Legend: Little Egypt

Little Egypt: Featured Legend for Red Hots Burlesque

Let’s take it way back and meet Red Hots Burlesque’s legend of the week…

LITTLE EGYPT

This week we honor a legend that ripped open hoochy coochy dancing for burlesque dancers everywhere, and she’s not just one woman: Little Egypt was three. Three women were famously attributed to the moniker Little Egypt, who first gained notoriety at the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair. A belly dancer named Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, nicknamed Little Egypt backstage due to her large size, was said to have stolen the show out of all of the dancing girls. She famously danced to the song “The Streets of Cairo.” Another Little Egypt Fatima Djemille danced for Thomas Edison’s “Coochie Coochie Dance” film in 1896, while Mark Twain reportedly had a near fatal heart attack in 1898 after watching Spyropoulos gyrate and shimmy. Ashea Wabe was the third of the famous Little Egypts, famously arrested in 1896 at a Fifth Avenue bachelor party for Herbert Seeley when the party was raided by the vice squad upon hearing that Wabe would be dancing nude as entertainment. She made front page headlines despite the party not ever getting to see her in her “all-together.” Today the name Little Egypt has become synonymous with exotic dancers, and many women attempted to bank on the name Little Egypt through the years, but these three belly dancers were the most famous.