Ella Lola - 1898

Ella Lola - Turkish bellydancer - 1898
From the New York clipper, 4/19/02, p. 167: Ella Lola was born Sept. 2, 1883, in Boston, and made her first appearance as a dancer at the age of eleven years, and by her clever work has steadily come to the fore, until now she takes rank among the best in her class. She has been featured at various times with road companies, and has met with success at the leading vaudeville houses through the country.

Apparently filmed in Edison's "Black Maria" studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• classic
• belly
• dance

[elizabeneth]

shakira?

[bigtarrose]

BEAUTIFUL! She could have been my great-great granma!

[BSNFabricating]

I wonder what this gal did in later years... She was only 15 years old when this was filmed...

[miguelarrizabalaga]

Un bello documento. Lástima que no tenga sonido.

[obulous]

From Wikipedia "Because this dance style (Belly Dance) created such a craze, Thomas Edison made several films of dancers in the 1890s. Included in these are the Turkish dance, Ella Lola, 1898 and Crissie Sheridan in 1897 both available for on-line viewing through the Library of Congress. Another in this collection is Princess Rajah dance from 1904 which features a dancer playing Zils (finger cymbals), doing "floor work", and balancing a chair in her teeth."

[Analaima]

I would die to listen what she was listening!

[MeivFun]

amazing footage! so precious!

[cretancooper]

cool, neat footage

[aliceihm]

Fantastic document