Fanny Ellsler makes her Boston debut

The Austrian dancer appears at the Tremont Theatre. At a subsequent performance attended by Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fuller reputedly whispers, “Ralph, this is poetry!” To which Emerson replies, “Margaret, it is religion!” Ellsler also performs in a benefit to help raise money for construction of the Bunker Hill Monument on October 1, 1840. During her three-week stay, William Clapp writes that Boston store windows are stocked with “Ellsler boot-jacks, Ellsler bread, etc. etc. . . .showing how violent was the attack of Fannyelsslermaniaphobia.” Her last Boston performance is on November 17, 1840.