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22.00 USD
The quote below, is excerpted from the article:
"Why Dancers Are So Dangerous"
"Science Explains Their Fascination by Their Power to Awaken Primitive Dreams of Conquest Created by the First Priestesses When Men Still Lived in Caves"
published in The Omaha Daily Bee March 15, 1914:
"Odette Valery, who stirred the admiration of Oscar Hammerstein, her impresario, by the romantic record of twenty-eight love affairs in one year, was the bogie woman to many unhappy Parisiennes. Never did the dusky-haired charmer with the alluring black eyes fail to inject a thorn into a matrimonial situation when she chose. Since misfortune has overtaken her and she is destitute in Paris she is still the cause for disturbing memories in the bosoms of many wives in the huge city of laughter."
We found this article reprinted at:
http://juxtintime.com/tag/home-wreckers/
It makes for interesting reading, and the entire article is reprinted there, wagging an accusing finger at a number of Belle Epoque dancers. No great emphasis was placed on fact, the writer even managing to blame Mlle. Gaby Deslys for the political turmoil in Portugal that lost the King his throne.
This just points to the fact that these Belle Epoque beauties were loved, adored, and despised, in equal measures, by their onlookers.
March 1914, when this article was published, was just a couple of months before World War One (that war to end all wars, or so they vainly hoped), began in Europe. This article is also the last mention of Odette Valery we were able to find online.
Born Helene Vasilardi in 1883, she was an Italian dancer of Greek parentage who made her début at La Scala (presumably the one in Rome, not the music hall in Paris), in 1898, at the age of fifteen.
She soon moved to Paris, and was dancing at the Folies Bergere. Like her contemporaries, the notorious Mata Hari, and the famous Loie Fuller, Mlle. Valery was an interpretive soloist for the most part, who sought to recreate dances of classical Greece, in her bare feet, rather than dancing en pointe in a ballet troupe. It is perhaps not unreasonable to level charges of sensationalism at all three women, but after all, they were stage performers who used their wits and talent to get noticed (half of success in show business, some claim), and to climb to the top in a tough business. Of course, Cleo de Merode was also primarily an interpetive soloist, and did very well performing her versions of classical Cambodian dance movements in traditional costume, but perhaps because she never went anywhere without her mother, who jealously guarded her daughter's reputation, she was treated far less harshly by the press.
Odette Valery once played Cleopatra with a living asp (de-fanged), and at the height of her fame, in 1910, was earning a thousand dollars a week (a great deal of money at that time). Even her snakes had a personal groom who traveled with them on international tours. Apparently she saved none of her wealth, and by 1912, was found in an impoverished state, ill, and being watched over by her seven year old son in a cheap London boarding house. A friend managed to get her back to Paris, but by 1914, at the beginning of the war (as you read above), she was still destitute. At that point the trail disappears. Millions of people in Europe were displaced in the war, and apparently she was one of them. There is not even a record of her death that we can find, which is odd for so famous a dancer.
This lovely card looks upon her in happier days, early in her career, during a time when she was performing at the Casino de Paris.
Many thanks to Wikipedia, as always!
Wonderful, unposted condition. Really a fine card of an uncommon image by Ogerau (sometimes spelled Ogereau).
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!
