Pauline Markham - Randolph M. McMahon

Randolph M. McMahon

In late November, 1873 it was reported Markham had eloped with Randolph M. McMahon, a former Southern Civil War officer with a reported rank ranging anywhere from Colonel to Major General. A few days earlier Markham failed to appear for that night’s performance of The Black Crook at Niblo’s Theatre. It was later discovered the couple had skipped town to avoid detectives searching for McMahon over an extravagant unpaid hotel bill. Markham would later say of McMahon that he was abusive and controlling to the point that he would only allow her twenty-five cents to spend on meals. According to sporadic news accounts the two remained together for at least five years with McMahon as her manager.

In May, 1874 Markham was reported singing for private circles in New Orleans and by the summer of 1875, back in London at the Haymarket Theatre supporting Charles Wyndham in a play entitled Brighton. She played in Dancing Dolls, a variety show at the Globe Theatre in August, 1876, before returning to America the next year to tour with Adah Richmond’s Burlesque Company. That fall she appeared on the legitimate stage in Boston at Howard's Athenaeum as Fanny Vanderbilt in The Charity Ball and later in a production of Robin Hood.

In February, 1878 the press linked Markham to scandal involving a former governor of South Carolina and the issuing of fraudulent bonds. Markham denied any involvement with the scheme or that she was acquainted with any of the men mentioned in the papers as members of the South Carolina ring, telling her interviewer: that they are not the kind of persons she permits herself to associate with.

The following year Markham’s company toured the West in H. M. S. Pinafore with a cast that included a young actress named Josephine Earp who later became the common-law wife of gambler and lawman Wyatt Earp.