Explore early 20th century history and culture—uncovering the entertainment and social trends that shaped life in North America and Europe from 1900 to 1930
Edythe Baker (1899–1971) was an American pianist and recording artist who rose from a Kansas City music-store counter to London stardom. She was also linked to romance in high places: King Edward VIII, along with his playboy brother the Duke of Kent. And, of all people, Winston Churchill. At 19 the trade press hailed her…
A century ago, a line of women glided languidly into the glow of the footlights on a Broadway stage. Some nearly nude, they shimmered with feathers, jewels, satin, and sequins. The audience watched in a spellbound mix of desire, envy, and awe. Here, presented to the world as icons of feminine beauty, were the Ziegfeld…
Phryné Moderne Devant l’Aréopage (Modern Phryne Before the Areopagus) Shocking Dance: About the Book This book (published ca. 1913) is a curated collection of press coverage surrounding Adorée Villany’s controversial nude dance performances in Munich and Paris between 1911 and 1913. Framed by Villany’s declaration—“My unveiled form lays my soul bare”—the volume takes its title…
Adorée Villany: Naked Enigma Adopting the Dance of the Seven Veils Adorée Villany tested the European limits on how much skin a dancer could show on stage during the early 20th century. She also pushed the boundaries of early modern dance choreography. Most of all, she was an enigma. Adorée (or Viola) Villany was either…
Nyota Inyoka (1896–1971), a French-born dancer and choreographer of European and possibly Indian or North African heritage, rose to prominence during a period when stylized fantasies of the East dominated Western stages. Nyota Inyoka Rediscovered Famous Female Dancer Falls into Obscurity Although widely acclaimed during the 1910s and 1920s for her striking performances and scholarly…
As the motion picture industry took off, Salomania stormed the silver screen—Salome movies shocked, scandalized, and mesmerized people around the globe. It is hard to overstate how influential the Salome story was in silent film. The British Film Institute lists 21 films with “Salome” in the title made before 1930, but this is a serious…
When Richard Strauss attended a Berlin theater production of Wilde’s play Salome in 1902, he imagined a Salome opera, feeling the play “cried out for music.” By choosing this provocative story for operatic treatment, Strauss courted controversy—perhaps in hopes of drawing attention. As Alex Ross notes, the composer “felt drawn to sexually charged material throughout…
In early 20th-century performance, art dance emphasized expressive movement, innovation, and aesthetic depth, as seen in modern dance and ballet. Erotic dance focused on sensual display and physical allure, often for popular entertainment. Art dance sought cultural legitimacy; erotic dance catered to titillation, though the boundaries were often blurred, especially when it came to Salome…
The Salome painting has a strange four-hundred-year arc. For most of that time she is a supporting character in someone else’s crime—a girl carrying a platter, doing the bidding of her mother, Herodias. Then, in the space of a few decades around 1900, she becomes the most dangerous woman in European art. That change was…
I came across a brothel scandal while researching my historical mystery novel, Into the Suffering City, set in 1909 Baltimore. The Maryland Vice Commission exposed the scandal in 1916. The Commission conducted considerable research into prostitution as it existed in pre-World War I Baltimore and prepared several reports. But, for reasons discussed below, the full…