A century ago, a brilliant "White City," a World's Fair of startling splendor, blossomed along Lake Michigan on the south side of grimy, industrial Chicago. The World's Columbian Exposition, commemorating the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, was the first international exposition to feature a separate area for amusements. Along this strip, known as the Midway Plaisance, "dancing girls" in colorful native costumes of the Middle East performed regularly for the curious crowds who poured in. "Little Egypt," according to many different reference and history books, is supposed to have been a popular performer on the Midway Plaisance. In fact, according to some accounts, she was a dance star who caused a sensation and saved the financially-troubled exposition from ruin by drawing people from all over the country to her exotic performances. She is said to have shocked and scandalized audiences in Chicago, and popularized the newly-invented zipper by using it to help her wriggle out of costumes. she supposedly caused Mark Twain to suffer a coronary and starred in one of the first motion pictures, filmed at the fairgrounds by Mark Twain himself.

Can all this be true, or have legends run wild and overshadowed the true record of the Midway Plaisance entertainment known as danse du ventre? Usually translated as "belly dance," danse du ventre was the French colonial name for sensuous women's dances of North Africa and the Middle East, an area of the world then designated by Europe and the New World as "the Orient." During my more than ten years as an aficionado of this dance form, I have been asked countless times about its history and originals and I often wondered about the performer who may have been America's first notable "belly dancer." Were there records of the 1893 fair dancers that would help me uncover a dance lineage?

Who were these women who introduced America to danse du ventre? Where did they come from? What was their dance like? Were they muscle dancers, contortionists, houris, Nautch girls, or Ouled Nail from Algeria? While reporters gave all of these identifications, most called them simply "dancing girls." Were they pseudo-Oriental dancers in fanciful costumes reflecting the fashionable Orientalism of the day? Were they, as I suspected, gypsy ghawazi from Egypt? Though there are photographic records of fair performers, after searching through dozens of primary sources, I did not find a single verifiable photo of Little Egypt from the fair. Later photos of her turned up that were obvious photos of many different women. Why were so many identified as Little Egypt? I wondered why some Little Egypts seemed very Western in appearance, while the photos from the 1893 fair showed women who were distinctly Oriental. I also came across additional anecdotal information about Little Egypt--that she has been called the first screen "sex goddess," that she provided the prototype for theatrical strip tease, and that the term "Little Egypt" had taken on the slang meaning of "a loose woman." As I set out to untangle the stories about Little Egypt, I realized the her character had become larger than life. Song and legend immortalized her and somtimes, much like Oscar Wilde's Salome, portrayed a femme fatale, exotic and beautiful but deadly.

I looked through months of various newspapers on microfiml and through numerous sourvenir volumes for a mention of Little Egypt at the 1893 fair. Although I found many other personalities of the Midway Plaisance described, I could not locate a contemporary reference to the infamous dancer there. This led me to the conclusion that even if Little Egypt was actually there, she was not famous at this point in her career and certainly not the star performer on the Midway Plaisance. In fact, the name "Little Egypt" probably did not become notorious until a few years after the fair. If this is true, how did the Little Egypt legends originate? And what made them so popular?

Little research has been done to uncover and preserve a complete and accurate record of the several types of dance that were introduced to Americans at Chicago's 1893 fair. Much information that historians and history buffs year to know has been lost forever. Meanwhile, the stories persist. U.S. history, exposition history, popular entertainment history, reference and dance books have all included Little Egypt:

(quotes)

The Midway, the amusement area of the exposition, introduced Chicago to such memorable novelties as Little Egypt, the "exotic dancer," and the Ferris Wheel.

Another popular feature of the Midway was The Streets of Cairo, where "Little Egypt" danced the hoochee-coochee.

The source of dispute (at the 1893 fair) was the danse du ventre performed by an Arabian beauty known as "Little Egypt."

One of the biggest crazes in dancing was the hootchy-kootchy. It was first introduced by Little Egypt at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 as a specialty in the Nautch Village.

Probably the biggest attraction of the exposition was Little Egypt, whose sensual "hootchy-kootchy" dance scandalized and delighted the visitors. The belly dance was almost unknown in the United States until 1893, when Little Egypt and her dancers appeared at the Chicago World's Fair and gave Victorian audiences a shock from which they never recovered.

(end of quotes)

Students of contemporary Oriental dance and the general public alike have heard these claims and assume them to be truth. How this remarkable durable American legend took root and spread is the subject of this book. Film and stage productions erroneously associated Little Egypt with the 1893 fair. In the process, they created and perpetuated several much-beloved myths that my book endeavors to debunk. I propose a forgotten candidate for the title of "the original notorious Little Egypt." Details of the scandal surrounding Ashea Wabe, a turn-of-the-century entertainer, provide important clues to how the legends about Little Egypt originated. I also tell how Oriental dance became a prominent feature on the Midway Plaisance. I believe that there were sincere attempts to present the dance in at least three Midway Plaisance exhibits.

This book looks at the roles played by profiteering concessionaires, sideshow sheiks and self-appointed censors as the fair's danse du ventre gained notoriety and its imitation form, hoochy coochy, caught on. It will show that cultural prejudice and intolerance colored the reviews. It discusses the allure of Orientalism and the reaction of one puritanical vice-hunter who condemned and, at the same time, unwittingly sparked popular interest in danse du ventre. The long-debated etymology of "hoochy coochy" is also discussed and a new derivation suggested and explained. Finally, I briefly trace the evolution of the form into a popular recreational activity and tell how some contemporary hobbyists and performers cope with the baggage of a bygone era.

Little Egypt was a pre-Hollywood American sex symbol. She was created by and personified the Western obsession for the exotic. She was born in an age when showmen, in deliberate Barnum-esque fashion, outdid each other to manipulate the press and mislead the public by fabricating larger-than-life personalities. In this case, the Little Egypt legend has fooled many people for almost a century.

NOTES:

These quotations were taken from the following sources: Encylopedia Americana Volume 6 (Danbury, CT: Grolier Inc., 1991), p. 428.

Album of American History Vol. III (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969), p. 434.

Burg, David F., Chicago's White City of 1893 (Louisville: The University Press of Kentucky, 1976), p. 222.

Laurie, Joe, Jr., Vaudeville: From the Honky-tonks to the Palace (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953), p. 40.

Reader's Digest Strange Stories, Amazing Facts (Pleasantville, NY and Montreal: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1976), p. 161.

Wilson, Serena and Alan Wilson, The Serena Technique of Belly Dancing (New York: Drake Publishers Inc., 1972), p. 13.