Leigh Sisters
The Leigh Sisters' New "Trilby" Act Caused a Sensation on the Casino Roof Garden
The appearance on the roof last night of the Leigh sisters in a "Trilby dance" caused a murmur of excitement. Isa, of "The Clemenceau Case", who made a sudden bound into fame a few years ago, was a model of propriety by comparison with them. The living pictures were at least covered with tights, and the bronze statues, who were hauled into a police court, had a metallic coating over their nakedness. Other Trilbys have appeared in bare feet and danced on the stage, but none of them ventured to exhibit quite so much of their anatomy.
The first appearance of the Leighs on the stage was very late, some time after "The Merry World" had closed, and the roof was crowded with the audience from the theatre. The red curtains were pulled aside, the orchestra struck up a lively air, and the sisters entered. All that could be seen from the front was a pair of muscular legs and an enormous white umbrella, opened, and held toward the audience.
The legs were dancing. There was no possible doubt about their nakedness. The flesh moved, the muscles stood out, the veins were clearly marked, the ankles and knees were more prominent than they could have been under tights. The legs were visible to a point two or three inches above the knees — the umbrella hid all else.
The music quickened, the feet pirouetted from side to side and the toes came into plain sight. With the crash of the cymbals that marked the end of the dance a second pair of legs dropped to the floor behind the umbrella, as one of the sisters had been carrying the other up to that point. One could hear the frou-frou of lace as the girls passed their hands down over their scanty clothes to smooth them down before the audience could see them, then the umbrella was thrown backward and the sisters stepped forward.
Their skirts, delicate white, lace trimmed creations, reached just about as far down as the umbrella had been held. Their bodices were quite low, but not sufficiently so as to excite comment had it not been for the nakedness below.
As the girls danced it became evident that their fluffy lace undergarments were far shorter than their skirts, exposing their thighs half way to the hips.
They did the "split", the "cartwheel" and many other acrobatic feats, concluding with a high kicking dance. The other Trilbys are dainty, shrinking, modest things by the side of the Leigh sisters.
The Leigh Sisters was a vaudeville act at the end of the 19th century in America. The sisters were Edna and Stella Leigh who danced in a saucy style, exposing their legs more than was usual in those times.[1] They were filmed by Alfred Clark for two Kinetoscope productions – Acrobatic Dance and Umbrella Dance.[2] These early moving pictures have been lost but there is a frame from the latter in the Margaret Herrick Library.[3]
References
- ^ "Danced Without Tights", New York Herald, p. 7, 19 June 1895
- ^ Musser, Charles (1991), "Edison and the Kinetoscope", Before the Nickelodeon, University of California Press, p. 56, ISBN 9780520060807
- ^ Yumibe, Joshua (2012), Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism, Rutgers University Press, p. 13, ISBN 9780813552989
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