08/28/2021 7:01 AM
Clarín.com
International
Updated 08/28/2021 8:26 AM
Someone imagined them as the Kardashians of the 19th century.
In their own way, although without reality TV, millions of Americans followed their lives.
They were born in poverty, but the peculiarity of their very long hair that reached their ankles made the
seven Sutherland sisters
become celebrities.
Quick parents for business turned their lives into an empire.
The
Rapunzel
story
had its glory and drama in America in the late 1800s.
The Sutherland sisters were considered the first models in the country.
His story started in a small town called Cambria, in Niagara County, New York.
Sarah, Victoria, Isabella, Grace, Naomi, Dora and Mar
were born between 1851 and 1865 and did not have a particularly happy childhood: barefoot and poorly groomed, they tended to care for turkeys on the family farm, and were initially interested for the music.
The Sutherland sisters were born into a poor family in Niagara County, New York.
They learned to sing and play various instruments, and formed a choir that toured city towns with some success.
But it was not his musical qualities that attracted the public, but his long hair, as his father, Fletcher Sutherland, would quickly discover.
The invention of a magical salve
It is that the mother of the girls
had invented an ointment with a foul smell
, but that, according to her assurance, it
made her daughters' hair grow much faster and stronger
.
The father quickly saw an economic future in the hair of his daughters and exploited the image of the 'Seven Sutherland Sisters', which the great traveling circus companies fought to have,
In those days, everything that was different attracted the public, and the
Rapunzel hair
of the girls (whom they nicknamed 'the seven wonders') enthralled them.
The hair of Victoria, the second sister, which was the longest, was two meters long and if she let it loose it would drag behind her.
The fact that there were seven, a biblical number, also brought a certain mysticism to the young women, who engaged in vaudeville and touring.
At that time they were already famous, they sold posters and recognized them on the street, and even on several occasions some fans tried to cut their hair or offered them certain money if they did it.
The mother had invented an ointment that she claimed made her daughters' hair grow much faster and stronger.
After the death of the mother in 1867, who had created the tonic, it was the father launched a lotion that he called the "
Sutherland Sisters Hair Grower"
, with which he made believe that the consequence of his daughters being the hair reaching the ankles was due solely and exclusively to the miraculous product.
And so that there were no doubts, he sent a sample of the liquid to be analyzed, of which a prestigious doctor and chemist assured: “Having made a chemical analysis of the hair tonic prepared by the seven Sutherland sisters, I hereby certify that I have found it. free from all harmful substances.
It is, without a doubt, the best hair preparation ever made. "
In the first year he made about $ 90,000 in profit, thanks to the sisters' fame, and the profits grew over time to three million thanks to his marketing tactics: each bottle could be sold for 50 cents or 1.50 dollars, which could be a week's salary for an American at the time.
And that later the patriarch of the Sutherlands added a scalp cleanser and eight shades of color to his products.
The sisters, for their part, continued to gain fame and be the front page of some newspapers of the time that ranged from 'The New York Times' to '
The New Yorker
'.
Sarah, Victoria, Isabella, Grace, Naomi, Dora and Mar were born between 1851 and 1865. Their parents started the business.
An inexpensive emporium
For years, the sisters were the image on drugstore windows, giving beauty advice, and still going on singing tours to keep selling the miraculous tonic.
"A woman's hair is her supreme glory" or "remember ladies, it
is the hair, not the hat, that makes you beautiful"
, were some of the advertising slogans.
They opened offices in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto and Havana and became real celebrities with no shortage of suitors, although Sarah, Mary, Grace and Dora never married, perhaps in order to continue to have full control over their wealth. .
At that time the sisters no longer spared any expenses and they even built a mansion with 14 rooms, marble bathrooms, hot and cold running water, hardwoods and a whole series of luxuries available to practically no one at that time.
Second sister Victoria's hair, which was the longest, was six feet long.
From opulence to helplessness
Although they continued to show an exemplary image, rumors began to surface about their parties and excesses, as well as stories about them practicing spiritism or having several lovers.
But nothing is eternal.
With the advent of the new century and the arrival of the First World War, women began to cut their hair for sheer comfort, which would mark the beginning of the end for the Sutherlands, who had made long hair their hallmark.
They looked for alternatives to continue making money, but their time was running out: they tried to sell their story in Hollywood, but they did not succeed, and by then they had spent practically all their fortune and were bankrupt.
In 1936 the Sutherland corporation closed permanently and on January 24, 1938 the mansion, which had been abandoned for years, burned down completely.
Of the two sisters that remained, Mary died in an asylum, and Grace (the oldest) in absolute poverty in 1946, at the age of 92.
As there was no room in her sisters' mausoleum she was buried in a nameless grave.
Thus ended the story of the Sutherland sisters, icons and figures of a time that ended with a bitter end.
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