Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris [Paperback]

Bunny McBride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

This biography chronicles the extraordinary life of twentieth-century performing artist Molly Spotted Elk. Born in 1903 on the Penobscot reservation in Maine, Molly ventured into show business at an early age, performing vaudeville in New York, starring in the classic docudrama The Silent Enemy, then dancing for royalty and mingling with the literary elite in Europe. In Paris she found an audience more appreciative of authentic Native dance than in the United States. There she married a French journalist, but she was forced to leave him and flee France with her daughter during the German occupation of 1940. Using extensive diaries in conjunction with letters, interviews, and other sources, Bunny McBride reconstructs Molly’s story and sheds light on the pressure she and her peers endured in having to act out white stereotypes of the "Indian."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Born on the Penobscot reservation in northern Maine, Molly Spotted Elk (1903-1976) was the oldest of eight children. Because her family was poor, she worked as a domestic helper from the age of 11 until her talent for dancing and singing earned her a place in an Indian performing troupe. Drawing on Molly's diaries (numerous excerpts are printed here) and interviews with family members, McBride, a freelance writer who specializes in cultural survival, provides an engrossing account of Molly's adventurous life. Although she was a successful vaudeville dancer and appeared in the silent film The Silent Enemy (1930), the discrimination she suffered because she was Native American led her to pursue a dancing career in Paris, where she met Jean, a French journalist with whom she had a daughter and whom she eventually married. McBride documents Molly's escape from France during WWII and the suffering she endured after Jean's death. A moving life of a Native American. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

From 1494 on, Native Americans have held a niche in show business while facing special trials. Here, journalist/ anthropologist McBride (Our Lives in Our Hands, Tilbury House, 1991) empathetically reconstructs the life of famed "Indian entertainer" Molly Spotted Elk, using the rare first-hand source of the dancer's own diaries. "Being appreciated on stage did not translate into being appreciated as a friend," writes McBride of the predicament facing Spotted Elk, an independent, ambitious artist whose life was filled with success, illness, and tragedy. Her biography reveals a woman who entered vaudeville at age 14, appeared on Colliers's cover (April 1927), and was a Texas Guinan dancer and docudrama star of The Silent Enemy (1929). (The discussion of this filming is a highlight.) She found her greatest happiness in Paris in the 1930s through acceptance of the authentic Native dances she preferred over vaudeville and in life with her journalist lover, a period that ended in 1940 with a harrowing forced exit from German-occupied France. An intriguing work on a subject that has received little attention; recommended for both lay readers and specialists.?Margaret W. Norton, J. Sterling Morton H.S., Berwyn, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806129891
• ISBN-13: 978-0806129891
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #587,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, romantic, spellbinding, December 5, 1999

By 

Jill Tompkins Shibles (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris (Hardcover)

This is a wonderfully lyrical account of the life of a Penobscot woman who against great odds overcomes poverty and illness through her intelligence, love of beauty and dance and her connection to her Native American heritage. Her romance with a French Resistance-member journalist and her escape over the Alps with her infant daughter during World War II is spell-binding. I loved this book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story, but poorly written, August 1, 2006

By 

Constant Reader "poet & teacher" (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris (Paperback)

The first 30 years of Molly's life are a fascinating story, but this writer was not the one to tell it. The awkward and amateurish quality of the writing detracts from an inherently interesting tale. The prose is particularly cringe-worthy when the writer attempts to summarize history or wax lyrical about complete strangers' guessed-at emotional states. The book needed a good copy editor, too - it has far too many errors.
Molly deserved a biographer (and perhaps an editor to work with the writer) who could shape a well written account of her life.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tragic Beauty, August 7, 2003

By 

S. Stroshane (Brighton, Massachusetts United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris (Paperback)

This is a beautifully-written biography of a young Penobscot woman from Indian Island, Maine. She danced in vaudeville, Wild West shows, and even went topless in New York before dancing before royalty in Europe. She had a passionate but tragic love affair with a French journalist, and fled with her daughter from the Nazis. Molly suffered greatly in her lifetime but shone among her people as a strong matriarch with dazzling basketweaving skills and musical talents. She deserves to have her story told at last.