Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-04-05 | Page 65 | A Grand Opera Prima Donna-from Oshkosh

WHENEVER a vaudeville comedian com-edian wants to he really sure of getting a laugh he will hazard the guess that some ono or other comes from Oshkosh. Osh-kosh Osh-kosh is a perfectly good little Wisconsin Wis-consin city, and why people laugh whenever it Is mentioned is hard to explain. They do laugh, however, a little more than they do at tho mention of that other mlrth-provok-Ing name, Kalamazoo. But here is an Oshkosh girl who nas just attained the greatest kind of success as a prima donna in Paris. Esther Peterson is her name. Little Miss Peterson Is the daughter daugh-ter of a wandering Methodist minister min-ister an Evangelist. When she was only nlno she walked clear across the United States with her father. Sho sang hymns while ho played an old-fashioned barrel organ. The child's rare voice attracted tho attention of a rich Chicago man, a patron of the arts and a famous teacher of the volco The musician followed them, and the very next week the little girl had been freed from the barrel-organ and was studying under her benefactor. bene-factor. When she was in her early teens she wont to Paris. There she supported sup-ported herself, in a fashion, by teach-hig teach-hig and -by occasional newspaper writing. She was ablo each week to put aside the few dollars that gave her tho privilege of attending the classeB of Jean De Reszlco and his brother Edouard, the most famous teachers In Paris outside of the late Mine. Marches!, And then only a few days ago she sang as "Lakmc" at the Galete Lyrlque. Seldom was thore such Instantaneous, glorious success. Impresarios Im-presarios clamored for her. During Dur-ing the Winter sho will sing at Cannes, at Mentone and other Win. tor resorts. She has been engaged for tho "Grande Scmnine" at Dean-vllle Dean-vllle in itself a triumph. And all this, to the confusion of tho humorists, has conio to a girl .from Oshkosh! V Copyright, 1014, l mm wl m mUMh - Miss Peterson as She Appeared in ncr Triumph as "Aido," by tho Star Company. Great Britain nights Reserved.