One of the most popular ribbons of film from the dawn of motion pictures was \u201cFatima\u2019s Coochee-Coochee Dance,\u201d released for viewing in 1897 in Thomas Edison\u2019s Kinetoscope peepshow machine.
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Details on the film\u2019s production are sketchy, and some film historians are uncertain about the lady on screen. Most likely, it was Fatima Djemille, a Syrian-born dancer who performed in Coney Island\u2019s \u201cStreets of Cairo\u201d exhibition. Fatima tapped into the then-current fascination with Middle Eastern belly dancing and offered a jolly performance where she shook her curvaceous body in the manner that would have delighted the sultans and caliphs of a bygone era.<\/p>\n
Of course, the women in 1897 had significantly more conservative values than today\u2019s twerking babes, and the gyrating Fatima titillated without showing her tits. Indeed, the only bare flesh on display are her arms, which don\u2019t seem very erotic today must have raised more than a few tentpoles back at the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
This production is famous for having fence-like mesh bars abruptly appear over Fatima\u2019s breasts and hips, obscuring some of her movements but still leaving plenty for the imagination. Some sources claim this was the first example of film censorship \u2013 but how was that possible, considering no film censorship entity existed in 1897? Most likely, that was the Edison team doing a humorous joke at the expense of male viewers who were going into salivary overdrive with Fatima\u2019s raucous bump-and-grind act. <\/p>\n