Helen Potter
platform reader and impersonator
This article is about the American impersonator. For the English author Helen Beatrix Potter, see Beatrix Potter.
Helen Potter was a performer, platform reader, and impersonator active in the Chautauqua movement during the 1870s and 1880s. Her impersonations included Susan B. Anthony, Abraham Lincoln, and Oscar Wilde.
Quotes
editHelen Potter's Impersonations (1891) (archive) (at Wikimedia Commons)
- In all ages we have had artists and orators; people who held the "sacred fire" as their inheritance among men an inheritance more powerful than gold, or wonderful jewels, or landed estates.
- And the works of artists in clay, marble, and iron, and on canvas are enduring, and eagerly sought for. But the most wonderful of all, the power of the human voice, goes to the winds and is lost forever.
- Do not, while young, try to impersonate old or disagreeable characters. There will be time enough for that when your youth is past ; and, beside, the world delights to look on youth, and prefers to carry away from an entertainment only thoughts of gladness, joy, and sunshine. Therefore, however much you may desire to do heavy tragedy, or raving maniacs, "Don't!"
- The dress should be the setting and not the gem.