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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2014
The Biblical story of Salome, whose dance before Herod led to the beheading of John the Baptist, has been choreographed and danced in hundreds of versions during the past 85 or 90 years. From Loïe Fuller and Maud Allan at the turn of the century to Maurice Béjart and Flemming Flindt in our own time, important figures in modern dance have interpreted Salome and her story. Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most obsessive, involvement with the story was that of California choreographer Lester Horton.
Horton's creative imagination first went to work on Salome in 1934, when he was 28 years old; and he returned to the story again and again, at intervals, until the time of his death in 1953. What follows concerns itself primarily with this period of 19 years. Tracing the course of Horton's involvement with Salome, seeing what he made of her story in many different versions, may be interesting in itself. Doing so may also provide insights into the development of the art and craft of this important choreographer, because the story occupied his attention at so many points during his life-as-an-artist. Choreography outlives the choreographer; Horton's Salome survived Horton. The last section of this article surveys productions of the work in the years since 1953.
1. I am very grateful for the help I received in the preparation of this paper from Bella Lewitzky, David McLain, Elizabeth Talbot-Martin, James Truitte, Kimberley Wilson and especially from Larry Warren, without whose generous assistance it could not have been written. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Joint Conference of the American Dance Guild, the Congress on Research in Dance, and the Dance History Scholars in Los Angeles, June 1981.
2. Young, Stark, “A Note on Salome at the Metropolitan,” Theater Arts Monthly, 18 (March 1934): 207Google Scholar.
3. Quoted by Warren, Larry, Lester Horton: Modern Dance Pioneer (NY: Marcel Dekker, 1977), p. 44Google Scholar; from undated clipping in Horton's personal scrapbook.
4. Anonymous, “Verdugo Little Theater,” The Little Theater Magazine, Tournament Program Issue (March 1934), p. 8Google Scholar.
5. Program, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, July 25, 1934 (falsely dated August 8, 1934): “Lester Horton's Modern Ballet of Oscar Wilde's Salome Preceded by Program of Dance Divertissements.”
6. Warren, Lester Horton, p. 48.
7. Program, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, July 25, 1934 (falsely dated August 8, 1934).
8. Quoted by Warren, , Lester Horton, p. 49Google Scholar; from undated clipping in Horton's personal scrapbook.
9. Program, Horton Dance Group, Masonic Temple, Long Beach, May 24, 1935.
10. Private correspondence, November 11, 1980.
11. Telephone interview, February 22, 1981.
12. Program, Pasadena Community Playhouse Association Presents “The Horton Dance Group,” January 17, 1937.
13. Warren, , Lester Horton, p. 48Google Scholar.
14. Quoted by Warren, , Lester Horton, p. 81Google Scholar.
15. Warren, , Lester Horton, p. 82Google Scholar.
16. Program, Pasadena Community Playhouse Association Presents “The Horton Dance Group,” January 17, 1937.
17. Private correspondence, October 15, 1980.
18. Telephone interview, February 22, 1981. Salome, Where She Danced was apparently chaotic and confusing. The story began with the close of the Civil War at Appomattox, shifted to Europe just before the beginning of the Austro-Prussian War, and moved to the American Wild West, ending in San Francisco. Box Office magazine said it had “a script as aimless as a buzz bomb.” Irving Hoffman in the Hollywood Reporter said it was “not quite a western… [but] more of a western omelette.” Cue magazine called it “the year's most expensive bad picture.” Manny Farber in the New Republic review concluded with the words, “If Hollywood ever has a Dadaist period, … ‘Salome’ will be its precursor.” Only a few reviews commented on the dancing, and their comments were generally favorable. The New York Herald-Tribune said “Yvonne De Carlo dances alluringly as Salome.” Thomas M. Pryor in the New York Times said she “dances with a sensuousness which must have caused the Hays office some anguish.”
19. Eng, Frank, “The House on Melrose,” Dance Perspectives 31 (Autumn 1967), p. 22Google Scholar.
20. Warren, , Lester Horton, p. 123Google Scholar.
21. Dance Theater Program, undated (March or May, 1949).
22. Dance Theater Program, undated (March or May, 1949).
23. Warren, Lester Horton, p. 144.
24. Eng, Frank, “The House on Melrose,” Dance Perspectives 31 (Autumn 1967), pp. 29–30Google Scholar.
25. “Horton Prepares Fifth ‘Salome,’’ Los Angeles Examiner, August 5, 1951Google Scholar.
26. Larry Warren has written: “To the best of my knowledge, there was no production of Salome in 1951. It was considered to be a part of the repertory but I think it was in temporary retirement. Horton was busy with a lot of other things. I was around the theater a good deal at that time and have no recollection (or evidence) that it ever surfaced again until 1953.” Private correspondence, October 15, 1980.
27. Horton's strictly commercial choreography had been seen in New York in 1943 (Folies Bergère nightclub) and in New Haven in 1946 (the show, Shootin' Star). See Warren, , Lester Horton, pp. 101, 103–105, 109–110, and 251Google Scholar. It had also been seen in films.
28. Private correspondence, October 18, 1979.
29. A “teaser” advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter said, “darnit, darryl, marilyn's marvelous but LELIA's luscious.” During the month of June 1955 ads, publicity articles, and/or reviews appeared in the Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, the Tribune, the Citizen-News, the Mirror-News, the Daily News Life Screen Stage, the Valley Times, and the California Eagle, as well as the Hollywood Reporter. See Volume 3 of the James Truitte scrapbooks (1955-59) in the Dance Collection, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
30. Los Angeles Tribune, October 14, 1955. Similar notices appeared in the Citizen-News, the Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Examiner.
31. “James Truitte is handling the choreographic stint of transposing the Lester Horton concert ‘Salome’ into a streamlined modern dress nitery version” (Hollywood Reporter, October 21, 1955). Miss Salome is attributed to Truitte in The Complete Guide to Modern Dance, by McDonagh, Don (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976), p. 269Google Scholar.
32. Truitte wrote to me: “Miss Salome was… our [i.e., the Horton] Salome with a few choreographic adjustments” (private correspondence, October 30, 1979).
33. Private correspondence, October 18, 1979.
34. Dance Magazine, 48 (April 1974): 26Google Scholar.
35. A 1975 rehearsal, in costume, of the Cincinnati Ballet Company's Face of Violence (Salome) was filmed. The film, which is available for archival purposes only, is housed in the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.