Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friendsFuller, Loie
General
Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friends
Fuller, Loie
Dancers -- United States -- Biography; Fuller, Loie, 1862-1928
When in the autumn of 1892 I appeared for the first time at the
Folies-Bergère I knew no one, absolutely no one, in Paris. Imagine then
my surprise upon receiving one day a visiting card from one of the
spectators on which these words were written in lead pencil:
“Oh, well, old girl, I am fiercely glad to see that you have tapped
the till. We are here, a whole gang of us, two boxes full, and we want
you to join us after the performance.
Your old pal.”
The card bore a name with which I was unacquainted.
This was some practical joke, or else the call-boy had made a slip in
the address. I continued my disrobing without considering the matter
further.
All at once a gentleman rushed into my dressing-room.
“Well, Mollie, my old girl, why don’t you reply to a comrade’s letter?”
But on seeing me in street costume he stopped short and cried:
“Well, but who are you? I thought you were Mollie Fuller!”
Then I understood that he had taken me for one of his old friends.
“I know whom you mean,” I answered, “but I am not Mollie Fuller. Mollie
Fuller is very well known in the United States, where she is imitating
my dances. We are often mistaken for each other, but you must realise
that this isn’t the same person.”
The gentleman was tall, stout, very dark, of distinguished appearance,
with a certain odd defect in one of his eyes. He wore a full beard.
I shall never forget his aspect as he apologised. Without asking me
again to join his “gang” he disappeared even more quickly than he had
entered.
I often encountered him after that, and he always greeted me very
respectfully. From my window looking upon the courtyard of a great
hotel in London I have even been present at a dinner--such a dinner as
had never before been seen there--given by this same gentleman. Caruso
sang. The courtyard of the hotel had been transformed into a lake, and
the host and his guests dined in gondolas. From my window I watched the
banquet and I thought of the other supper to which I had been invited
involuntarily. The world is so small!
I did not become the well-known Loie Fuller without, as is easily
realised, being involved in some little adventures. I had once played
the part of Jack Sheppard in the drama of that name. Our company
stopped in Philadelphia. My father and mother were with me, and we took
our meals in a very modest boarding-house.
Some years after I returned, as a dancer, to this same city, and at the
hotel at which I registered, it was one of the largest of the city, I
was refused admittance. Without taking the trouble to ask why, I went
elsewhere. But I thought over this irritating reception and as I could
not understand it I returned to the hotel in question and asked to
speak to the manager. On seeing me he looked amazed:
“But you are not Loie Fuller.”
I assured him that I certainly was Loie Fuller, and asked why he had
been unwilling to receive me in his hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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