Movies of the Exposition do exist.  For example:

http://youtu.be/ezmkLOMPAUc

Eadweard Muybridge also showed his motion pictures there.

But the idea that Mark Twain ever had a movie camera in the 1890s (or perhaps at any time in his life) is absurd on its face.  Motion pictures using photographs were less than 15 years old at the time, and filmed motion was only about five years old.  At that point it was all experimental stuff.

And the movies of "Little Egypt" that exist were made in New York City several years after the exposition, and are not even of the same woman who performed there.  There were several different women who billed themselves as "Little Egypt" after the one at the exposition gained notoriety.

It is funny to think of Mark Twain having such a reaction to a hootchy-cootchy dancer, though.  I suspect he would have exactly the opposite reaction - whatever that might be.  <g>

Carl

Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 5, 2014, at 11:21 PM, James Edstrom <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Thank you, Judith. The story had a distinct air of bunkum about it, and
> the text you quote supports that. In my Illinois history course that I
> teach at Harper College, I devote a fair amount of attention to the
> Fair, and I had never seen a single reference to any moving picture of
> the Fair, let alone one taken by Mark Twain. The reference to him having
> a heart attack at the sight of Little Egypt's performance strikes me as
> reminiscent of his description of his reaction to the Can-Can in "The
> Innocents Abroad": "Twenty sets formed, the music struck up, and then--I
> placed my hands before my face for very shame. But I looked through my
> fingers."
> 
> 
> <-----Original Message-----> 
>> From: Lee, Judith [[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: 3/5/2014 9:54:46 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Mark Twain, the World's Columbian Exposition, and belly
> dancing
>> 
>> Larry and Jim, 
>> 
>> Joe Slade opened his copy of Donna Carlton=92s Looking for Little Egypt
> (Bl= 
>> oomington, 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 =93the hooch coochy Little Egypt=94 (as distinct from the
> Horatio-Algere= 
>> sque legend of Fahreda Mahzar) on p. 93: =93This Little Egypt belonged
> to = 
>> a sensualist, degenerate, pleasure-seeking demimonde of freaks and
> cheap th= 
>> rills. She was both harem queen and concubine to the sideshow sheiks .
> . .= 
>> Ladies and gentlemen, direct from the Chicago World=92s Fair, see the
> hooc= 
>> h coochy dancer! She walks! She talks! She crawls on her belly like a
> rep= 
>> tile! This Little Egypt strutted about wearing practically nothing. Her
> n= 
>> ame even became a slang expression for a loose woman. Finally, in a
> fabri= 
>> cated legend, her contortions resulted in a coronary for mark Twain,
> who co= 
>> llapsed after viewing a performance.=94 
>> 
>> 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:LHowe= 
>> @ROOSEVELT.EDU>> wrote: 
>> 
>> Jim-- 
>> 
>> I've never heard this story, but it has all the earmarks of a
> fabrication. = 
>> =3D 
>> Your recollection that he was ill when visiting Chicago is correct. He
> wa= 
>> =3D 
>> s here (Chicago's my current home) to negotiate with Paige on
> separating hi= 
>> =3D 
>> s interests on the typesetter. In addition to the letters, David Fears
> Mar= 
>> =3D 
>> k Twain Day-By-Day gives the details of his movements--or lack of them,
> he = 
>> =3D 
>> was laid up in the the Blackstone hotel, if I remember correctly.
> Clemens = 
>> =3D 
>> recovered enough from his illness to visit the fair on the afternoon of
> the= 
>> =3D 
>> last day he was in the city. As for him shooting a film of Little
> Egypt, = 
>> =3D 
>> I don't know of any accounts of him ever taking a photograph (though
> certa= 
>> =3D 
>> inly more were taken of him than perhaps any other living person). We
> know= 
>> =3D 
>> about his interest in the typewriter and the dictaphone. I suspect if
> he'= 
>> =3D 
>> d actually used a movie camera, we'd know about it. =3D20 
>> 
>> I've long been curious about whether he had ever seen a film. It's
> widely = 
>> =3D 
>> known that the Edison crew made one of him at Stormfield, but I know of
> no = 
>> =3D 
>> reference from him of ever having seen one. In "Italian Without a
> Grammar"= 
>> =3D 
>> (1903) he includes some newspaper clippings that feature two ads for
> films= 
>> =3D 
>> being shown in Florence, and they were adaptations of classic
> stories--Qui= 
>> =3D 
>> xote was one, if I recall correctly. It's hard to imagine that he
> wouldn't= 
>> =3D 
>> have been interested in a new way of telling stories. But nothing has
> tur= 
>> =3D 
>> ned up. So the idea that he actually shot a film of an exotic dancer is
> fa= 
>> =3D 
>> scinating, though it seems unlikely. If you learn anything about the
> sourc= 
>> =3D 
>> 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
> Behal= 
>> f Of James Edstrom [jedst=3D 
>> [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=3D 
>> 
>> 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
> <htt= 
>> p://www.ohio.edu/people/leej/Twains_Brand.html> 
>> .