The Greta Garbo of Bellydance

Erik

New member
A little while ago I sent a PM to someone on YouTube who claims to have known Lorraine Shalhoub (aka Little Egypt) and her husband. I am mostly curious to know why she was bumped from the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.

At the mention of her name the room hushes so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.

I checked Dead or Alive info.com. Jimmy Hoffa is one of two listed as missing, but Lorraine isn't listed at all.

I also checked Wikipedia which lists three possible dancers for the title of Little Egypt in Chicago in 1893, but I found nothing about Lorraine.

For the fifth time I am breaking a promise to myself to start no new threads on the Internet because once started I feel a responsibility to stay with them. [On that particular tribe no one replies anymore except for the moderator and one other guy. This one looks good and safe too.]

I'm not out to make any trouble. I just can't help wondering why someone who made such a big splash is almost unknown on the Web today.
 

Erik

New member
Yes, Jane, and you confirmed my suspicions I've long held. Some things cannot be forgiven, yes?

A BD chronology (the same one that said Bert Balladine taught bellydance in Germany) said that in 1970 American women's libbers were divided. Some disdained bellydance and others embraced it.
 

Duvet

Member
Wouldn't want to belly-dance to that music, even if I had a husband.

Never heard of Lorraine Shalhoub before, but if she was dancing in the 1960s, she would not have been the original Little Egypt of 1893, or a contemporary (hence not in the Wiki article). Why is/was she so hated? What's the story with the 1962 Seattle Fair?

Found a couple newspaper interviews though. There are some dubious comments, but most of what Lorraine Shalhoub/Lorraine Egypt/Little Lorraine/Little Egypt says seems pretty straight forward.

1963 - The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search
1971 - The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search
 

Erik

New member
Thanks, Duvet. Last couple of times I tried I couldn't get the Google News Archives Search to work for me anymore.

She had her name legally changed to Little Egypt, and I thought there might be a Wikipedia entry for her even if it was brief, or at least a mention in the page about the 1893 Little Egypt. They usually have a paragraph about legacy and so forth. After reading Donna Carlton's book I concluded that the 1893 Little Egypt was a legend created after the fact.

In the 1980's there was also a female wrestler using the name Little Egypt. The dancer, although retired by this point, sued in an attempt to keep her from using the name. It didn't succeed.

Thanks very much for your reply and the articles.

EDIT --- As I recall she was scheduled to dance at the Seattle Fair and then dropped from the lineup. She sued the Fair, but I never found out if she won, or what if any reason was given for the Fair canceling her appearance. I'm going only from memory and apologies if my memory is faulty.
 
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mahsati_janan

New member
Is this her? Belly Dancing Videos - Little Egypt

btw: the site itself seems to have some nudity on it, but this video does not.

edit: Ack! I just noticed that the last video on the page has nudity, so be careful if you are at work! Fixed to link to just this video instead of the page.
 
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Erik

New member
Indeed, Mahsati Janan, that is her. She made a few TV appearances including this one for Batman. Paul Revere and the Raiders did the music, and they were still performing last I checked.

I know, her costumes were skimpy, even for the 60's. There was a lot done in the field of bellydance during the 60's that wouldn't fly anymore. :)

Thanks to everyone. My work requires that I be away from home for many hours, without access to the Internet. If there are any more posts I will reply ASAP.
 
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mahsati_janan

New member
Here is something else you might find helpful if you haven't seen it already: Middle Eastern Dance in the Mainstram

It includes some discussion of Lorraine Shalhoub by belly dancers. There seems to be a decent amount of mentions of her on the web, but very little biographical information. She did apparently legally change her name to Little Lorraine Egypt in case that helps with your search.
 

Duvet

Member
I wonder where the story of Little Lorraine Egypt suing the 1962 Seattle Fair came from? The fair ran from April 1962 – October 1962. It seems likely she would have been intending to feature on Show Street (the adult entertainment section), yet this is exactly the type of entertainment the newspapers claimed she wished to distance herself from (unless she has a huge dose of hypocrisy). Little Lorraine Egypt was also playing in ‘Gideon’ on Broadway, New York from Nov 1961 – Jun 1962, which would have overlapped for some of the Seattle Fair.

The only link between Little Lorraine Egypt and Seattle I can find on the internet is this quote; “In 1961, State Senator Reuben Knoblauch complained that too much space and emphasis had been placed on the Art Exhibit and not enough on "skin shows" that would attract more people. State Representative Len Sawyer added that "a cadaver at a medical exhibit in Canada was drawing more attention than an Art Exhibit". A Show Street featuring Sally Rand and Little Egypt, and a Midway were added.” (Earth Station Nine). The final sentence looks suspicious to me because newspaper reports of the fair focused on the show girl productions of Gracie Hansen, calling them the successors to Little Egypt and Sally Rand, with no mention of those two stars actually being in the fair. When talking about these sensational shows at fairs other reports link the Little Egypt of 1893 and Sally Rand of 1933 as comparable ‘shockers’, and the only thing that people remember about these supposedly educational events. I wonder if linking the names caused confusion in popular thought that Little Lorraine Egypt and Sally Rand performed at the same fair?

I know the internet doesn’t have everything, but I can’t find any first-hand account of Little Lorraine Egypt billed in or suing the Seattle Fair in1962. The Oct 1963 newspaper article didn’t mention it, but then it could have been irrelevant old news by then. But another newspaper report of May 1965 does record her trying to sue Elvis Presley for presenting a dancer in one of his films as Little Egypt. The next paragraph then says Lorraine is applying to be in the New York world fair (which lost money the year before), and implies that she would do for the fair what the original Little Egypt did for the 1893 Chicago fair, and what Sally Rand did for the one in 1933. I’d have thought her involvement in a previous fair would have been an ideal newsworthy comment here.

Maybe there’s been some confusion over the story, or can someone tell me better?


As for BellyDance timelines – I take them with a pinch of salt, although a good starting point for research. Some of the dubious statements I've seen include –
2300 BC sacred love making widely practiced in temples to the Great Goddess. (Hmmm…exactly where, to which Goddess and how do we know?)
The philosopher Hypatia was the last Alexandrian Librarian. (There is hardly any evidence that the library was still extant during her adulthood, let alone that she was the librarian there.)
The Empress Theodora was a famous oriental dancer. (Contemporary sources do not describe her as a dancer. She was an actress and a prostitute, whose mother was a dancer.)
612 AD Moors settled in Spain bringing oriental dance with them. (The ‘Moors’ invaded Spain in 711 AD.)
The Crusaders brought back dancing girls to Europe. (There seems to be no evidence for this.)
Ghawazee were brought to Denmark in the 1760s. (Travel accounts were brought back, not the Ghawazee themselves.)
Oriental dancers were at the London Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. (There is no evidence for this, and is unlikely considering the aim of the Exhibition.)
1900 is ‘Edwardian’ and is the year Maude Allen performed Salome in England. (1900 is ‘Victorian’ and Maude Allen performed Salome in London in 1908.)
World War I finished in 1919. (It finished in 1918.)
-- Most of this is minor, but just makes me question everything else on them.
 

Erik

New member
Mahsati Janan, I remember that page from my early days on the Internet. Thanks. I had forgot all about it. I remember Morocco's comment very well.

Duvet, I definitely remember something about a lawsuit against an event which I would have sworn was the Seattle World's Fair, and I am at a loss to think of another event which I could have confused it with, but it's possible. Today, out of the blue, I suddenly remembered that four members of my family attended that event two years before I was born. I remember them mentioning it, but I can't ask them now, except perhaps with a seance.

I used the Google News Archive Search for a time to find articles related to the dance, then I stopped. Last year a dancer on this forum posted three unidentified pictures, and I thought I might identify one of them in this way, but all I got were web articles saying that Google had done away with it because newspapermen (namely one with the initials RM) were complaining. Apparently they want you to use their search engines instead of the Google. I remember that some articles were free to view and others cost money. It wasn't a great deal of money, but I stuck with the free ones.

Little Egypt has a page on the IMDb but as you can see there's very little there. I knew about "Gideon" but never saw it. Batman and Banacek were the only shows I remember her from, but she made the news in print many times during the 1960's and 70's. Little Egypt - IMDb

Forgot to mention (Dang, my memory is going): At the very least I can explain the "Gideon" discrepancy. She was not in the play, but in the television movie almost a decade later. Gideon (play) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EDIT --- Got it! Here's proof that I didn't make it up, but I did it by using the search box on the page Duvet provided. The Miami News - Google News Archive Search I used to be able to do that, but I can't seem to do it anymore. Possibly the stage role she claimed to have missed was the same one she later played on the small screen.

Another EDIT --- In idle moments I've wondered if there might have been some kind of Little Egypt-Elvis Presley feud going on. Elvis recorded the song Little Egypt previously done by the Coasters. In the '64 Elvis film "Roustabout" Wilda Taylor played Little Egypt as she was portrayed in the song; a carnival kootch dancer. The same year Elvis was eclipsed by the Beatles but came back strong in '68 with a television special. He did a portion of the song again, and Tania Lemani played Little Egypt with more ME authenticity (not to mention Hollywood glam). Also wondering if there is a connection to the Elvis film "It Happened at the World's Fair" which was set during the Seattle event. The plot thickens.
 
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Jane

New member
Erik "At the mention of her name the room hushes so quiet that you can hear a pin drop."

Honestly, it's because she was so trashy-kitsche :lol:
 

Erik

New member
Honestly, it's because she was so trashy-kitsche :lol:

By post-1980 standards, definitely.

In reading any kind of history, I do my utmost not to judge. That Sonny Lester album for instance, didn't it debut when belly dance was being crowded out by hardcore pornography?

By the same token, I cannot agree with everything done by Winston Churchill and FDR in order to get the task accomplished, but I can't help thinking that if the Neville Chamberlain and Wendell Willkie school of thought had prevailed, it might not have been accomplished at all. ;)
 

Duvet

Member
Most popular culture becomes trashy-kitsche in retrospect. Look in any garage sale or junk shop (or even my own cupboards :D).

Lorraine Egypt appeared in the 1971 film ‘Gideon’, but she did also appear in the 1961-62 play;
BroadwayWorld.com - Gideon [Broadway (1961)] - Overview gives her as playing Orpah in ‘Gideon’, with Ilene Tema as her understudy (who she?).
Plus this newspaper article (Jan 1962) Newspapers - BELLY SCHOOL says Lorraine gave free bellydance lessons in response to fan mail following her Broadway appearance.
And another (April 1962) relates how, for 3 minutes in each performance of ‘Gideon’, Miss Shalhoub jangled with 'earthy excitement' Toledo Blade - Google News Archive Search.

I guess the stuff on the internet about her just hasn’t yet been pulled together. Perhaps you could add to wiki (which could also include the female wrestler ‘Little Egypt’ that Lorraine Egypt sued against). Is she still alive? As to why she seems ignored - others with a longer history in bellydancing will hopefully illuminate. Perhaps as Jane says, her image is just too unpopular today. I'm sure she's not the only one to suffer that fate. Perhaps there are loads of 20th Century dancers with untold stories waiting to be rediscovered.

Thanks for the article on the Seattle lawsuit (June 1963). I stand corrected. I wonder what Broadway show she felt she had missed out on? It seems even stranger now that it wasn't mentioned in the Oct 1963 article (everything else about her seems to be - unless of course she lost or gave up on it), but I note the report appears in the Gossip Column, so maybe some misinformation/publicity is going on? :think: Then again, perhaps she was chasing too many avenues to stardom.
 
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Erik

New member
And I stand corrected about her appearance in the Broadway production. [One look at those movie ads told me it was the early 1960's.]

Duvet, you are absolutely right. I also remember that she made some statements in interviews which would not be popular with most dancers today.

And there was a short blurb in several newspapers which said that she lost an expensive diamond while performing in Las Vegas. I took the story at face value until last night when I found a nearly identical story which had her losing an expensive diamond in New York seven years earlier. A publicity stunt? Not necessarily her idea, but something to get her name in the public mind at a given time?

Perhaps the lawsuit against the World's Fair was nothing more than an idle threat for self-promotion which never made it to court at all.

I also found a letter to Dear Abby from a Lorraine asking where to take belly dancing lessons, and a letter to Ann Landers from a Little Egypt asking for advice with her troubled marriage. Who knows? :confused:

She's as enigmatic as the 1890's Little Egypt. Yes, it would be nice if someone would write a Wiki page for Lorraine and any other Little Egypts out there, but not me. I would drive myself crazy trying to sort through all that.

EDIT --- This just in: Seems to indicate that a dancer using the Little Egypt persona was at least slated to dance in Seattle fifty years ago, and that a barker was hired, but it could be more misinformation. I always do quality research.....but I don't guarantee that the quality will always be good. :D

Bill Erxleben remembers the World's Fair | Ed cetera | The Seattle Times

Yesterday something reminded me of Andy Worhol's prophetic statement that in the future everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. If her mention by the press was any indication, Lorraine Egypt had a successful run of fame for fifteen years. Now thinking I should have entitled this thread Looking for Little Egypt II.
 
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Aniseteph

New member
According to this one, husband/manager was an ad exec, and IMHO you can tell, he is working it. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search

There are more of pieces like this if you dig. IMO the reason these dancers (and probably thousands of other performers) have dropped off the radar is that however big a name you were on a club/theatre circuit, unless you somehow catch the general public's attention, Joe Public either never heard of you or if he did, he doesn't much care. You might get biography-minded dancer fans if you are somehow interesting, because of your style or you taught or were otherwise influential in some way, but otherwise... not so much.

Also Erik, no conspiracy theory is complete without the Warren Commission! ;) http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/pdf/WH25_CE_2356.pdf :D
 
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Erik

New member
Wow, Aniseteph! I didn't have time to to reply earlier. You should have seen my eyes widen upon seeing the name of the Warren Commission. And it looks as if she and Charles Curtis had some integrity in not mixing bellydance with stripping. ;)

Paddy Chavefsky is also a name I was familiar with a long time before I ventured onto the Internet. I've thought of two scenarios in which Lorraine might have appeared in both his play and at the fair. 1) If she was to dance at the fair for a limited engagement, her understudy could have replaced her in the role of Oprah while she took off to Seattle for a few days. 2) Last night I read that the fair was planned as a longer event running into 1963, but after it began it was decided to shorten it. Perhaps Lorraine was scheduled to dance during the cancelled part of it, after the show on Broadway had its last performance.

I don't know if she's still alive, but I do know that the bellydance which followed her was different in many ways from the bellydance she practiced, and possibly she made the choice to walk away with her winnings rather than to continue on until she eventually became a lampoon of herself.

In contrast, the GLOW wrestler Little Egypt is easy to find with an official page on Facebook. Although GLOW had a bunch of lady wrestlers, she is one of a few whom I still remember. [I thought that she and Mountain Fuji made an awesome tag team.]

I remember a few times on the IMDb when no one actually knew the answer, but it was a collaborative effort in which everyone contributed what they did know or could find out via the Internet. As time went by more clues were provided, and eventually the question was solved. I'm still hoping that some person(s) with memories of Little Lorraine Egypt will come forward and share them.
 
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Erik

New member
Thanks, Shira. Sorry to hear about Lorraine. Unfortunately by the time you posted I was already in grief. Lost my first friend on the Web. She actually died months ago but we learned of it only recently. She was the kind of person who made everything better just by being there, and she will be missed a lot.

Thanks again.
 
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