The Elopement That Never Happened
A Seattle newspaper's sensational claim about two theater performers is debunked by the cold reality of train tickets and bad debt.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Under the sensational heading 'Was It an Elopement?', the Press-Times yesterday afternoon printed a long and highly colored romance intended to convey the impression that Miss Beatrice Lieb and Francis Powers, who have recently been playing at Cordray's theater, eloped on Tuesday. The implication is wholly unwarranted. Miss Lieb, whose work at Cordray's closed May 14, was engaged to play at the Alcazar theater in San Francisco, and to fill her engagement left this city on Tuesday morning's train, traveling first class. Powers was not a particular friend of Miss Lieb's and they never associated off the stage, but it happened that he was also engaged for the Alcazar. His time at Cordray's was not up until last night, but he owed a number of small bills around town, and decided that his best plan was to leave for San Francisco as soon as possible. Accordingly, he borrowed $16, bought a scalper's ticket, and started on the same train with Miss Lieb. While Miss Lieb was in Seattle, her behavior toward Powers and all others was never the cause of the first breath of suspicion.
“The implication that there was an elopement is wholly unwarranted.”
This story highlights the perennial tension between tabloid-style journalism and verified fact, a conflict that remains central to modern media. The 'scandalous elopement' trope used here to smear performers serves as an early example of how public reputations were managed and exploited in Seattle's burgeoning entertainment scene.
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