. He wanted to marry his young second cousin, Beatrice Ricketts, but his mother and his brother opposed the marriage. They thought the idea further evidence of Francis’ foolishness—marrying a family member, and such a young girl at that. They were also opposed on religious grounds. Father Black, a clergyman of the Church of England, joined them in their opposition. He and the duke of Newcastle had appeared at numerous weddings to object to the marriages of divorced brides or grooms as being contrary to the “canons of the church and the laws of God.”43 The pair could hardly continue their work if the duke stood with his brother on this remarriage. In the end, Lord Francis abandoned his plans. Two years later, he married Olive Muriel Thompson, who was the daughter of an Australian banker and closer to his own age.

  May was also waiting on the disposition of her lawsuit against Lord Francis. Francis had given May a promissory note during their marriage. Under the terms of his bankruptcy, his estate was paying off creditors at ten shillings on the pound (i.e., five percent), but had refused to pay May. She said, “The money is due me, and I’ll fight for it until I get it.”44 She did fight, in the English courts, and won at a ten percent rate, double anyone else, receiving about $5,000.

  By December, May and Strong arrived back in New York on a Cunard liner, the Umbria. Accompanying them were twenty-two pieces of luggage, two wicker chairs, a barrel of pineapples, a Japanese poodle, and a monkey. They avoided the voracious press, and settled back in at Lizzie’s house in Hastings-on-Hudson. Rumors suggested that Strong would explore business opportunities and May might return to the stage. There were also rumors of a reconciliation with Mary Strong and the Shattucks.

  None of that happened. In the spring of 1903, the couple returned to Argentina. Strong wanted to buy a ranch but became an automobile salesman instead. The couple was outwardly living the good life, as they always did, and running out of money as well. In 1904, they were back in New York looking for work.

  May had to return to the stage, and her comeback was promoted in Boston, Atlanta, and New York. While she was already famous, her notoriety with Strong added to her public appeal. In Boston, the papers promised, “there will be a stampede to see and hear the erstwhile Lady Hope and friend of Captain Putnam Bradlee Strong.”45 May was going to sing a few old songs. But her talents had completely slipped away.

  May tried another tack, seeking performance venues in Great Britain. She garnered bookings for major music halls—the Brighton Hippodrome, the Royal Hippodrome in Liverpool, the London Music Hall, Newcastle Pavilion, and the Glasgow Pavilion. Unfortunately for May, her presentations were no better than they’d been in the United States earlier in the year. Reviews reflected her poor performance:

  The recent appearance of May Yohe in the Royal Hippodrome, Liverpool and its pitiful denouement, has caused considerable comment … She was to appear in a selection of her old-time favorite songs. When the curtain was raised Miss Yohe was evidently greatly agitated for some reason and her voice seemed to have lost its former power … but it soon became painfully evident that she was in a very over-strung condition, and after a futile attempt to sing, she exclaimed, ‘Oh, I can’t do it,” and with some difficulty left the stage. The curtain immediately fell.46

  It was now back to New York for May and Strong.

  In 1904, Broadway was booming. The theater district north of Forty-second Street had become known as the “Great White Way,” named in this case for the lights on the marquees. The intersection of Broadway and Forty-second Street, then called Longacre Square, had become the city’s symbolic center, at the crossroads of the new subway system’s north-south and east-west lines, which were just being completed. Adolph Ochs had purchased a triangular piece of land at the intersection and built the headquarters of the New York Times, prompting the mayor to rename the intersection Times Square.

  Vaudeville was popular with the huge crowds that passed through the newly constituted Times Square, and now May once again had a chance to shine. She was booked for Willie Hammerstein’s Theatre of Varieties at the corner of Forty-fourth and Broadway, the new epicenter of the city. The theater offered a potpourri of off-beat and colorful entertainment—anything that Willie thought could fill 1,350 seats. Over the years, it hosted Harry Houdini, Will Rogers and Irving Berlin.

  May was booked to appear on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1904. This would be the first time the transition from one year to the next would be celebrated in Times Square. Ochs and the New York Times staff had arranged a fireworks display to draw a crowd. Some 200,000 turned out, initiating a tradition that continues to this day, albeit with a descending ball rather than pyrotechnics.

  Hammersteins Victoria Theatre with its Roof Garden in newly named Times Square. (photo credit 10.2)

  While the New Year’s celebration was a success, May was a flop. The audience gasped at Yohe’s ungainly, stout appearance. Her husky, raspy voice failed to elicit even polite applause. “It was a disastrous return, for there was more than a suggestion of hissing,” reported the Los Angeles Times.47

  May, who had become a heavy drinker, started an even more precipitous decline. She would get nasty drunk. Her stomach would become particularly bloated. She would curse a lot. She would become sick. The alcohol took its toll on her theatrical capabilities and finally on the relationship with Strong as well.

  May continued to seek stage success. She tried to link her madcap reputation to Times Square by performing a new song, “Down in the Subway,” by William Jerome and Jean Schwartz, which appealed to young people and New York City’s innovative transportation system:

  There’s a new place at last to go spooning

  Now the man in the moon looks deserted

  Where lovers can love with delight

  His face wears the smile of despair

  In the future just cut out your mooning

  Underground it is broadly asserted

  And banish the stars from your sight …

  Oh what a place, under the

  Isle of Manhattan speeding through

  Space, just the place for spooning.

  All the season round. Way

  Down in the subway

  Underneath the ground.48

  But she found that her reputation and following were fading. John Drew, Ethel Barrymore, Maude Adams, George M. Cohan, and John Philip Sousa and his band were the big headliners.

  May came up with a novel idea: why not incorporate Strong into her act? Their premiere was at Keeney’s Fulton Street Theatre in Brooklyn on April 24, 1905, in what was labeled as a dramatic sketch titled “The Actress and the Detective.” By June, the vaudeville sketch made it back to the Victoria Theatre on Broadway, the only draw being the cou
ple’s fame.

  At 10 o’clock, the curtain went up … The audience waited almost breathless to hear his (Strong’s) first words—for the voice of him had been chronicled around the world—and then, it settled back and waited for the woman … she came too, timidly at first, speaking later with more confidence … They talked together for a few moments, they quarreled, they called one another names, they kissed—the audience watched them eagerly—and then the curtain came down at 10:20.

  All through these twenty minutes of “entertainment” the spectators had sat seriously browed, silent, the men puffing sagely at their cigars and the women with curiously intricate expressions … The curtain was down. A minute’s silence and then a few friends applauded in a half-hearted way … High up in the gallery a man hissed loud and long.49

  May Yohe and Putnam Bradlee Strong performing as a married couple in a vaudeville act, 1905. (photo credit 10.3)

  Another review was less kind: “If May Yohe were not the former Lady Francis Hope, and if her partner were not the former Capt. Strong, their services wouldn’t be accepted as a gift.”50

  One night deputy marshals showed up at the theater, bought tickets, and called for Willie Hammerstein to secure his cooperation. They had come to serve a summons on Strong and collect any of his property that might be at the theater and any salary he was due. Strong was being sued by a tailor, Charles Wetzel, for nonpayment of $143. The marshals surrounded the stage and guarded the exits, collected Strong’s things, and served him the summons as soon as he finished his sketch with May.

  Two weeks later Strong filed for bankruptcy. The money, the fame, and the passion had left the marriage. On November 27, 1905, the anniversary of May’s marriage to Lord Francis, Strong deserted her, leaving for Japan.

  May, who is credited with saying, “When a woman marries she pawns her liberty and then loses the ticket,” was ready to redeem herself.51 She lined up a lucrative tour of Europe with the help of theatrical friends.