Page - 106 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

106 | Entangled Entertainers nese ensemble performances that took place outside of the metropolis, but they covered Hirsch’s performances in great detail. But this detailed coverage, how- ever, was not part of typical reporting but instead appeared in the form of special announcements and brief notices that Hirsch himself was likely responsible for launching.106 Since these notices were probably not intended to lure the Viennese away from the city, we can reasonably assume that they were intended to serve as advertisements meant to increase Hirsch’s chances of fi nding work in Vienna. On 2 August 1904, a notice appeared advertising Hirsch’s guest performance in Prague. It states, “Restaurateurs refl ecting on this burlesque ensemble may reach A. Hirsch at the above address.”107 Th is notice thus demonstrates that Hirsch sought engagement in Vienna by using these kinds of advertisements. He may have been in a desperate situation. Despite these eff orts, he was still unable to fi nd work when he returned to the city in the late autumn of the same year. Th is is why he turned to Viennese locale owners with a “request for an off er from the gentlemen restau rateurs and café owners.”108 Th e degree to which Hirsch’s multi-month tour might have also been a rea- son for his inability to fi nd work in Vienna can be seen in an advertisement published at the beginning of 1904 off ering his entertainment services at family celebrations.109 When we consider that only a few months earlier he had de- lighted a larger theater audience every evening and had been one of the best- known representatives of the Viennese Volkssänger, we must likely interpret his willingness to off er private performances as a considerable career decline. I argue that the Volkssänger confl ict had sweeping, long-term consequences for Hirsch. He was unable to regain a foothold in the Volkssänger scene. Although he briefl y performed in the spring of 1905 with a group called the Leopoldstad t Burlesque Ensemble, we may nonetheless conclude the longer pauses between his perfor- mances signaled the end of his career as a leading Volkssänger, a status he had been able to maintain until the turn of the century. Th e Folies Caprice ensemble may have also had diffi culty establishing itself in Vienna. In any case, the performances that were supposed to take place in the Hotel Central never came to be. Th e fi rst indications that the ensemble was giving performances in Vienna were in August 1903 when newspapers ad- vertised their engagement in the Bijou Th eate r on the grounds of Venice in Vienna.110 Th e director was not Albert Hirsch, but rather Heinrich Leitner. In addition, the Folies Caprice had to compete with a newly founded group called the Viennese Fol ies Caprice. Th e establishment of the Viennese Folies Caprice ensemble seemed to be a direct response to the Hungarian group and began to take the stage in the Hotel Stefan ie in the Taborstrasse in the middle of De- cember 1903.111 Th e group’s manager merely added the epithet “Viennese” to the ensemble’s name in an attempt to underscore the foreignness of the original Folies Caprice. A group of Viennese Volkssänger had thus become active as a way of luring business away from the troupe from Budapest. As a result, the Hun- This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.