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Hollywood, California 1917 TB1710-14 Costume Embroidered bra top with front floor-length bib, scallop hemmed skirt. Head wreath, serpent anklet, bracelet. Haltered diaphanous butterfly costume with stars over the breasts and pubis. Spiral breast cones, with no visible other means of support, skirt. Bracelet. TML. Nippage. Bellage. Bare feet. T. Armits. TM. Armpits. Actions Bare-bellied Cleopatra arches her torso over Mark Antony's arm (1). She looks back at him, palms down (2). A costume change and she dances (3). Bara poses "Egyptian" and touches her fingers overhead (4). Commentary New York Jewish isn't that far away from Cairo Egyptian. Remember Bara is a silent star, where the story telling is done with body language. Fritz Lieber plays Mark Antony in the screen's first Cleopatra. Bara's Cleopatra costumes share tactical covering of breasts and pubis, although this see-through allows surround cleavage and a darkening near the pelvis. Cross reference in see-through, pasties, and wilds. Not really a bikini science item. Cleopatra's breast cones possibly require adhesive, which brings pasties to the mind of the Bikini Scientist. Large pasties, for sure, but what other classification do we have for this? Breastplates two years ago (TB1510). Source Theda Bara acts with H. Leiber in Cleopatra, directed by J. Gordon Edwards. TB171010 from Pierre Billard,Vamps, Societe d'Editions R.T.M. (Cinema, Art du Siecle), Paris,1958. TB171020 from Arthur Knight and Hollis Alpert, "The History of Sex in Cinema, Part Two: Compounding the Sin," Playboy, May 1965. TB171210 probably Cleopatra still or surrounding period, attributed to Hollywood Gossip Magazine, 1917, Wikipedia, 2006. TB171450 is publicity still for Cleopatra, 1917, from Film Stills, Cantz Verlog, Stuttgart, Germany, 1993, p. 53, and found in many other sources. 4 pictures. |
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