Felix Cherniavsky - Birth and Death Information (Maud Allan)

Added 18th Mar 2022 by Beth Dobson (Archives and Programming Assistant, DCD) / Last update 18th Mar 2022

Maud Allan 82 51 2008-1-9.jpg
Maud Allan 82 51 2008-1-9.jpg
(No description added)

Felix Cherniavsky - Birth and Death Information (Maud Allan)

Discover Placeholder
Description
The description of this Item
Collections
The collections that this item appears in.
Maud Allan Research Collection
Tags
Tag descriptions added by humans
Identified Objects
Description of the objects in this Item

Auto-generated content

Auto Tags
Tag descriptions added automatically
text photo Black and white
Auto Objects
Auto-generated identification of objects in this Item
Auto Description
An autogenerated description of this Item
Text, letter
Face count
Auto-generated number of faces in the Item
0
Accession Number
DCD's accession number for this Item. It is the unique identifier.
Original Filename
Extracted text
lo : April , 1910 August 13 , 1968 S.F. Chronicle . Millie Robbins MIIITE S Column Aug 13- 1968 Maud's Sensational Dance By Millie Robbins FOUR internationally ac . claimed dancers whose ca reers touched San Francis co in varing degrees , seem constantly to be confused . That's not too perplex ing , perhaps , considering MAUD ALLAN Salome with seven veils all were exponents of the type of terpsichore known as " interpretive , " and that their lives overlapped to some extent . The women were Isadora Duncan , Loie Fuller , Maud Allan and Ruth St. Denis . When the latter died re cently we received a cou ple of letters advising us to look into the fact that she had been the sister of a no torious local murderer . Not true . Our correspondents un doubtedly had her mixed up with Maud Allan , whose brother , Theodore Durrant , was convicted of one of the city's most revolting and widely - publicized crimes . She was studying in Eu rope at the time it was committed in 1895 and re mained there for many years after - a highly suc cessful performer . When she died in a Los Angeles rest home a dozen years ago , no reference to the early - day scandal was made in her obituaries . According to Miss Al lan's death notices , she had come to San Francisco with her parents from To ronto , where she was born . The family settled in the Mission District , her father William Alan Durrant , working as a cobbler , her mother occasionally as a domestic - possibly in the ocean - side residence of the city's one - time wealthy mayor , Adolph Sutro . Just how this couple of modost means had been able to send their daughter to Europe to study and sim ultaneously put their son through medical college re mains a mystery . Rumors were rife at the time that Sutro had fi nanced the talented girl's expensive education , and , moreover , supplied the wherewithal for her broth er's lawyers throughout his three - year trial . If true , was this merely a philanthropic gesture , or , as the gossips insisted , was Sutro really Maud's fa ther ? Answers to the titil lating questions never were forthcoming , or are they likely to be . When they were put to Maud's mother she denied getting assistance from the multimillionaire , maintain ing that her daughter had made her own way by ped dling a superior brand of patented corsets . At first Maud had con centrated on music and voice . But subsequently she switched to dancing and made her debut in Vienna in 1903 . Four years later , she gave a command perform ance for Britain's King Ed ward VII , then in 1908 in troduced in London's Pal ace Theater , her great Sa lome number . This created a sensation , although , a mazingly enough , drew little cen sure . Somehow , as one critic put it , she managed to por tray Herodias ' daughter not as " a vile woman swayed by illicit desires , but as a wayward girl led by the stronger will of an unscrup ulous mother . " Once in Budapest a per verted prankster had a real , bloody head substituted for the usual papier - mache one of John the Baptist deliv ered to her on a platter . Maud understandably promptly swooned from shock . ) She didn't appear here until 1910 when she per formed at the Garrick Theater before a wildly en thusiastic audience and re ceived rave notices in the press . Thirty years ago she sus tained such severe injuries in a car crash that she nev er could dance again . We'll fill you in on broth er Theodore tomorrow . 1