September 14, 1927: The life of Isadora Duncan, so often touched by unconventionality and tragedy, comes to an unconventional and tragic end.
Angela Isadora Duncan was born on May 26, 1877 in San Francisco, and began dancing as a child, finding it liberating from a life of poverty where girls were restricted. She moved to New York to further her career in 1896, but she soon became disillusioned with the tight control of the entertainment industry there. She thought American dance instruction was too tight: She later wrote, of anyone who wanted to dance, "Let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance."
She found a more receptive audience in Europe, especially in Paris, where innovation in art was established as a way of life. She gained large audiences at the Universal Exposition of 1900, attraction attention by wearing loose, flowing dresses that revealed her figure, and for dancing barefoot. A 1902 tour of Europe increased her fame.
She became the most famous dancer, and the most famous dance instructor, in the world. On June 20, 1912, French fashion designer Paul Poiret rented a mansion in the northern suburbs of France, and hosted La fête de Bacchus on June 20, 1912, re-creating the Bacchanalia hosted by King Louis XIV at his Palace at Versailles. Isadora wore a Greek evening gown designed by Poiret, and danced on tables among 300 guests. It was said that 900 bottles of champagne were consumed until the first light of day.
She returned to the U.S. in 1914, but her reputation preceded her, and work was hard to come by. She returned to Europe in 1915, initially planning to do so aboard the RMS Lusitania, but could not afford a luxurious crossing, and avoided the Germany sinking of that ship.
Her love-life was also complicated. Her affairs included one with theater designer Gordon Craig, resulting in the birth of her daughter Deirdre in 1906; and one with philanthropist Paris Singer, son of sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer, resulting in the birth of her son Patrick in 1910. In 1913, both children died while riding in a car driven by their nanny, into the River Seine in Paris.
Isadora was driven by grief to the Greek island of Corfu, where her brother and sister were staying, and then to Viareggio, Italy, where her friend, the renowned actress Eleonora Duse, lived. While there, in 1914, she fell for the sculptor Romano Romanelli, and this affair led to the birth of a son, but he died after only a few days. She adopted 6 daughters, all of whom took the surname Duncan, and 3 of them also became dance instructors.
She only married once. In 1921, she moved to Moscow, where she met the poet Sergei Yesenin, who was 18 years younger. They married in 1922, but separated the next year. In 1925, he hanged himself.
At some point, Isadora said he had had enough of love, lamenting that what men called "love," women only considered "possession." But, even in her 40s, she still wanted a child. A story which may be apocryphal says that she suggested to writer Anatole France, "Imagine a child with my beauty and your brains!" To which he Anatole responded, "Yes, but imagine a child with my beauty and your brains!
After Yesenin, she spent her time running up debts at various hotels around Europe, essentially a high-class homeless person. Friends urged her to save her financial situation by writing her memoirs. She did, and, by September 14, 1927, the manuscript for My Life was completed -- but not yet published.
That day, in Nice, on the French Riviera, she was staying at the home of her friend, singer Mary Desti, whose son, Preston Sturges, became a prominent film director. Isadora left in an Amilcar CGSS driven by Benoit Falchetto, a mechanic. She told Desti and the other guests, "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love").
A 1927 Amilcar CGSS
Given what happened next, they didn't want those to go down in history as her last words, because it sounded like she was going off for a night of passion with Falchetto. So Desti told the press that Isadora told them, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" ("Farewell, my friends. I go to glory!")
She was wearing a long silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled, in the wheel well, around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck. Desti said she called out to warn Duncan about the scarf almost immediately after the car left. Desti took Duncan to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She was only 50 years old.
She was buried at Paris' Père Lachaise Cemetery, as have been many other artists, writers and entertainers. Several dance schools with her name were founded, and some still survive.
She was played by Vivian Pickles in Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World, in 1966; Vanessa Redgrave in Isadora, 1968; and Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, in The Dancer, about Duncan's colleague Loie Fuller, in 2016.
*
September 14, 1927 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth went 1-for-3 with a walk. Lou Gehrig did the same, and added an RBI.
* A doubleheader was split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Cardinals won the opener, 6-3. Chick Hafey won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, making a winning pitcher out of Carlisle Littlejohn, who had relieved Grover Cleveland Alexander. The New York Giants won the nightcap, 9-3.
The previous off-season, the Giants had traded Frankie Frisch to the Cardinals for Rogers Hornsby. Over these 2 games, Frisch went 2-for-7 with 2 walks and an RBI on a sacrifice fly, Hornsby went 3-for-9, and Bill Terry went 6-for-11 with 3 RBIs.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers (or the Robins, as they were known under Wilbert Robinson's managing from 1914 to 1931) beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Jimmie Foxx singled Walt French home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Ty Cobb, running out the string, went 3-for-5.
* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves, 6-2 and 3-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Johnny Miljus pitched a 6-hit shutout in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Paul Waner went 3-for-9, and Lloyd Waner went 5-for-9 with an RBI.
* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-6 at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati.
No comments:
Post a Comment