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Little Egypt - YouTube
Apparently she was pretty big back in her days and even made it to the west...
Apparently she was pretty big back in her days and even made it to the west...
Little Egypt - YouTube
Apparently she was pretty big back in her days and even made it to the west...
I have a vague memory - this must have been the early 1970s sometime - there was a lawsuit of some kind involving a Belly Dancer who called herself "Little Egypt".
Maybe... *shrug*Was it this thread? http://bellydanceforums.net/other-dance-stuff/17477-greta-garbo-bellydance.html re: the dancer Lorraine Shalhoub, who used the name 'Little Egypt', suing a female wrestler for also using the name 'Little Egypt' in the 1980s.
Not supported at all by Donna Calton's research using primary sources.I read somewhere that the first "Little Egypt" might have performed at the World's Fair in 1893, or a dancer at that fair got billed under that name after performing exceptionally well. She was otherwise unidentified. After that, like Tarik said, many performers took the name, or even claimed to be the original dancer.
At the turn of the century, there was no such thing as the solo celebrity dancer as we know them today. Dancers were general entertainers, meaning dancing was only one of the things they did. They also sang, played music, sometimes acted and did acrobatics. When they danced, they danced as a group primarily.
It wasn't till the 30's and 40's that you saw the birth of the solo nightclub dancer.
Actually, these statements are not entirely accurate. The dancer Shooq is generally considered to be the first celebrity solo dancer in Egypt, and her career was thriving in the 1870's. She was the dancer who recruited and trained Shafiqa el-Koptiyya, whose career also thrived in the 19th century. Shafiqa performed in a nightclub called El Dorado, and the patrons threw gold coins at her feet.
I also grew up believing that she was real, and I think this film with Rhonda Fleming which I still have not seen yet may have accomplished the most toward perpetuating that belief.
Little Egypt (1951) - IMDb
Since reading Donna Carlton's book I've come to think of her as the Robin Hood of bellydance; a legend based on a real person, or perhaps more than one person, and as with Robin Hood sorting out the truth from the legend would require a time machine.
Yes - she looked at publicity, reviews, letters and could find no mention of a "Little Egypt" at the time. Later people who used the name probably were not even from Egypt.Kashmir I haven't read the book, but from what I gather from brief reviews, the entire thing centers around that fair. (The Columbian Exposition, The Chicago World's Fair, whatever you want to call it...) Does she dispel the rumor?
Thanks, Kashmir! I looked for a copy of the book, but it's a little unreasonable on Amazon. It sounds interesting, though.
Thanks, Kashmir! I looked for a copy of the book, but it's a little unreasonable on Amazon. It sounds interesting, though.