The First Rock Star

Before Madonna made 
a career of entertaining 
in her underwear, 
before Bjork dressed in outlandish costumes, before Cindy Lauper had fun, before recorded music became the norm rather than a passing fancy, there was vaudeville’s 
Eva Tanguay.
Jody Rosen, Slate’s culture guru, says that “for roughly two decades, from 1904 until the early 1920s, Eva Tanguay was the biggest rock star in the United States.” 
Tanguay was born in Quebec and she died in Los Angeles; Rosen’s article is a fascinating look into the years in between, the rise and fall of a forgotten artist.