In the year 1839 the Chicago World’s Fair, which celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, was the event to which was attributed the introduction of danse orientale in America. Was it the first time Middle Eastern dance was seen in this continent? Not according to the historians who gathered the material for the Time-Life book The Gunfighters.

The book opens with a chapter titled “An Epic Showdown at the O.K. Corral.” It describes the legendary and much romanticized shoot­out between the famous lawman Wyatt Earp (in company with his brother and his gambler friend Doc Holliday) and four local cowboys (namely, the Clanton and McLaury brothers).

When Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil first came to Tombstone, Arizona, in the year 1879, Tombstone was only ten months old. At that time the meager population lived in tents and shanties. Within two years the town grew from a handful to about six thousand people. The promise of wealth from the solver mines in the San Pedro hills brought prospectors who were soon courted by merchants. All types of con men were there too, tempting newcomers to invest in lots or shares of mines that had no ore. The brothers Wyatt and Virgil came to Tombstone from Dodge City, Kansas. They, too, were lured by the dreams of quick money.

By the year 1880, Tombstone had two dance halls, a dozen gambling places, and more than twenty saloons. When a cattle rustler casually shot and killed the city marshal, Virgil Earp was appointed to the task. Wyatt meanwhile bought into a gambling concession in one of the fanciest and most profitable establishments in town, The Oriental Saloon. In addition, he ran faro games in other saloons. When Virgil’s appointment was renewed, Wyatt divided his gambling activities by acting first as a deputy sheriff and later, when Virgil became a city marshal, as an assistant to his brother. As the newly rich cowboys squandered their earnings mostly on nightlife, elegant restaurants and theaters opened which featured the best entertainment of Vaudeville circuits. Probably the agents who booked in seemingly remote areas such as Tombstone were responsible for bringing Fatima, an Egyptian dancer, to the Bird Cage Theatre. She performed there in 1882, eleven years before the Chicago World’s Fair and the legend of “Little Egypt.”

How would it have been possible for Fatima to end up as a feature attraction at the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona? Perhaps she was one of a number of Middle Eastern performers who were brought to the United States for the first American Centennial in 1876. Looking at the list of participants of the countries that were invited to exhibit, we see that Tunisia took part. In a sketch by an artist of that period, one of the dancers was drawn while performing a “handkerchief dance.” Could it have been, just as it was to be at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, that the word went around to other Middle Eastern entertainers (or just plain opportunists) that one could obtain a free trip to adventure by coming to the United States to perform at these colossal fairs? Certainly there was no other place or time that these performers could fit in. There was no wave of immigration and not much hope of assimilation for people from the Middle East in those days. At the Chicago World’s Fair the dancers and other entertainers came from Turkey and its Arab provinces, as well as from Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. The same could have been so at the first American Centennial in 1876.

Let us say that an agent or entrepreneur saw Fatima in Philadelphia in 1876 and invited her, through an interpreter, to come and perform at the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona. Her acceptance must have been on condition that she brings her own musician in order to perform authentically, for, in a painting rendered by an artist of her day, Fatima is shown dancing to the accompaniment of an oud. His presence could have served many purposes beside his musical talent. In might have included being her companion and protector for the long trip cross-country. Since there was no mention of his name, let us call him Abdul for the extent of this historical speculation. Did they wear their Arabian attire in public, or might they have adopted Western dress while they weren’t performing? How were they accepted outside of their place of employment? Where did they live? What kind of food did they eat? Since there was no demand or market for exotic foods, how long could they go without hummous-tahini? Did they adjust to a daily steak and potatoes Western diet? What was their social life? Did they have friends outside the Bird Cage Theatre? Not very likely! Why? Well, because the Bird Cage Theatre was a theater, but it was also a restaurant, bar and bordello. It was called the Bird Cage Theatre because of the activity in the balcony. The Time-Life book says:

One of Tombstone’s most raucous and combustible night spots was the Bird Cage Theatre, which offered a smorgasbord of delights ranging from imported Vaudeville acts to prostitution. The smoke-filled establishment was named, with heavy frontier humor, for the twelve tiny balcony boxes where soiled doves plied their trade behind curtains. When uncaged, the painted ladies pursued less profitable sidelines such as shilling drinks and dancing with drunken cowboys, hard-handed miners, and nimble-fingered gamblers and gunmen.

The theatre’s owners, Billy and Lottie Hutchinson prudently requested that incoming patrons check their hardware. Observance of the rule was uneven at best: before long, more than 100 bullet holes dappled the theatre’s ceiling, walls, and even the huge painting, hung in tribute to a popular performer named Fatima.

The casualties in all this gunplay were never totted up, though one visitor claimed to have witnessed a single shoot-in that left twelve men dead. Whatever the true tally, performers and patrons alike had good reason to fear for their safety. Once, a second-rate magician named Charles Andress told his audience that he would catch bullets in his teeth; as an assistant fired blank cartridges, he spit out slugs he had concealed in his mouth. Suddenly, a besotted customer drew his six-gun and shouted, “Catch this one professor!” A quick thinking spectator jogged the man’ arm and the shot went astray, leaving the quaking target to make his exit with a minimum of dignity and a maximum of haste.

When Fatima and Abdul worked at the Bird Cage Theatre, other prestigious acts such as H.M.S. Pinafore were presented there, too. It was the era of a rivalry between John Behan, then Sheriff of Cochise County, and Virgil Earp. Undoubtedly, one of the factors in the bloody shoot-out at the O.K. Corral was the courtship by Wyatt Earp of a pretty young actress from the cast of the Pinafore, who had been living with Behan. Imagine Wyatt Earp frequenting the Bird Cage Theatre to see his lady friend perform, and while there also being entertained by Fatima and Abdul. Perhaps he, too, might have been charmed by them. Whatever her terpsichorean talents might have been, Fatima is represented as a voluptuous, sensuous female, half-clad—almost nude. Did she start her dance fully clothed or does she appear in the painting to be taking her clothes off? By the time her portrait was painted, she had become a favorite in Tombstone. More than likely, many of her friends and acquaintances were the “soiled doves” also employed at the Bird Cage. All were probably aware of the vendetta between the Earps who, in only two years of residency in Tombstone, succeeded in acquiring ownership and power on both sides of the fence—that of gambling houses and of the law. As a faro dealer, Wyatt Earp was paid a percentage of the house winnings. As an officer of the law, he made sure that angry losers left the saloon without making trouble.

It is not very likely that Fatima and Abdul participated in Tombstone’s daily life. Coming from a predominantly Moslem country, they would have had to practice their religion in private. Although they might have adopted Western dress when going outside, they probably didn’t socialize much outside the Bird Cage. The average Middle Easterner was illiterate in those days. Perhaps they were not lucky enough to know a scribe who could write for them in Arabic. One such scribe was brought to the Chicago World’s Fair to write letters for the performers so they could keep in touch with their relatives back home. How long must their family and friends have wondered after their health and well-being?

Did Fatima stay in Tombstone? I doubt it! I think she must have accumulated the wealth she acquired and made her way back home with her precious dowry. She and Abdul must have gone their separate ways because, once back in the homeland, he would have known too much about her, and such gossip would have prevented her making a good, match. It might have been after the shoot-out at the O.K. corral that she decided America was not the place she wanted to end her days. Or, maybe she did stay when she heard rumors about an upcoming Chicago World’s Fair. By that time, she would have been well seasoned about American tastes. Maybe she wouldn’t be hired by Sol Bloom, director of the midway, since he didn’t bring her personally from the Paris Exposition in 1889. Did she end up on the Coney Island? It’s possible! She might have decided to capitalize on the notoriety of the dancers form the Fair. Whatever happened to her, I think Fatima was a survivor and as such, did well. In any case, during her lifetime, she entertained and delighted audiences made up of such notables as Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.

Dates to remember (in relation to the signing of the Declaration of the Independence-- 1776):
1778—Napoleon in Egypt.
1848—Flaubert in Egypt.
1876—American Centennial.
1882—Fatima at the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona
1889—Paris International Exposition.
1893—Chicago World’s Fair and Columbian Exposition.

This article was inspired by a documentary about the Bird Cage Theatre. The theatre still exists, and has been made a historical monument in Tombstone, Arizona. The painting of Fatima is still hanging in the Bird Cage.