Little Tich and Loie Fuller

The pioneer of clown and the ancestor of dance

We already paied our tribute to Litlle Tich, presenting the irresistible film of his "long boots" act, the first recorded comic movie (filmed in 1900) and, according to Jacques Tati "the root of everything is basic in the art of the comic film".
In times of pionnerism in everything (we are around year 1900), Tich had another illustrious contemporary walking the stages: Miss Loie Fuller, who with his "danse serpentine" revolutioned the concept itself of ballet. The fast, modern dynamism of her variety specialty, with elaborated light effects, was captured in various way: the poster art of Chéret, the early photographers, the study on motion of Tolouse-Lautrec itself and finally a certain Mr.Louis Lumiére who was experimenting on the moving image. In fact, Miss Fuller's act was filmed and hand colored as early as 1898.


Then, the encounter.

Miss Fuller was a star. And Little Tich was the king of parody. They even happened to share the same Folies-Bergères stage. So was almost natural for the great little comic to add in his repertory his version of the Fuller's serpentine dance. And, as for the "big boot", this act too was filmed for the posterity even is less known and very short. It is preserved in some movie archives. According our vocation for wonderous novelties, we searched, find it and posted on youtube.

Now, in the following video windows, please compare the two stars: Loie Fuller's original movie by Lumiére of 1898, and the Little Tich's genial version of 1900.