McAleney started working for newspapers as a teenager . She worked in Chicago , Denver , Seattle , New York , and San Francisco as a young woman , building a reputation for covering nontraditional stories for women reporters at the time , such as a prize fight , the Haymarket Riot , and the Iroquois Theatre fire . She traveled to Russia in 1895 to cover Czar Nicholas II 's coronation , to England for Queen Victoria 's funeral in 1901 , and the murder trial of Harry K. Thaw in New York City in 1906 . She became known for insisting that her work never be put on the women 's page ( where the work of female reporters was often relegated ) ; she was among the first women reporters to successfully have her work treated equally with her male colleagues . Revell moved into publicity work after 1906 , with jobs promoting vaudeville shows , circuses , and movie theatres . She became the press agent for such performers as Al Jolson , Lillie Langtry , Lillian Russell , and Will Rogers , and had her own act , singing and performing monologues
Iroquois Theatre fire
Iroquois Theatre fire
Nellie McAleney Revell