11.00 USD
"Pigeon vole!
Aérogyne Elle ment avec son corps
Mieux que l'esprit n'imagine
Les mensonges
du decor."
Jean Cocteau
Miss Aérogyne, La Femme Volante, or "the Flying Woman"
From her costume, and stage name, you might think Miss Aérogyne was a trapese artist, or even a human cannonball, and at some point in her career, who knows? She may have done those things as well.
But for this act, she was a stage magician, an illusionist, and making use of careful set design, and no doubt some daring acrobatics as well, she would appear to be flying through the air, much to the delight of the audience, one of whom, writer and film director Jean Cocteau, composed a poem about her in the early 1920s.
"Fly pigeon," he writes, and though we won't attempt a poetic translation here, he seems essentially to say that with her body, and with the lie supported by the stage decor, she creates the illusion of flight, better than he can imagine in his own mind.
Apparently he was so enchanted with the produced special effect, that he reproduced it in 1924, in his film "Roméo and Juliette." This, according to a scholarly article by Professor Jennifer Forrest, follow link to read more.
http://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1544&context=sttcl
Full disclosure: Professor Forrest gives the name of Miss Aérogyne as Marie Fourrier, but also writes that she cannot be certain the "Miss Aérogyne" whose performance Monsieur Cocteau so enjoyed, was necessarily the same one. Apparently she had many imitators.
A very nice circus/vaudeville card. Like many cards of this genre, it was a cheaply produced souvenir, a photolithograph, not a photograph, but captures the era and the feel of the circus ring beautifully :)
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
The item you are considering for purchase is, unless otherwise noted, a vintage postcard of approximately 5 and 1/2, by 3 and 1/2 inches. Postage is for fully insured, first class, shipping in a secure photo mailer (to avoid any damage to your purchase in the mails), 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 increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more. We do not charge for insurance or shipping materials, and as of the date of this listing are still charging below our overall cost on shipping.
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redpoulaine.blogspot.com
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