(1877-1927) World-famous dancer who died unusually tragically

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posted by genplant29
STAFFMOD
on February 13, 2020 at 7:18 PM

During my childhood years, when the film first aired on t.v. in probably 1969 (or perhaps when it reran a year or two later), I watched the movie Isadora, that's about the life of the famous free-spirited dancer. When I watched it - having had no prior knowledge of anything about Isadora Duncan's life or story - I wasn't at all prepared for how the movie ends. To say I was shocked to the absolute max, and that the final minutes left a lasting impression on me, would definitely not be overstating things a single bit.

The following is from Wikipedia, about Miss Duncan's death - which the real-life event was considerably worse than as depicted in the movie:

On the night of September 14, 1927, in Nice, France, Duncan was a passenger in an Amilcar CGSS automobile owned by Benoît Falchetto, a French-Italian mechanic. She wore a long, flowing, hand-painted silk scarf,...a gift from her friend Mary Desti, the mother of American film director Preston Sturges. Desti...saw Duncan off....As they departed, she [Duncan] reportedly said to Desti and some companions, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire !" ("Farewell, my friends. I go to glory!"); but according to the American novelist Glenway Wescott, Desti later told him that Duncan's actual parting words were, "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love"). Desti considered this embarrassing, as it suggested that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a tryst. // Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled 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 brought Duncan to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. // As The New York Times noted in its obituary, Duncan "met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera." "According to dispatches from Nice, Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement." Other sources noted that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous"....

Isadora Duncan died at age 50.

See also this related discussion thread, that's about the final few minutes of the 1968-1969 film.

Please check out the following list of titles and celebrities I've created TMDb threads for: https://www.themoviedb.org/list/118052

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Reply by QuitePleasant

STAFFMOD

on February 14, 2020 at 5:18 AM

Very informative! Thanks for the Isadora Duncan tribute.

When anyone would mention her name (not having seen the biopic), the first things to come to mind -

that Isadora were an internationally-renowned dancer -
that she behaved the rather artsy, Bohemian socialite - and
that she lost her life in the freak accident involving the long scarf's being caught into the spokes of the automobile wheel.

Didn't realize before your essay that Isadora behaved -

as flamboyantly as her article reads -
as "Springer Show"-ish as this indicates - nor
as young as she were at the time of her unfortunate mishap although she weren't exactly "put out to pasture" nor far from her prime at all.

Very unfortunate turn of events regarding the achievements of a pioneering Roaring Twenties' shining star entertainer, poor Isadora!

Reply by genplant29

STAFFMOD

on February 14, 2020 at 7:14 AM

Miss Duncan certainly was one to flout convention and common standards of decent behaviour of her times. From Wikipedia, here's some coverage about that sort of thing:

In both professional and private life, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality. She was bisexual and an atheist, and alluded to her communism during her last United States tour, in 1922–23: she waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!" // Duncan bore two children, both out of wedlock. The first, Deirdre Beatrice (born September 24, 1906), by theatre designer Gordon Craig, and the second, Patrick Augustus (born May 1, 1910), by Paris Singer, one of the many sons of sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer. Both children drowned in the care of their nanny in 1913 when their runaway car went into the Seine. // Following the accident, Duncan spent several months recuperating in Corfu....She then spent several weeks at the Viareggio seaside resort with the actress Eleonora Duse. The fact that Duse had just left a relationship with the rebellious and epicene young feminist Lina Poletti fueled speculation as to the nature of Duncan and Duse's relationship, but there has never been any indication that the two were involved romantically. // In her autobiography, Duncan relates that she begged a young Italian stranger, the sculptor Romano Romanelli, to sleep with her because she was desperate for another baby. She became pregnant by him, and gave birth to a son on August 13, 1914; the infant died shortly after birth. // In 1921, after the end of the Russian Revolution, Duncan moved to Moscow where she met the acclaimed poet Sergei Yesenin....On May 2, 1922, they married....(T)he marriage was brief, and in May 1923 he left Duncan....// Duncan had a relationship with the poet and playwright Mercedes de Acosta, as documented in numerous revealing letters they wrote to each other....// By the late 1920s, Duncan's performing career had dwindled, and she became as notorious for her financial woes, scandalous love life and all-too-frequent public drunkenness as for her contributions to the arts. She spent her final years moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels. She spent short periods in apartments rented on her behalf by a decreasing number of friends and supporters....

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