Maud Allan
Encyclopedia
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, dancer and choreographer remembered for her "famously impressionistic mood settings".
Early life
She was born Beulah Maude Durrant in Toronto, Ontario, CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Sources give contradictory dates for her year of birth, ranging from 1873 through 1880. She spent her early years in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, moving to Germany in 1895 to study piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. She later changed her name, prompted in part by the scandal surrounding her brother Theodore Durrant
Theodore Durrant
Theodore Henry Durrant , Known as "The Demon of the Belfry", was hanged for two murders committed at the San Francisco Emanuel Baptist Church, where he was assistant superintendent. He maintained his innocence of the crimes...
, who was hanged in 1898 for the sensational murder of two women in San Francisco. Allan never recuperated from the trauma of this event which affected her for the rest of her life. The execution was immediately followed by her abandonment of piano-playing and the development of a new means of self-expression in dance.
Stage and dance career
In 1900, in need of money, Allan published an illustrated sex manualSex manual
Sex manuals are books which explain how to perform sexual intercourse and other sexual practices. They often also feature advice on birth control, and sometimes safe sex, as well as advice on sexual relationships.-Early sex manuals:...
for women titled Illustriertes Konversations-Lexikon der Frau. Shortly thereafter she began dancing professionally. Although athletic, and having great imagination, she had little formal dance training. She was once compared to professional dancer and legend Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
, which greatly enraged her, as she disliked Duncan.
She designed and often sewed her own costumes, which were creative. In 1906 her production "Vision of Salomé" debuted in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Based loosely on Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's play, Salomé
Salome (play)
Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde.The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published...
, her version of the Dance of the Seven Veils
Dance of the Seven Veils
In several notable works of Western culture, the Dance of the Seven Veils is one of the elaborations on the biblical tale of the execution of John the Baptist...
became famous (and to some notorious) and she was billed as "The Salomé Dancer". Her book My Life and Dancing was published in 1908 and that year she took England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by storm in a tour in which she performed 250 performances in less than one year.
In 1910 she left Europe to travel. Over the next five years she visited the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. In 1915 she starred as "Demntra" in the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
, The Rug Maker's Daughter.
Libel suit
In 1918 the British MPMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Noel Pemberton Billing
Noel Pemberton Billing
Noel Pemberton Billing was an English aviator, inventor, publisher, and Member of Parliament. He founded the firm that became Supermarine and promoted air power, but he held a strong antipathy towards the Royal Aircraft Factory and its products...
, in his own journal, Vigilante, published an article, "The Cult of the Clitoris" which implied that Allan, then appearing in her Vision of Salome, was a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
associate of German wartime conspirators.
Allan sued Billing for criminal libel
Criminal libel
Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used....
, based on the following counts:
- The act of publishing a defamatory article about Maud Allan and J. T. GreinJ. T. GreinJacob Thomas Grein was a Dutch-born theatre impresario and drama critic who helped establish the modern theatre in London, England.-Biography:...
, her impresarioImpresarioAn impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
.
- The act, a separate offense, of including obscenitiesObscenityAn obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
within the article.
This led to a sensational court case, at which Billing represented himself. Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas , nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde...
also testified in Billing's favour. Allan lost the case. The trial became entangled in obscenity charges brought forth by the state against the performance given by Allan in her dance. She was accused of practising many of the sexually charged acts depicted (or implied) in Wilde's writings herself, including necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
.
At this time, the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
's ban on public performances of Wilde's play was still in place in England, and thus the Salomé dance was at risk. Her brother's crimes were also dredged up to suggest there was a background of sexual insanity in her family.
From the 1920s on Allan taught dance and she lived with her secretary and lover, Verna Aldrich. She died in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Research Resources
- Maud Allan Papers, 1910-1934 (1 linear foot) are housed at the Charles E. Young Research LibraryCharles E. Young Research LibraryThe Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries at UCLA. It is named after the university's former chancellor of 29 years. Unlike the College Library which is geared towards undergraduates, this library is meant mainly for faculty and graduate students who wish to conduct...
at the University of California Los Angeles.
- John Henry Bradley Storrs Papers, 1847-1987 (18.4 linear feet) are housed at the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
Archives of American Art.
Further reading
- Philip HoarePhilip HoarePhilip Hoare is an English non-fiction writer and journalist. His 2008 book Leviathan won the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize.-Bibliography:* Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant...
, Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy & The First World War Duckworth, (1997) - Felix Cherniavsky, Maud Allan and Her Art, Dance Collection Danse Presse (1998)
- Toni Bentley, Sisters of Salome, Yale University Press, 2002
- Wendy Buonaventura, Midnight Rose, Cinnabar Books, 2009
- Russell James: 'The Maud Allan Affair', Remember When, 2009