Jules Cheret : Poster, 1893

BAIRD HASTINGS
LINCOLN KIRSTEIN
PAUL MAGRIEL
Vol. I. No. 3. March 1942

The fame of Loie Fuller,* dancer, actress, paint nor in architecture, but in light. Yet
and dabbler in the sciences, can rest on the Max Reinhardts glass floor for The Miracle,
fact that she was the first to utilize, if not to and his fingers of light picking out solo actors
invent, many features of modern stage-light- in mass spectacles at the Grosses Schauspiel-
ing. Indirect cross-beams and variations of haus during the early days of the Weimar
direct electrical illumination were character- Republic, connects Loie with the post- Wag-
istic features of her earliest performances. She nerian decor of a Nuremberg Congress, when,
anticipated one of the most spectacular of transfixed on the grid of searchlights, the new
modern inventions
Luminescence, the use Siegfried howds.
of cold light by luminous salts. The chief Manifestations from her immediate person
practical uses of her innovations are today were visible as late as 1925 when she ap-
found outside the theatre, outlining the en- peared on the broad stairs of the Grand Palais
trance of air-raid shelters, and the staged at the exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris,
lighting of Nazi party meetings. As dancer, to dance The Sea. Here she was seen by
she inaugurated, before other more widely a young painter and stage designer, recently
remembered artists, a dramatization of emo- out of Russia via Berlin, and about to col-
tion through natural or at least simple body laborate with the Diaghilev Ballet. Pavel
movements, to the background of important Tchelitchew in his Ode (1928), Errantc
music. Yet all of this is almost forgotten to- (1933), St. Francis (1938) and Balustrade
day. However, even a cursory glance at the (1941), has continually manipulated the trans-
transformation of a precocious temperance- lucent, the luminous, the actual presence of
lecturer and bit actress to a leader in the light projected on shifting stuffs. Andre Lev-
theatrical world shows us she was not so inson first noticed the closeness of Errant
simple as some have pictured, nor may she to Loie Fullers ideas. Recently, in decor
be ignored. for Giraudoux Ondine, produced by Louis
In her field. Fuller made concrete contribu- Jouvet, now on tour in South America,
tions as important as the influential theories Tchelitchew used the developed gamut of
of Gordon Craig and Adolph Appia. These electrical and plastic possibilities which Fuller
men were chiefly preoccupied with the archi- had previsioned. Only now', substantial marble,
tectural scale of theatre decoration, restoring under the influence of his wonderful lights
to the stage a kind of dynamics, or heroic turned to water, stone became fire, and the
stylizationwhich the static naturalism of the very stage floor itself, impermanent air.
latenineteenth century had obliterated. Naive,
The cover montage, by Joseph Cornell, is from a film
largely unconscious of the implications of her made in Paris (190S) of her Fire Dance. These strips are
made from an original hand-colored 35 mm. print in Mr.
discoveries. Fuller was interested neither in Cornells possession.

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Copyright 1942, Dance Index Ballet Caravan, Inc. 637 Madison Avenue, New York City
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What a long journey it would be from the Fullers- York to join the Felix Vincent company. In 1878,
burg, Illinois tavern where Marie Louise Fuller was H. T. Hinds put on a new production of Dion
born. It was an unusually cold winter, and as her Boucicaults popular favorite, The Shaughraun,
parents lived on an isolated farm, they went into and Loie took a small part. The early eighties saw
town and requisitioned the only room possessing a her in Frank Mays stock company, then with Dave
happened
stove capable of throwing out heat, which Hendersons Imperial Burlesque. She produced
to be the bar-room. This, according to Loie her- Larks, a play which she wrote herself, and in
self, was in 1870. The Dictionary of American 1883 toured the circuit with Buffalo Bill. Although
Biography unchivalrously gives her 1862. In either she later spoke enthusiastically about her experience
case, she maintained she came into the world with with the circus, she may not have felt the same
a cold she never got rid of. about it at the time; for abruptly in 1884, she re-
The initial chapters of her career are typical of tired, as she said, to study music, and a year later
any American minor actress of the epoch. At six she appeared in Chicago at Hooleys Opera House
weeks she appeared in a dance-hall in a minor sleep- in Faust, singing as well in the Chicago Music
ing role. Her father was in demand as a fiddler; Festival.
there was a surprise-party in town and no one with She returned to the stage for Our Irish Visitors,
whom to leave baby, so Loie was brought along. Turned Up and Humbug, in 1886, in all of
When but two and a half, this child whose early which she had boys roles. She was in Nat Good-
idols were such feminists as Louisa M. Alcott, Fran- wins Little Jack Sheppard at the Bijou in New
ces Willard and Carrie Nation, was carried to the York, receiving seventy-five dollars a week. In 1887,
Chicago Progressive Lyceum. Quite on her own she Goodwin produced three plays in which she ap-
decided to speak a piece, and before her mother peared, The Big Pony, Aladdin (in which Loie
could stop her, she was on the platform reciting took the lead), and Rider Haggards She. It is

Mary Had a Little Lamb. She contrived an effec- said that she was assigned the role of Ustane, the
tive exit by sliding down the steps, her copper- slave girl, not because of any unusual histrionic
nailed shoes stuck straight out in front. At four, she capacity, but simply because she was willing to roll
made her debut in a Chicago stock company, play- down the steps of a property pyramid further and
ing Little Reginald in Was She Right? Hereafter, harder for the ten dollars per performance than
her acting career often called for the impersonation anyone else. The following year found her back
of a boy, which may have commenced from accident in vaudeville.
but long continued through choice. This had an Although such experiences would scarcely lead
important effect on her psychological development. one to believe that Loie Fuller was on the verge of
The year following, 1875, finds her a temperance rivalling Sarah Bernhardt she had gained enough
lecturer. She practised the horrible-example method. experience as a trouper to play Couille once, al-

Having hunted up the town drunkard and placed most by chance, on just four hours notice. Then
him on the platform, she delivered her sermon with there was a sudden change. She had met a Colonel
this constant reminder as her text. She next toured William Hays, nephew of Rutherford B. Hayes,
as a Shakespearian reader, only to return to New during the run of Little Jack Sheppard. He

40
had been kind to her, lending her money to meet to take off her ordinary street skirt, and performed
expenses on her Florida farm, and again to take in it, flouncing about the stage, so inventing her
her troupe to the West Indies. This, she was ac- Serpentine. In any case, Loie Fullers Skirt Dance
customed later to refer to as her South American was by no means the first of its genre. It had been
Tour. She did, however, play Havana. As a result long popularly developed in English music-halls
of these enterprises she owed Hays ^9,200.00, and from a compromise of a classic ballet variation and
in May of 1889 they signed the following contract: the Lancashire Clog, or step dance. Its leading
I, William B. Hays, in the presence of God, do exponent was Kate Vaughan, who first appeared as

take Loie Fuller for my lawful wife. a skirt-dancer in a Ballet of the Furies at the
Despite the fact there was never a church cere- Holborn Theatre in 1873. The original skirt dance
mony, and was shown in the subsequent trial they
it degenerated into a romp because Kate Vaughans
never lived together. Hays does not seem to have imitators were not as precisely trained in the aca-
lost interest in his peculiar bride; he followed her to demic ballet as she. Fullers early Widow Dance
London where he admitted to being her husband, in which she wore a black skirt and white powdered
and engaged to pay all her expenses. This first stay wig may well have been an echo, however far re-
in 1889 was a short one, for although she enjoyed moved, from Vaughans original role as the Spirit
a personal success, her vehicle Caprice did not, of Darkness, for which her costume was a black
and she soon returned to New York for Hoyts skirt profusely trimmed with gold.

Trip to Chinatown and Quack, M.D. It was That play Quack, M.D. was a failure too, never
then, almost accidentally, that her career as dancer coming any closer to Broadway than Brooklyn. But
and experimenter in light began. Loies dance seen in it was such a great success that
Rehearsing one of the scenes for Quack, M.D. she decided forthwith to abandon her career of
at the Harlem Opera House, she desired an effect actress for that of a dancer. This was not so easily
of mysterious, hypnotic attraction. Hunting through done. She was an actress in the minds of all the
her wardrobe for a suitable costume, she came on a New York managers she knew, and they refused to
small box, containing a present from an Indian army consider her as anything else. She suffered a long
officer. On opening it, she found a filmy, volumi- struggle before the director of the Casino Theatre
nous silk skirt. The
had told her it was
officer finally gave her a grudging audition. For him she
once ordered for the DOyly Carte Gilbert and danced on an empty stage lit by one lone gas jet,
Sullivan Company, though never used. She drew it without music. But when she reached its climax and
out, put it on, and gently, almost religiously waved fell, a heap of rippling silk at his feet, he decided

about her its translucent folds. She was standing she had something. He told her to repeat the num-
before a mirror, the sun-light falling through the ber, this time accompanying her himself on the
yellow blinds of the window behind her, illuminat- piano with a popular piece of the day, Gillets
ing the gauzy material, and as the silk billowed, it Loin dll Bal. When she had finished, it was he
seemed like light itself. She describes the first per- who christened her creation, The Serpentine
formance of Quack, M.D.: Dance.
My robe was so long that I was continually She was engaged to appear as a feature act in
stepping upon it, and mechanically I held it still another play, a kind of extravaganza labelled
up with both hands and raised my arms aloft, Uncle Celestin, and began at once to develop her
all the while that I continued to flit around
dances, for which she had classified twelve charac-
the stage like a winged spirit.
There was a sudden exclamation from the teristic motions. She gave no name to these dances,
house: only numbers: dance One wasunder a to be given
Its a butterfly! A Butterfly! blue light, Two
under red. Three under
dance
I turned on my steps, running from one end
yellow, and so on. She had always intended to use
of the stage to the other, and a second exclama-
tion followed: lanterns of colored glass, but now she became pre-
Its an orchid! occupied with their proper placing relative to her
This she tells us, was the origin of her Skirt dance movements, arranging rays of light that pro-
Dance. But the New York Town Tattle of June 3, jected across a darkened stage, falling upon her
1893, supplies quite another tale. It claims that swirling silks in a novel and effective way. When
in 1891, appearing in Holyoke, Massachusetts, she Uncle Celestin was produced at the Casino, her
was scheduled for a number in skin-tights. But act was the hit of the evening, but her name had
finding her audience so tiny, she scarcely bothered been omitted from the program. Her manager paid

41
 matter how proficient their capers might be, and
that was her lighting effects. In this, she definitely
launched a novelty. As a matter of fact, except for
a brief infantile episode, she had fewer than half a
dozen dancing lessons in her whole life. In order to
minimize the danger of having her effects stolen,
which they continually were, she tried to maintain a
band of loyal electricians, with her brother Burt as
their chief.
By this time not only ambition, but restlessness
too, was working in the active brain behind Loies
somewhat pudgy little face. That, plus a recent
painful experience,combined to turn her thoughts
away from America, and to try her luck in Europe.
For, while appearing in Uncle Celestin in Phila-
delphia in 1892, Loie Fuller filed suit against her
husband. Hays, accusing him of bigamy; she had
discovered his previous wife, Amelia, was by no
means divorced from him. Loie won despite Hays
allegation that her document of proof was a forgery,
and her suit blackmail. The case was settled out of
court for ten thousand dollars, but a second charge
of perjury landed Hays in Sing Sing.
How humiliating had been may be
all this
guessed by an account printed in the Spirit of the
Times, in 1892, which commented on Loies
double success: her dancing at the Casino, and
the publication of an apology and statement by
Hays:
Loie Fuller is free from all taint of immorality.
I never had any indecent or nude picture of
Loie Fuller, nor have I seen one, nor do I be-
lieve that any such picture has ever been taken.
The newspaper added, of its own accord, This
certificate ought to be framed in gold and worn as
Loie Fuller in early stock
a brooch.
The reaction drove her to Europe and something
her so littlehe anticipated if she were a suc-
since better than a brooch. She desired Paris, but chance
cess she must certainly leave him, so he had trained offered Berlin. She took a second-class boat to
a chorus girl to take her place, thus avoiding build- Hamburg, dancing on board. Her German engage-
ing up any expensive personal publicity. Neverthe- ment was successful, but an unscrupulous manager
less, a good friend of hers, Marshall Wilder, the let her down badly. However, it was a step toward

humorist, was in the audience, and noticing the her goal. Eventually she reached France, even
omission, climbed onto his seat, shouting her name though obliged dance her way there in a travel-
to
to the applauding public. This was more effective ing circus, appearing between an elephant act and
than any printed announcement in a program, for a team of jugglers. An old trouper could take that
with the give-the-little-girl-a-hand spirit of our in her stride.

audiences, she received an ovation and also the Once in Paris, she tried for the top, addressing
flattery of immediate imitation. The Serpentine herself directly to the Opera, but its management

spread like wild-fire and American originator

its was unimpressed. She turned on her heel, and
sometimes had difficulty in convincing managers she sought the Folies Bergere, either indifferent to, or
was not an imitation of herself. But she held one unconscious of the fact that it was practically taboo
important element the other dancers lacked, no in respectable artistic society. At the Folies she

42
found an imitator already performing, but somehow because of the effects of flame and smoke produced
persuaded the director to take her on, and to every- by dancing on a pane of glass lighted from beneath.
ones surprise, made a tremendous hit. This innovation, a pioneer realization of indirect
One recalls Baudelaires, Jai vu parfois, an lighting, was acclaimed as an effect greater than

fond, dun theatre banal tin etrc qiii netait qiie Bayreuth, and was the direct inspiration for the
litiniere, or ct gar:e. Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph.
This is the moment when simple Loie Fuller
Everybody has seen Loie Fuller and knows the
novelty she has introduced upon the stage. emerged as La Loie. Mantelet painted her, Jules

Instead of the traditional dancer in tights and Cheret drew a poster of her, and more flattering
short muslin skirt, instead of the familiar but still was Lautrecs lithograph. This was limited to
ever entertaining acrobatics, bounds, pirouettes, fifty copies, and although drawn off in black and
etc., in the even steady glare of the footlights,
white only, was hand-colored by the artist, who used
there appeared one evening at the back of the
darkened stage, the indistinct form of a woman a wad of cotton to apply the color, afterwards
clothed in a confused mass of drapery. Sudden- powdering the damp plate with gold dust. This
ly a stream of light issued apparently from the
lithograph (Delteil cat. no. 39), is reproduced in
woman herself, while around her the folds of
color as cover of the monograph Henri de Toulouse
gauze rose and fell in phosphorescent waves,
which seemed to have assumed, one knew not Lautrec. 1864-1901 by Maurice Joyant (Paris,
how, a subtle materiality, taking the form of a 1926). The few lines of his crayon indicating her
golden drinking cup, a magnificent lily, or a full-blown face a mask of the epoch, so close to
huge glistening moth, wandering in obscurity.*
Oscar Wildes as almost to be his sister is one
The next few months were unquestionably the more glimpse of Lautrecs mastery in characteri-
most important in her career. La Belle Americaine zation. The plate isand gray, ashes of roses
rose
became a popular idol of Paris, to such an extent adored in Whistlers Arrangements and Nocturnes,
that the hitherto questionable Folies Bergere was and Charles Conders fans. Lautrec painted a Ballet
transformed into an artistic shrine, even women and de Papa Chrysantlieine in 1892 (Museum of Albi.
children flocking to see her in the wake of writers, no. 26). We recall the sunflower and the chrysan-
artists and sculptors. The enthusiasm of her audi- themum were par excellence the blossoms of the
ences at over three hundred consecutive perform- fin de siecle. Pierre Louys great popular success was
ances, was expressed with characteristic Parisian Mme. Chrysantheme, and there was the Belasco-
exuberance. One evening the entire house was Puccini Madama Butterfly and Mascagnis Iris
bought up by students, and literally bushels of as well. Joyant describes this ballet as a Fantaisie
violets were thrown onto the stage. It took fully five japonaise et naiitiqiie, given at the Nouveau Cirque
minutes to pick them up. She was not even denied in 1892. In the middle on a lotus leaf, the Etoile
the traditional carriage drawn by admirers so dances in veils, imitating la Loie Fuller. In a very
dear to ranking prima donnas. free the same year. All Music Hall,
sketch of
Her spectacular success caused no relaxation in formerly in the collection of Yves Busser, La Loie
her efforts. She worked night and day inventing is standing, profile towards the left; yellow hair,

new dances and experimenting with novel lighting surrounded by veils; in the background, at the right

effects. No longer numbered, these dances were now and above, the balcony of the hall.
called Danse Blanche, Danse Fleur, and Bon Soir. But through it all, Loie Fuller was living quietly,
She was frequently so exhausted at the end of an chastely, in her little Paris flat, with occasional
evening, for her own part of the program was forty trips to London. For, by a peculiar trick of fate,
minutes of continuous dancing, that she had to be she, the fairy of light, was earning only bare
carried from the stage to her tiny apartment back living expenses. All the surplus of her reputedly
of the theatre, where she was living with her mother, fabulous was going to pay off a broken
salary
a chronic invalid to whom she had always been Russian contract for which she had been sued. Her
exaggeratedly devoted. As frequently as possible, mother had been ill, and Loie turned back at the
she wore her original DOyly Carte dress, for which border.
she had a sentimental and almost superstitious feel- At this time Loie had already surrounded herself
ing. Whenever she put it on, the pleats between her with a group of young girls who also appeared with
fingers seemed alive to her. One of her new her, and to whom she was attached with extra-
dances, a Fire Dance, was particularly popular, ordinary affection. Actually living in the house with

*
her was a girl known as Gab who always dressed as
The Architectural Record: March 1903.

43
a man, who stayed with her for eight years, and So it is not surprising that even her boundless
who was at least ten years younger. Loies eccentric energy began to flag. There were reports that she

manner of life caused almost as much comment as was ill, going blind, that her arms and legs were
her dancing. A somewhat ingenious tribute was the paralyzed. However, she managed to return to New
inclusion of a course entitled foie gras dc Ioie: York in triumph before a breakdown which, despite
Loie b idler at a dinner given by Paul Sescau, a
j
an order for
a consultation of doctors, resulting in
photographer friend of Lautrecs. complete was apparently of short duration, for
rest,

In her experimentation with lights, color became she was soon dancing again.
more and more her preoccupation. Starting with a Loie Fuller was completely an artist of her epoch.
lamp on either side of the stage, the two throwing It is important to place her not only with creators
upon her a single color, she began to use more in her own field, the theatre, but among her peers
lamps, changing the colors. Then, through a happy in the other visual arts, in order to realize her in-
accident, she discovered the value of blended lights. dependent, perhaps unconscious, but nevertheless
One drunken electrician, instead of throw-
night, a parallel attitude. From the haphazard, instinctive
ing upon her one color at a time, mixed them at broken color impressionism of the series of Claude
random. She was furious, but the favorable reaction Monets haystacks, springing from Delacroixs re-
of her audience showed her there were possibilities searches, emerged the scientific post-impressionism
of developing further spectacular effects. She began of Georges Seurat. This great artists preoccupation
to arrange colors as if they fell on her through a with formal plastic composition was no less precise
prism. These new arrangements were effective, as or impressive than his innovations in color. But, in
the following account in the London Sketch spatial composition he was a classic extension of
(1900) bears witness: Piero and Poussin, and like Lautrec, an admirer of

The orgie of color was so wonderful as to Hokusai and Utamaro, while in the disposition of

leave objection mute. Light came from every color he was certainly a radical inventor. With the
side. La Loie danced upon from which glass, painters Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross, he
the vivid splendor of the headlights was re-
investigated the actual physics of light vibration.
flected, while from the wings, stage and orches-
tra, wonderful luminous streams seemed to flow
He studied Chevreul,* Helmholtz, Humbert de
toward her. With the rhythm of the music the Superville, as well as the American Professors
colors changed, and where white ruled before, Henry of Princeton and Rood of Columbia. As
there was a kaleidoscopic vision. Violet, orange, Alfred Barr wrote in his catalogue to the First Loan
purple and mauve movements succeeded in
Exhibition of The Museum of Modern Art (1929):
rapid succession until a rich deep red domi-
nated the dancer, and she became, for one brief A few years earlier the Impressionists had
moment, a living rose, with palpitating heart taken hints from the theory of complementary
and flying leaves. Then the hues of the rain- reflexes, had painted purple shadows and
bow came from all sides, and ranged them- broken up their surfaces into little dabs of
selves upon the ever moving draperies. Every more or less pure color. Seurat, the logician,
fold had its tint and scheme of color intensified found this method too inexact. asserted He
by the surrounding darkness until the eye could that color in painting should consist only of
scarcely bear to look. Just as the strain was red and its complementary green, orange and
becoming almost intolerable, the colors disap- blue, yellow and violet. then proceeded to He
peared, there was a white flash of appalling apply these six primary colors systemically in
brilliancy, and La Loie faded under diaphanous little round dots of equal size, thereby elimi-
drapery. nating, theoretically at least, all trace of the
If the effect on Fullers spectators was almost personal touch.
intolerable, the strain on Loie was terrific. There Seurat had, as far as we can find, no direct con-
were fourteen electricians to be directed for her nection with Loie Fuller. Yet his Parade (1887-8),
Fire Dance alone. This she did with gestures, taps and particularly his Chahiit (1889-90), give us
of her heel, and other signals worked out between perfectly the atmosphere of the Parisian music halls
them. She wrote of a first rehearsal: in which Loie appeared, and his puffy ravishing
Askilled electrician has to go ahead to cut Poitdrcuse (1886) might almost be her portrait. In
the floor properly and to lay the wires. When different fields, their interests were close. Seurat
this is done I can go to work. Sometimes I use
consciously, Fuller instinctively (in spite of her lip-
ten sometimes sixteen, again twenty,
lamps,
and I have used as many as thirty-four, and it
service to science) were using the results of their

requires a skilled electrician to run each of * Dc la loi dll contrastc simultanc dcs couicnrs ct dc
them. . .
I'assortinicnt dcs objets colorics.

44
 centurys research. Not since the Italian Renaissance
anatomists and masters of aerial perspective had the
exact sciences so importantly contributed to the
visual arts.
Her brief appearance at Koster and Bials Music
Hall in New York absence
in 1896, after four years

in Paris, was nothing short of sensational. Her

salary was the largest ever paid in vaudeville up to

then; sixty-seven dollars more per week than the

chanteuse Yvette Guilbert, and double that of
opulent Lillian Russell. Something of the transfor-
mation of the audience which had taken place in the
Folies Bergere now occurred in New York, where
the newspapers suggested Saturday Matinees for
Ladies, an unheard of innovation, in order that the

feminine portion of New York society might watch

Loie in her four dances, La Nmt, Le Leu, Le
Finiiaiiieiit, Le Lys dll Nile, without the protec-
tion of male escorts.
She did not stay long in New York, and in fact,
most of her subsequent trips were more or less flying
visits; highly paid vaudeville engagements, in addi-

tion to a somewhat gaudy appearance at the St.

Nicholas Rink, until she returned in 1909, not as
vaudeville performer, but as an artist making a bid

for the same artistic and social recognition she re-

ceived in Paris.
Her acquaintance with influential Frenchmen of
her time was more than a friendship. It was a col-

laboration. She must have inspired the creators of

I'art nouveau. Emile Gallc, Frances best known The Original Serpentine, 1891
artisan in glass, the predecessor of Lalique,sought
her new colors; and she indirectly influenced furni-
ture and architecture as well. Henri Sauvages London had painted his Peacock Room. The irri-
beautiful small theatre* for her at the Paris Uni- descent plumage of the peacocks tail was a badge

versal 1900 is an example. In its

Exposition of for the movement which worshipped the accidental
exquisite salle shedanced and presented authentic irridescence of a film of oil freely spread over
Japanese actors and dancers of the Hanako Com- water, the running glazes of Chinese jars, glass vases
pany, headed by Sada Yacco; and here young Ruth studded with insect wings, the tie-and-dye scarves
St. Denis was deeply moved by her. The extra- offered by the house of Liberty, Fortuny dresses
ordinary energy of this pug-nosed Chicagoan was with all their thousand pleatings. Tiffany gold-shot
nowhere more evident than in the building of her lamps and stained bubble-glass, Lalique snakes,
theatre, which was accomplished in one-third the natural flowered forms, and arts-and-craft jewelry.
time expected. Loie was much affected by the Japa- Around 1894, the Belgian architect, van de Velde,
nese, and in the spiritual company of Whistler and was the apostle of the new ideas, which were partly
Degas, composed works imitating them. motivated by flamboyant Gothic ornament, Japanese
IJArt Nouveau came as a reaction against the stylization and observation of vegetative forms. In
foul taste of the July Monarchy, the bastard pastiche his small house in a Brussels suburb, he commanded
of decorative fragments from the epoch of Henri an informal guild of artisans to execute his own
Trois, Louis Quinze, or the rococo bibelots prized designs. Specialists in tapestries, faience, metal-
by the brothers de Goncourt. Already Whistler in work, murals and cabinet-making evolved a natural
And turquoise and opal, the glowing browns
style.
* The manuscript documents concerning its building
are in the Museum of Modern Arts Dance Archives. and ash blues smouldering with light, the fiery

45
 Paris : 1892

chiffons burning with lush chromatics were to be One of her most interesting friendships was with
caught in yet another medium by Claude Debussy, Marie and Pierre Curie, the Nobel prize winners.
to whose music Loie also later danced. LArt Her acquaintance with the Curies commenced when
N ouz'cau had as dominant principals, fluidity, im- she wrote them shortly after their discovery of
pressionable elasticity, mercurial light with intense radium. The reported fact that radium gave off a
but ephemeral accents. The sweep of Loies scarves pale magical light fascinated her. Could she not use
caught in the wild race of irridescent lights playing it for some new and sensational dance effect? Eve
madly on her filmy tempestuous folds, was a living Curie tells of Loies first naive letters requesting in-
monument to his new decorative style. Suitably formation; she wanted butterfly wings of radium.
enough, in one of her last public appearances at the The Curies gently explained this was not very
Exposition of Decorative Arts held in Paris in practical, if only for the great expense involved. In
1925 she evoked the Sea. Her whole approach to means of thanking
reply she wrote I have only one
the stage, in fact, was always essentially decorative. you for having answered me. Let me dance one
She had little personality of her own, or physical evening at your house ...
enough, in one of her last public appearances at the The Curies accepted her offer, but were more
attractiveness, or indeed, much emotion to project. than a little astonished at the large troupe of
Her body became grosser than Isadoras, far earlier electricianswhich arrived at their modest little

in life. Her vaunted interest in religion seems super- house one morning, laden with theatrical projectors,
ficial compared to Ruth St. Denis. Her essential festooned with strings of electric lights. Loie herself
talent was for stage decoration, and this she realized followed, and spent the entire afternoon arranging
through electricity and dancing. her effects. At night she returned, and before the

46
Curies, a few friends and their enchanted children, Auguste Rodin avowed Loie Fuller is to my
appeared in the narrow dining-room as The Fairy mind a woman of genius. She has recreated effects
of Light, surrounded by all the flowers and flames of light and background of great initial value.
of the Folies Bergere. The Curie children never Beside her special interest in lighting, her art was
forgot that evening. And Eve Curie finishes her progressing along more and more aesthetic lines.
account of the dance by commenting Loie had a The days of such vulgar accompaniment as Loin dll

delicate soul. Bal were over. Now was she dancing to the music
Other scientists became her intimates. Camille of Gluck, Beethoven, Schumann, Delibes, Schuberts
Flammarion, the celebrated astronomer, arranged Ave Maria, Chopins Marche Fiinebre, and the
for her admission to the French Astronomical So- Peer Gynt suite. She was the first to use the peren-
ciety, explained to her his theories of color as a nial Spring Song of Mendelssohn as a background
physiological and psychological determinent on later worn threadbare by Isadora Duncan, Maud
plants and humans, and became a warm admirer, Allan, Gertrude Hoffman and Ruth St. Denis. She
calling her the little star from the west. also planned three biblical numbers, and in addition
Although the butterfly wings of radium were not to her solo dancing was busy training her band of
practical, as a result of the friendship of the Curies, youthful muses to surround her in a Ballet of
Loie began to experiment in a laboratory of her Light. Isadora Duncan tells of having traveled
own with fluorescent salts extracted from the with them for a time in 1902, only leaving when
residue of pitchblende. These salts were supposed her room-mate, one affectionately known as Nursie,
to derive their fluorescence from the influence of attempted to strangle her. Loie kept a strict ma-
radium, but evidently were the result of invisible ternal watch over her girls, many of whom came
light playing on a sensitive mineral substance. Loie from society families. Three of the most famous
wrote later, were Sacchetto, an Italian ballerina from La Scala,
Orchidee, a child of nature, and Gertrude von
I suppose I am the only person who is
known as a dancer but who has a personal Axen, The perfect Grecian danseuse whose every
preference for Science. It is the great scheme motion was raisonee. A tabloid once reported an
of my life. In Paris I have a laboratory where imaginary dialogue between Gertrude and Loie.
I employ six men. Every penny I earn goes to
that. I do not save for my old age. I do not
Von Axen was bemoaning the fact that her hair,
care what happens then. Everything goes to blown in the wind, was scarcely Greek. Said sen-
my Laboratory. sible Loie: Listen, dearie, even the Greeks washed
I have had some success, for I have invented their hair once in a while.
a process for treating cloth with phosphores-
Later, when Fuller returned to America in Febru-
cent salts. Scientists in Paris worked with me,
but it was reserved for me to discover that by ary of 1910, Orchidee and von Axen temporarily
striping a fabric with the stiff salts, I could deserted her, attempting to give a performance on
produce a strong and beautiful glow at an their own. Loie, not exactly a simpleton in legal
expense of about ^600 a pound. Part of my
matters, brought out an injunction against them.
hair was blown off in an explosion while I was
experimenting in my laboratory, and it made It was this ballet she brought to New York and
a great sensation in the neighborhood. The later toBoston in 1909, no longer into vaudeville
people called me a witch, a sorciere. hair My houses, but into the more dignified atmosphere of
will not all grow again, but I do not care.
the Opera. She played on double bills with such
This led to what she called her Radium Dance, short operas as Pagliacci and Cavaliera. This
the first of luminous phosphorescent effects, with proved to be an agitated visit marked by deputy
patterns on the costumes and scenery glowing from sheriffs trying to collect bills from her at the Hoff-
a blackened stage. Its importance was commented man House, a verdict won against her in a suit
upon by such outstanding personalities as Jules brought by Maiden Lane Jewels, indignant letters
Claretie, director of the Comedie Francaise, who from her to the Times complaining shed been
wrote slandered, enormous difficulties with her fifty im-
ported French electricians, to say nothing of her
It is certain that new capacities are develop-
ing in theatrical art, and that Miss Loie Fuller temperamental muses. But her performances
will have been responsible for an important aroused excited comment and Loie was more in the
contribution. I should not venture to say how public prints than ever before. The press was great-
she has created her light effects, but she has
ly struck by her absence of and the presence
tights
actually been turned out by her landlord be-
cause of an explosion in her apparatus. of bare feet. The New York Dramatic Mirror

47
inquired: Is it necessary for Arts sake to make she was taken up by the haute-monde. She had
young appear without fleshings and in bare
girls prominent social leaders as pupils, and also per-
feet, with nought to shield their forms save a few formed their amateur compositions. Among these
folds of filmy gauze? Loie replied: It is an Ameri- polite composers were Armande, the Princesse de
can monopoly to combine stage dancing with self- Polignacs niece, and the Countess de Chabannes-
respect. She seized the occasion also to express La Palice. She danced in the magnificent gardens of
abhorrence of the hideous man-made lines of the the Comte de Cahen-d Anvers, just north of Paris.
corset. The grounds of his chateau de Champs were a
When the reporters came to her hotel for an miniature Versailles. Countless lights were hung in
interview, they found her wandering about in a the long allees of clipped trees, the fountains leaped
long gray dress, and white teeth
her blue eyes in the same fantasy of color that fell upon Loie as
flashing in her heavy face, by no means the aesthetic she whirled on the shallow stone terrace.
creature they had expected. I was born to be a
She danced also for the Comtesse de Galiffet, in
mother, she told them, somewhat to their surprise,
the garden of her town house, and was the great
and to spend most of my days in the kitchen. But
attraction of fashionable fetes at Trouville and those
some strange perversity of fate led me to the
of the Marquise de Pomerou at Deauville. Her
motherhood of natural dancing. People have the
muses enchanted in a veil danse de Diane, and by
idea that I am such an occult, mystical, ethereal
the time it was finished theyd done with their veils.
sort of creature. Instead I am the personification of
It was impossible to be more en I'lie. Her most
the practical.
curious association was with Prince and Princess
Then she went on to tell them what had become
Trouhetskoi. He was the cousin of Pierre Troubet-
almost a patter line about the three primary colors,
skoi, the sculptor. The Princess was one of her
the seven prismatic shapes, the four thousand color
pupils, but the Prince had in mind even more in-
motifs of the Gobelin tapestries, all of which ap-
teresting collaborations. The family had a fine estate
peared in her dances. These interviews bristled with
at Fontainbleau, where he indulged his humane
some of her costumes contained as much
statistics:
fantasies with Slavic earnestness. He had a pack of
as five hundred yards of material, some were one
wolves, of the best Siberian breed, and wanted to
hundred yards around the skirt, which was thrown
train them to dance to the sound of a shepherds
up in swirls twenty feet high; she claimed that she
pipe. Loie, who never lacked courage, was willing
could carry six thousand stage settings in a small
to share the experiment, and apparently got along
handbag since the backgrounds could be infinitely
famously with the wolves. Then he proposed an
varied by the use of light; and in one effect she
even more difficult problem; the Prince tried to
used 1000 amperes of electricity, enough to light a
convert his wolves to his own ardent cult of vege-
town of thirty thousand souls.
tarianism. He explained, while slipping between the
Loies 1909 visit to America came immediately
teeth of a wolf a bread ball flavored with something
after the sensational appearance of the Diaghilev
that resembled meat juice, that to eat beef is a sin
Russian Ballet in Paris. She was quick to realize
against love. You kill a cow, but a bull loves a
one of the chief reasons for their phenomenal suc-
cow. . . Why if I ate beef, I could not look the
cess was their music. She had followed Duncans
Princess in the face.
example in using music by Handel, Johann Strauss,
Rossini, Liszt, Mozart, and Rubinstein. Now Fuller It was during this period, before the first World

turned to Debussy {Nocturnes; Faunc), Purcell, War, that Loie met the Princesse Royale of Rou-
Stravinsky (Feu d Artifice), Scriabine (Proinctee), mania, later to become Queen Marie. It was not
Faure, Moussourgsky, Wagner {Ride
of the strange that a friendship should develop between
Valkyrs) She retained an early discovery, Gabriel them. They both loved veils about the brow, float-

Pierne, in her repertoire, and he later conducted ing scarves, color, mysticism, young proteges, and
for her. publicity. When Loie first danced in Bucharest in
When she returned to Paris after the American 1901, the Princess sent her children to see her, and
season, Loie entered upon what might be called her the eldest, who strongly resembled her grandmother.
social-aesthetic period, in which she frequently ap- Queen Victoria, could be heard in the Royal Box
peared in public and privately for fashionable expressing her enthusiasm and contradicting her
charities. Hitherto she had been a special pet of sister, who said that Loie was a butterfly, by insist-

artists: Riviere, Houssin, Roche, Dumas Fils; now ing that no, she was an angel.

48
1
 When the Queen came to America in 1926, Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco,
partly for the sake of Roumanian charities and erected by Mrs. Adolph Spreckles in memory of the
partly for the sake of The Saturday Evening Post, California soldiers killed in the last war.
this long friendship came to its spectacular end. Loie was frequently at the front in connection
The America in 1926 is more
story of her trip to with her army entertaining. In 1919 a reporter on
fantastic than choreographic. She and the Queen the Detroit News, writing of his own war experi-
and a Mrs. C. C. Calhoun were involved in plans ences, says of her At one stage she drew us all

for a Mothers Memorial Foundation, which they in close around the table while she confided to us
induced Mayor Walker, a Harriman and a Vander- could not be heard more than twenty
in a voice that
bilt, as well as other prominent society ladies, to feet away (her usual speaking voice fills the room)
sponsor, to the extent of some sixty thousand that the Germans have only to cover their Zeppelins
dollars. Their avowed purpose, among others, was with black velvet to make them quite invincible.
to create an Acropolis to Womanhood. To accom- Following the war, her own professional appear-
plish this modest end Loie presented the Queens ances were more and more infrequent, though
ballet Lc Lys de la Vie, already filmed in Paris wherever she appeared she was sponsored by the
(with Rene Clair in a bit part) in 1920. (Loie had cream of Parisian society. She continued to direct
made two or three remarkable pioneer films for her school, produced a Hell Fire scene for the
Pathe in 1905, with slow motion, shadows, negative Opera performances of Berlioz Damnation of
printing, etc.) However, this ballet enjoyed no Faust, and presented the Tragedy of Salome to
success either in New York or at the Philadelphia music of Florent Schmitt. It was in 1893 she had

Sesquicentennial, at which performance the Queen first danced Salome. She also organized tours for
was ensconsed in a box that did not even face the her pupils.
stage. The New York proceeds were attached for The development of moving pictures drew her
three thousand dollars, while Loie got her own cut back to her laboratory and to experimental science,
of ^8,500.00, half of what they were alleged to be. and before long she had worked out new silhouette
There were, needless to say, innumerable scandalous and shadow effects based on cinema technique, par-
rumors concerning the Queen and the dancer. In- ticularly the lincina cii relief. In this, lights were
nocently or not, the two were involved in one of arranged in such a way that the shadows of the
the more genteel rackets of the decade. It also had invisible dancers seemed to lean forward stereo-

little to do with personal publicity or prestige, as scopically into the audience. Her last professional
such. was a simple device for obtaining easy
It appearance was in this Shadow Ballet in London
money. Meanwhile, Loie was shadowed by the Rou- in 1927.

manian Consul, Djuvara, in charge of the Queens The ethical or religious note acquired from her
progress through our States, who feared the in- early days as a temperance lecturer, was present
fluence of the American over the Roumanian throughout her life, and Anatole France was to
Crown. Loie boarded the Royal train in Spokane, comment upon it. But more fortunate than many
but finally left it in Denver. The exact cause of her actor-preachers, who can only express themselves
abrupt departure was never disclosed; but the
final by preaching, she could function in the rightful air
rumor was allowed to circulate that the Queen was of her theatre. In a long stage career, one of her
displeased with Loies attempt to bring about a most remarkable traits was a complete lack of pro-
reconciliation between herself and her son Carol. fessional jealousy.She helped Maud Allen, a strug-
The first great War had found Loie in Neuilly, gling young pianist who wished to become a dancer,
surrounded by her muses, her oriental jars, shaded to the extent of substituting her on a Swiss tour
lights, crinkly glass and irridescent scarves. Her un- already arranged for herself. Even more striking
bounded energy threw her at once into war work, was her launching, in 1902, of Isadora Duncan in
for which she received military decorations not only Berlin and Vienna.
from France, but also from Belgium and Roumania. It was Madame Nevada, a singer, who had
She was back and forth between France and brought the two dancers together in 1900. To
America, campaigning for war charities, organizing Isadora she said with some naivete Sarah Bern-
entertainments for the soldiers. In 1915 she was in hardt is such a great woman; what a pity, my dear,
San Francisco, where for a time she had her own that she is not a good one. Now there is Loie
theatre, and was interested in founding a Rodin Fuller, she is not only a great artist, but she is such
museum. This project eventually grew into the a pure woman. Her name has never been connected

50
 with any scandal ... Nevada took Isadora to see
Loie dance and asked her for aid. Loie, as was her
custom, responded with utmost generosity. She
suggested that Isadora follow her to Berlin, then to
Leipzig and Vienna. She put herself out tirelessly
to make her known, introducing her to ambassa-
dors, even to the fabled Princesse Metternich, and
to others. She arranged auditions for the press, and
for an audience of sculptors and painters. With
really human kindness she pushed the cause of a
rival in every way. On the other hand, Isadora was
obviously impressed by her theatrical innovations.
She writes in My Life, after seeing Loie dance:
Before our very eyes she turned to many colored
shining orchids, to a wavering flowing sea-flower
and at length to a spiral like lily, all magic of
Merlin, the sorcery of light, color, flowing form.
What an extraordinary genius. . . She was one of
the first original inspirations of light and changing
color she became light.
But was perhaps inevitable that, as Isadora
it

swept on her expansive exuberant way, she should

quite leave Loie Fuller behind. This, at any rate,
was Loies impression, and she came to believe that
Isadora even said, in answer to a question, Loie
Fuller? Ive never met her. Whether this be true
or not, it should be remembered that Loie, as well
as helping Isadora, actually antedated her in the use
of classic music for dance accompaniment, in her
Entrance to Loie Fullers Theatre
theory of spontaneous bodily movement to express
Exposition Universelle Architect Sauvage.
emotion, and in her training and educating groups
: :

of young dancers to demonstrate her personal light. But this was her own contention, for she
theories. It is true that when
saw these
Isadora first referred to her dancers as instruments of light.
groups surrounding Loie she appears to have been Her fluorescent salts, mixed with paint, that
a little alarmed by them and wondered what she was glowed on her whirling skirts were of the same
doing among these beautiful but demented ladies. family as the powder, mixed with paint, that is
It was only two years after her last appearance excited by ultra-violet light. Her employment of the
inLondon and her trip to America with Marie of excitant and the fluorescent material in the same
Roumania that Loie Fuller died of pneumonia, container with the resulting cold light is the first
January 1st, two days. Her
1928, having been ill
radical departure in lighting since the discoveries of
dancing memory has stayed brighter in Europe than Edison half a century ago, and now, among other
here, for ten years after her death there was still a uses, indicates the entrances of air-raid shelters.
troupe of Loie Fuller girls to be seen, not only in In Cocteaus Portrait: Souvenirs there is a fright-
provincial towns, but from time to time in the drawing of her, a symbol of her last days.
ful little
capitals. Swathed in veils, her visage emerges, a bulldog with
It is understandable that her style of dancing, a black moustache. She wears tortoise-shell spec-
fertile it may have been, should have become
as tacles. And her memory will be inextricably con-
demode, but her contributions in lighting have nected with the Music-Hall, where vulgarity is some-
spread and been developed. They were recognized how alchemized into le vrai chic. She is of the
in her life time as her outstanding achievement, and immortal gallery of Jane Avril and La Goulue, and
they were even more important than she or her of Barbette, the amazing Texan. They all had chic;
commentators realized. Her detractors said she was the essence of their epoch inhabited their bodies.
no dancer, that she relied for her effects entirely on Their acts created style for their time.

51
APRIL

1. La Meri lecture. Master Institute. New York City

Maria Gatnbarelli. West Point, Georgia
Carola Goya. Columbia, Missouri

4. Humphrey-Weidman company. Washington Irving High School. New York City

5. Dance Players. Washington, D. C.

6. BalletTheatre opens weeks engagement. Metropolitan Opera. New York City

10. Russian Soldier (Prokofiev-Fokine-Dobujinsky) on first program
Dance Players. Troy, New York
8. Ballet Theatre. Pillar of Fire (Schoenberg-Tudor-Mielziner)
Maria Gambarelli. Johnson City, Tennessee
Carola Goya. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

9. Carmelita Maracci. Ventura, California

Veen-Thimey. Boston, Massachusetts (also 11th)

Maria Gambarelli. Blacksburg, Virginia
Dance Players. Baltimore, Maryland (also 11th)
Carmelita Maracci. Los Angeles, California

12. Humphrey-Weidman company. Y.M.H.A. New York City (afternoon)

Antilliana. Y. M. H. A. New York City (evening)

13. Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo opens weeks engagement. Metropolitan Opera. New
York
City
Cora Du Bois lecture: Personality Implications in the Dance of the Alor, Netherland
East Indies. 108 West 16th Street, New York City
Maria Gambarelli. Coatesville, Pennsylvania

14. Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. St. Francis (Hindemith-Massine-Tchelitchew)

15. Carmelita Maracci. Fresno, California

Maria Gambarelli. Kingston, New York

17. Carmelita Maracci. Los Angeles, California

18. Barton Mumaw. Washington Irving High School. New York City

21. Dance Players opens weeks engagement. New York City. Prairie (del Joio-Loring)
./ inx (Britten-Christensen-Bockman) on first program
22. Atty Van den Berg. Carnegie Chamber Music Hall. New York City
23. Simone Michelle. Carnegie Chamber Music Hall. New York City
24. Humphrey-Weidman company. 1 1' if It il/y Red Fires. 108 West 16th Street, New
York City (also 25, 26)

The American Dance. Tulsa, Oklahoma. April 1-22.

Ballet: History, Art and Practice. Durham, New Hampshire. April 30-May 21.
Dancers in Movement: Photographs by Gjon Mili. Auditorium Gallery. Museum of Modern Art. New
York City.
Dancing through Two Centuries: 1740-1940. Museum of the City of New York. February 10-May 3.