Larry and Jim,

Joe Slade opened his copy of Donna Carlton’s Looking for Little Egypt (Bloomington, IN:  IDD Books, 1994), so here is more of the paragraph that is apparently excerpted out of context in the link.  Carlton gives an account of “the hooch coochy Little Egypt” (as distinct from the Horatio-Algeresque legend of Fahreda Mahzar) on p. 93:  “This Little Egypt belonged to a sensualist, degenerate, pleasure-seeking demimonde of freaks and cheap thrills.  She was both harem queen and concubine to the sideshow sheiks . . . Ladies and gentlemen, direct from the Chicago World’s Fair, see the hooch coochy dancer!  She walks!  She talks! She crawls on her belly like a reptile!  This Little Egypt strutted about wearing practically nothing.  Her name even became a slang expression for a loose woman.  Finally, in a  fabricated legend, her contortions resulted in a coronary for mark Twain, who collapsed after viewing a performance.”

Carlton clearly cites the tale as a myth, although she appears to be cited as if supporting it.

Judith


On Mar 5, 2014, at 6:21 PM, Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

Jim--

I've never heard this story, but it has all the earmarks of a fabrication. =
Your recollection that he was ill when visiting Chicago is correct.  He wa=
s here (Chicago's my current home) to negotiate with Paige on separating hi=
s interests on the typesetter.  In addition to the letters, David Fears Mar=
k Twain Day-By-Day gives the details of his movements--or lack of them, he =
was laid up in the the Blackstone hotel, if I remember correctly.  Clemens =
recovered enough from his illness to visit the fair on the afternoon of the=
last day he was in the city.  As for him shooting a film of Little Egypt, =
I don't know of any accounts of him ever taking a photograph (though certa=
inly more were taken of him than perhaps any other living person).  We know=
about his interest in the typewriter and the dictaphone.  I suspect if he'=
d actually used a movie camera, we'd know about it. =20

I've long been curious about whether he had ever seen a film.  It's widely =
known that the Edison crew made one of him at Stormfield, but I know of no =
reference from him of ever having seen one.  In "Italian Without a Grammar"=
(1903) he includes some newspaper clippings that feature two ads for films=
being shown in Florence, and they were adaptations of classic stories--Qui=
xote was one, if I recall correctly.  It's hard to imagine that he wouldn't=
have been interested in a new way of telling stories.  But nothing has tur=
ned up.  So the idea that he actually shot a film of an exotic dancer is fa=
scinating, though it seems unlikely.  If you learn anything about the sourc=
e of this story, I'd be interested.

--LH


Larry Howe
Professor of English
Chair, Department of Literature and Languages
Roosevelt University
________________________________________
From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of James Edstrom [jedst=
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2014 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mark Twain, the World's Columbian Exposition, and belly dancing

In the course of reading an item on Salon today with the arresting
title, "Why I Can't Stand White Belly Dancers" (
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/why_i_cant_stand_white_belly_dancers/),
this sentence caught my eye:  "(fun trivia: Mark Twain made a short film
of a belly dancer at the 1893 fair)."  This was a new one to me.
Although he was in Chicago during the Fair, I don't think Twain had a
chance to visit, as he was ill (if my recollection is correct).  As for
the story that he filmed Little Egypt--I'd be curious to learn the
source of that myth.  Another source--a book titled "Looking for Little
Egypt," which is excerpted at
http://www.allaboutbellydance.com/book.html --claims that Little Egypt
"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."  Wikipedia repeats the story as well and cites a 1965
documentary titled The Love Goddesses as its source.  Has anybody ever
heard this story before?

Jim Edstrom=

Judith Yaross Lee
Professor & Director of Honors Tutorial Studies
Editor, Studies in American Humor
Co-director, Central Region Humanities Center
School of Communication Studies
Ohio University
Lasher Hall
Athens, OH 45701

T:740-593-4888
F:740-593-4810
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
http://www.coms.ohiou.edu/judith-yaross-lee

My newest book:  Twain's Brand: Humor in Contemporary American Culture <http://www.ohio.edu/people/leej/Twains_Brand.html>