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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Vern, post: 31620, member: 347&quot;]&quot;Legend has said (<i> Not verified</i>) that Little Egypt was to have scandalized and delighted visitors when she danced at the 1893 Colombian Exposition&#039;s Egyptian Theater for the infamous Sol Bloom, who was the entertainment director of the Expo and the person who coined the Misnomer &quot;<a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3belly.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3belly.htm" rel="nofollow"> Belly dance</a>,&quot; (<i> Correct term is <a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3belly.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3belly.htm" rel="nofollow">Raks Sharki</a></i>) which was known prior to many Americans as the Hootchy-Kootchy dance or&nbsp; &quot; Danse du ventre.&quot;&nbsp; The song that made her famous was &quot; The Streets of Cairo&quot; and is said that that song gave rise to<a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3hooch1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3hooch1.htm" rel="nofollow"> Hootchy-Cootchy</a>. There were many &quot;dancing girls&quot; in this theater but &quot;<i> Fatima</i>&quot; aka &quot;Little Egypt&nbsp; ( Farida Mazar - Spyropoulos)&quot; was said to have stood out and outright &quot;STOLE THE SHOW.&quot; Anthony Comstock tried to shut the Expo&#039;s midway dance hall down, but only made it more popular.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; It is said that because of her infamous dance in Chicago, Little Egypt (Farida) changed Vaudeville into<a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histburl/1index0.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histburl/1index0.htm" rel="nofollow"> Burlesque</a> with her &quot;striptease,&quot; as many promoters tried to cash in on her (<i> Or its</i>) popularity, although today, it is said (like<a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2gypsy1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2gypsy1.htm" rel="nofollow"> Gypsy Rose Lee</a>) she NEVER actually STRIPPED, only TEASED (<i> Also see</i><a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2lydtm1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2lydtm1.htm" rel="nofollow"> Lydia Thompson</a>.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Farida started traveling the circuit and by 1897 was dancing on Broadway. At the late age of 62, Spyropoulos even danced as Little Egypt at the 1933 Century of Progress in Chicago. Many years later, many people would claim to be the famed &quot;Little Egypt,&quot; trying to cash in on her fame, but they were not, and today, most agree it was Farida. Some have even went so far as to claim they were her daughters or even granddaughters, however Farida never had any children.&quot;</p><p><a href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2egypt1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2egypt1.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2egypt1.htm</a></p><p><br /></p><p>If the video link doesn&#039;t work you should go to that site and watch her dance for Thomas Edison.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I guess she was pretty famous.&nbsp; It seems like colored photos are fairly rare for this period.&nbsp; I imagine the state or someone would be interested in a scan of these.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Some of things are pretty nice to have, but they don&#039;t pay rent and they weigh on my conscience in a way that makes me feel like I need to share them with the right hands so that they don&#039;t get lost in history.&nbsp; I suppose the best way to do that with some of it would be to find the right collection and sell to it.&nbsp; The photos are nice though because I can share them without giving them up.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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