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May Belfort

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Irish Singer, Actress, Comedian

May Belfort
In The Sketch, 7 September 1898
BornMay Egan
c. 1872
Ireland
Died1929
United States
NationalityIrish
Occupation(s)Cabaret singer, actress, comedian

May Belfort (née Egan; c. 1872 – 1929) was an Irish singer, actress and comedian who was famous across Europe and America.

Biography

Born in Ireland in about 1872, she was a comedian and singer on the London music halls and then in Paris where she performed her trademark nonsensical songs at the café des Décadents and the Petit Casino. She commissioned the famous 1895 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec poster showing her wearing the red dress with her ever present black cat. She became a favourite of the artist who painted her more than once. She performed in Russia, South Africa and the United States during her career. Belfort was friends with Jane Avril. May Milton was her lover, as was Boer General Ben Viljoen. In fact Belfort expected to marry Viljoen. When it turned out he was already married and unwilling to continue the relationship with her, she traveled to Chicago and horsewhipped him in the street. Even after he achieved a divorce, he married another woman. Belfort retired from the stage due to ill health. Due to bad investments in mining, Belfort lost her money and ended working as a rug weaver and living in poverty. She died after a lingering illness in the United States in 1929.

Gallery

  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: May Belfort, 1895 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: May Belfort, 1895
  • Painting of woman with dark hair in long pink dress and white hat, standing in a room. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, May Belfort, 1895. Oil, Framed: 86 x 71.5 x 8.9 cm (33 7/8 x 28 1/8 x 3 1/2 in.); Unframed: 63 x 48 cm (24 13/16 x 18 7/8 in.). Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.54

References and sources

  1. "Met Museum Poster". www.metmuseum.org.
  2. "May Belfort". Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  3. "May Belfort". Cleveland Museum of Art. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  4. "May Belfort (May Egan)". National Portrait Gallery. 22 February 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  5. "May Belford, Actress, Dies in Poverty at 56; Once Famous Vaudeville Comedienna Had Eked Out a Living as a Rug Weaver". The New York Times. 31 March 1929. p. 26. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  6. "May Belfort". Van Gogh Museum. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  7. Offenburger, Andrew (2014). "Cultural Imperialism and the Romanticized Frontier: From South Africa and Great Britain to New Mexico's Mesilla Valley". Amerikastudien / American Studies. 59 (4): 535–552. JSTOR 44071886.
  8. "Ben Viljoen's Denial". North Otago Times. 8 April 1905. p. 5. Retrieved 9 October 2023 – via Papers Past.
  9. "Ben Viljoen – The American Incident Letter From May Belfort". The Daily News. Perth. 28 April 1905. p. 7. Retrieved 9 October 2023 – via Trove.
  10. "Boer General Horsewhipped. - Miss May Belfort Chastises General Viljoen. She Intended to Shoot Him". The World's News. Sydney. 27 May 1905. p. 18. Retrieved 9 October 2023 – via Trove.
  11. "The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) - 19 Jun 1929". Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954). 19 June 1929. p. 6. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  12. Offenburger, A. (2019). Frontiers in the Gilded Age: Adventure, Capitalism, and Dispossession from Southern Africa to the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, 1880-1917. The Lamar Series in Western History. Yale University Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-300-24525-7. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  13. "BBC Arts - Toulouse-Lautrec's pin-ups: Original stars of the Moulin Rouge". BBC. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  14. "Death of a Boer Leader. - Casterton Free Press and Glenelg Shire Advertiser (Vic. : 1915 - 1918) - 26 Apr 1917". Casterton Free Press and Glenelg Shire Advertiser (Vic. : 1915 - 1918). 26 April 1917. p. 4. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
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