![]() In an era where it would have been scandalous for a respectable New World woman to expose a shapely ankle, loosen her corset, or let her tightly-coifed hair down in public, the fully-clothed dancer wearing pantaloons and loose hair performing abdominal undulations made quite a sensation. It was the performances by the dancers at the fair that brought the "hoochy koochy" dance into the North America entertainment world. entertainment industry of the late 19th and early 20th Of Europe – there was certainly a great deal of European Orientalist influence on the U.S. Or, perhaps the connection was through the Orientalists Heard it played by the North African musicians he'd brought to Chicago. Since Bloom claimed he had composed the song, we'll never know how it came to his attention. The Middle East and North Africa by the time of the 1890's. Sheet music asserted, then it certainly could have spread throughout ![]() Orient since at least 1600, possibly earlier, as the French song's Which was decades before the Wright brothers built a functionalįlying machine, when trans-Atlantic travel via ship was stillĪ dangerous undertaking, there was no way the grandmotherĬould ever have been influenced by anything Sol Bloom might haveīeen doing in Chicago. The woman's grandmother, who lived before the time of theĬhicago exposition, had taught it to her. Iraq in the late 1960's, an old woman played it on her oud for New York dance researcher Morocco independently discovered this In an interesting modern-day independent confirmation of this, Modern-day scholars have not been able to locate any musical Which became popular in France in the early 1600's. Note for note an Algerian or Arabic song titled "Kradoutja," Sheet music for that song refers to it as a "dance song" andĬomments that the first phrase of the melody resembles almost Of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, the Passé" published in 1857 are identical to those of Streets The first five notes of a French song named "Echos du Temps ![]() Into a medley.) Although many variations on this same tune wereĬopyrighted, only one has remained well-known today: "The Streets See the "Strangest Places" section below for a link This song is also known by the title "In the Harem". Melody in his song, "Harem Nights." (According to aįellow named Matt Love who contacted me after reading this page, ![]() "Danse Du Ventre" (French for "Belly Dance")Įven famous composer Irving Berlin reportedly used the popular.Sheet music editions that featured the melody included: Since he didn't copyright the piece, several other composers of his time used the melody for their songs. In his autobiography, Bloom claimed that he improvised the melody on the piano at a press briefing in 1893 to introduce Little Egypt. ![]() In his prestigious role, he made more money than the President of the United States – $1,000 a week. One of its attractions, called A Street In Cairo, included snake charmers, camel rides, the infamous dancers that later spawned the legend of Little Egypt, and other exciting things to entertain turn-of-the-century fair-goers. Bloom was the entertainment director of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, which was celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. The song was introduced to the collective consciousness of the American public over a century ago by Sol Bloom, a show business promoter who later became a U.S. ![]()
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