Farheda Mazar Spyropoulos, danced as Fatima "the Seventh Daughter of the Seventh Daughter," or simply "Little Egypt" in the Streets of Cairo exhibit at the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893. Farheda wriggled her way into American culture, introducing the shocking "hoochie-coochie," "shimmy dance," or "shiver dance."An elderly gentleman in the 1970's who purportedly saw her 1893 performance, stated that "She was something." "She wasn't beautiful, but she was attractive and her costume was revealing. She was accompanied by high pitched reed instruments. I remember she put her hands over her eyes with her elbows extended outwards, then she wiggled and wiggled." He went on to say that he saw her perform four times. While there is no detailed record of the authenticity of her dance, there was a song spoofing her, entitled She Never Saw the Streets of Cairo (1893). This was not entirely correct as Farheda was indeed born in Cairo, Egypt.
The male public could not get enough of Little Egypt's' rendition of the "danse du ventre", or "belly dance." In 1896, New York's Tammany Times announced that "Little Egypt will have a new dance she promises will be startling" to be performed at the Olympia Music Hall burlesque. The Olympia was a first class venue. With seating for 3800, it was later to become the original venue of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Memories of Farheda's performance were slow to fade. Forty years later, an article in a 1933 Time magazine, observed that "Yokels gaped and the nation's bustled churchwomen bawled righteous indignation when Little Egypt undulated her brown, pneumatic belly at Chicago in 1893." Alas, our memories play us false. Things are never quite as wonderful as we like to imagine them. If the existing photo of Farheda is any indicator, the only skin exposed was forearms and ankles. The torso was hidden under a light blouse, and the legs by a skirt that would have done a Flamenco dancer proud.
Hucksters and carnies knew a good thing when they saw it. By 1903, performances by a "Little Egypt" could be found everywhere. For the price one thin dime, or sometimes a quarter, rubes were able to ogle "hoochie-coochie" dancers using her stage name at many a county fair, traveling carnival, and "burly-q" in the U.S. This was just the start of a long of line of dancers and strippers performing as "Little Egypt" well into the 1950's.
In 1901 there was a prize angus cow named "Little Egypt" and, in 1906, a registered Poland-China pig. There were also at least three "Little Egypt" mining operations in the United States.
A comedy, Little Egypt Malone, was filmed in 1915. The plot sounds as if it was a 1930's "Our Gang" script. A group of boys buy a tent and signage used by a performer billing herself as "Little Egypt" and then, predictably, put on a show. Money rolls in, neighborhood women become outraged at the lewd performance, followed by men getting angry when they find out the performer is a boy in drag and, like all good slapsticks, things end with everyone having a good laugh.
This was followed later by the movie Little Egypt starring Rhonda Fleming in 1951, and the song "Little Egypt" performed by Elvis in Roustabout - almost 70 years after Mrs. Spyropoulos' landmark performance. 
What is remarkable, is to see the legacy of that performance in the "Gay Nineties" starting its second hundred years.
When Farheda died on April 5, 1937, the widely used boiler-plate newspaper obituary read:
"First Little Egypt of 1893 Fair Dies - Chicago - Little Egypt, first exponent of the muscle dance which shocked patrons of the Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893 and gained her sensational publicity, died today. The wife of a Greek restaurant owner, she died in the house to which she came as a bride 24 years ago. Her married name was Mrs. Farheda Spyropoulos."
Like Farheda Spyropoulos, the original Little Egypt, there is a cocktail by that name that is largely forgotten. Actually there are two, however the version I prefer comes from the German Lexicon der Getranke (1913) by Schonfeld.
