Little Egypt

Little Egypt vintage footage

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• little
• egypt
• vintage
• bellydance

[nefabit]

Does anyone have any idea where this original footage came from? Is there more? I've seen one of the clips before . . . I'd love to get my hands on an original copy of . . . whatever it is. I love the history of belly dance. Can anyone help?

[3rifily]

I found it on youtube and reposted it and I wonder if the original dvd the footage is from ("Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time") has that music as well....

[twinks76]

I agree, fabulous footage, bad choice of music though. :)

[3rifily]

Yes indeed...

I found it on youtube and reposted it and I wonder if the original dvd the footage is from ("Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time") has that music as well....

[ekocentric]

Oh MY GODDDD! Could you imagine what the ladies in "polite society" thought of this???

I can just hear them..."oh, Mrs Updike has fallen in the salmon loaf"...lol

And the men, must have headed for the nearest bordellos.

Thanx for showing this one. I always wanted to see her in action.

[Brounty404]

that was creeeepy

[ekocentric]

@Promthanius Hey there. Thanx for the info. I just went on amazon.com and ordered the book from a company called; Purple Whale123 for the huge sum of 1 penny and .$3.99 postage. I appreciate it.

[Promthanius]

@ekocentric There is a GREAT book out there called "The Belly Dancer" about little egypt and how she came to be. It's by a lady named DeAnna Cameron and is AMAZING. You'll get a good look into the thoughts of those ladies.

[BorbalaBellyDancer]

I believe the first dancer was Farheda Mahzar Spyropoulos. According to a quick genealogy search, was born in 1875 in Egypt and Syria in some documents. She was the daughter of Mary and Elias and went by "Freida" on the census records. She died in Chicago, April 5th, 1937.

Her husband, Andrew Spyropoulos, was born in Greece in 1881 and was naturalized 1926 in Chicago. No children on the record.

Can't find much on Fatima Djamille, the second dancer, supposedly filmed in 1907.

[SCV2011]

Little Egypt dance Middle Eastern Dance. Several women used her hame and stole her style of dance. it wasn't "exotic" thats just what out of work dancers made it in the US its called "Belly Dance" look up the history connected to the Chicago world Fair. I don't think this is the real (the first) Little Egypt

[SCV2011]

Little Egypt dance Middle Eastern Dance. Several women used her hame and stole her style of dance. it wasn't "exotic" thats just what out of work dancers made it in the US its called "Belly Dance" look up the history connected to the Chicago world Fair. I don't think this is the real (the first) Little Egypt

[Balertwine]

1893. Thomas Edison's eyes nearly popped out when he made one the first movies of all time. Did I say eyes? Ha! Some things never change. We always think we were the first generation to discover something, but face it, ever since we became bipeds, this is what makes the world go round. Love them forward thrusts. Love that shaking hind end. Glad there's a discreet name for it -- "dance". Funny, Edison's first movie was just like Quicktime 100 years later, a few frames a second.

[lilmisschuckles]

wow can that woman gyrate! LOL! i really appreciate seeing this and where my belly dance roots started THANKYOU! x

[fatimaza2008]

I believe this is one of Mutoscope's short cinematic productions filmed in 1893 at The Columbian Exposition in Chicago at the Midway's "Algerian Village" in "The Egyptian Theater Cafe" where Ghawazi (Egyptian Folk dancers), and Raks Sharqi Egyptain, Moroccan, and Algerian dancers performed several shows a day. The dancers were signed on in Alexandria, Egypt by Promoter Sol Bloom who was one of the proteges of the famous P.T. Barnum. Litte Egypt, also known as Fatima, (Farida Mazar Spyropoulos).

[tanfoukdance]

There's a good book called The Search for Little Egypt, about the dancers at the Chicago 1893 fair- and their imitators.

[TheNicneven]

From what I can find, Little Egypt's real name was Fahreda Mahzar . She originally used the stage name "Fatima" but wound up with "Little Egypt" because of her size. She is sometimes confused with Fatima Djemille, who also danced at the Columbian Exposition and Coney Island.