Meet The Muse

“Who’s Your Fat Friend?”

Meet the Muse: Beau Brummell

This month’s Muse is none other than Beau Brummell, the Father of the modern trouser and an arbiter of fashion who became so influential that people would actually pay him money to watch him get dressed in the mornings. Now how’s that for a life hack? George Bryan “Beau” Brummell was born in London, UK June 7, 1778 and died March 30, 1840 in Caen, France. A man of humble origins who was such an adept social climber that he became best friends with the Prince of Wales, was the top fashion influencer of his time and whose vertiginous fall from grace landed him in an insane asylum where he perished from advanced-stage syphilis. But it’s what happened in the 62 year arc of his life that makes him such a fascinating character, who set fashion trends which are still followed and respected today.

Social Aspirations: A young Beau by Joshua Reynold. Courtesy of the Huntington Museum.

Beau Brummell was the son of a shopkeeper who was determined to push his son into the upper echelons of society and he inculcated that social climbing drive into young Beau. His father was able to get his son into Eton and thanks to Beau’s wit and flare for dressing, his popularity with the sons of the aristocracy eventually led to a long lasting friendship with the Prince of Wales. After Eton, Beau served in the Military and once discharged in 1797, he came into a small inheritance from his father, which allowed him to set himself up in London. Taking an apartment in London’s posh Mayfair District, he entertained his fancy friends and created new trends for the fashionable set to follow. Naturally, given Beau’s flair for hyperbole and his talent for living beyond his means, his extravagant lifestyle eventually got him into trouble. We’ll get into that later in the post.

Although history remembers Beau as an iconic Dandy of the Regency Period, he was much more than that: he not only changed how we dressed but also how we lived. He popularized daily bathing and refused to wear excessive colognes. The fashion of the times was still under the influence of the 18cc “Fops”: powdered wigs, rouge, fancy coats, breeches and stockings. Personal hygiene practically was non-existent; heavy perfumes and creams were used in the place soap and water. Bathing was reserved for special occasions. Beau changed all that!

Fast Friends: Beau with the Prince Regent. Played by James Purefoy and Hugh Bonneville “A Most Charming Man”. Courtesy of BBC

Beau’s take on clothing was that it should be functional, fit well and be an investment. In collaboration with the numerous tailors he commissioned, he set about creating the Bespoke suit, which was accomplished through a series of fittings and elaborate under stitching. Up until then, if one desired to have an outfit made, one visited a “Draper”. The “Draper” would create the article of clothing by “draping” the fabric upon the wearer’s body. Fabric that could also double as upholstery, they didn’t differentiate between the two. There was no ease of movement. Lack of movement was considered a status symbol because it meant that you were rich enough to afford servants, who could do things for you. But Beau changed all of that. He believed that clothing should be comfortable but elegant. He also preferred plain colors, starting with a dark jacket and tan pants and eventually creating a suit and trousers made from matching fabrics. “To be truly elegant one should not be noticed” was his favorite line. He was a Dandy and a Rebel.

The Rake’s Progress: Evolution of men’s style, according to Beau Brummell, from the late 1700’s to the mid 1800’s. Courtesy British Museum

There already existed a bit of a fashion rebellion in France, where as a result of the French Revolution younger people were rejecting the elaborate fashions of the Old Guard by creating a parody of it. These people were called “Les Incroyables” and they wore exaggerated jackets and cravats, shaved their heads into something resembling a mohawk. This hairstyle was known as “Cheveaux à la Victime”, just like the condemned who were prepped for the blade of the guillotine. Dressed like this, the gangs of “Les Incroyables” would roam the streets of Paris looking for a fight. Understandably many people found this edgy style distasteful. But Beau managed to borrow from them and make the conceits tasteful and flattering. If you look closely at an image of an Incroyables it’s obvious that he was influenced by this earlier trend.

“Les Incroyables” Precursors to the Dandy Courtesy Bettman Archives

Beau’s flamboyant but understated style caused such a sensation that people would actually pay him money so that they could observe him and his valet enact the morning “toilette”. He would begin by bathing with warm water and soap. Unheard of at the time! Then he would proceed with his dressing ritual. Much like the “Grand Levées” of the former Kings of France, every article of clothing he chose was closely observed by his adoring public. The way he twisted his cravat or his choice of shirts created a pandemonium. His fashion prononciamentos were such that he was elevated to the position of “Sartorial Advisor” to the Prince of Wales.

His “Grand Levée: People paid to watch him dress. “A Most Charming Man”: Courtesy BBC TV

But of course, the fickle finger of fate was about to give our hero a hard poke in the eye. Beau Brummell, having only a modest fortune, spent more than he earned. In addition to the love of clothes, he also had another vice: Gambling. Slowly but surely his inheritance began to slip through his fingers. At first his friends were happy to float him loans to cover his gambling debts. But after awhile, he had worn out his welcome. The aristocracy who once considered his cutting wit and personal style to be amusing, now considered him to be crass and vulgar. “Not knowing your place” in a world where your position in life meant everything is the ultimate Mortal Sin.

Life began to get increasingly precarious for Beau, always one step ahead of being thrown into debtors prison (yes, they had those then) He actually had to employ one of his Tailors as a combination bodyguard, hit man and bill collector! Who knew tailors could be such badasses?

The ultimate faux pas he committed and one that eventually sealed his fate forever, occurred in 1813 at a costume ball in London. Among the invitees was the Prince of Wales. By now the future George IV had tired of Brummell’s over familiarity. As the expression goes “Familiarity Breeds Contempt” and as the Prince made his way down the receiving line, he purposely cut Beau by refusing to greet him. The extent of the social humiliation was palpable to the entire room. But Beau, not one to be one upped by anyone, not even the Prince of Wales, turned to his friend and remarked: “Alvanly, who’s your fat friend?” I would have given anything to travel back in time and be a fly on the wall. I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop.

“Who’s your Fat Friend?”
The Prince Regent was always sensitive about his weight. National Portrait Gallery London

After that things began to unravel at hyper speed. The Prince, who had always been sensitive about his weight, promptly had Beau bounced out of the party. No more “Sartorial Advising” there! A society that hung on to his every word and followed his every trend with almost religious fervor now shunned him like a leper. His gambling debts and debts to his tailors, cobblers, grocers, landlords landed on him like a ton of bricks. Back then one could be thrown in jail for not paying their bill, there was no such thing as bankruptcy. After 3 years of floundering about as a social pariah, Beau Brummel had no choice but to collect his few worldly possessions and escape to France.

Beau Brummell was to live his final years in the French city of Caen. Some of his more sympathetic friends secured a position for him at the British Consulate where he stayed for 2 years. But life would not he kind to Beau, after his diplomatic assignment ended he drifted about France, unable to return to England due to his debts. But the French laws regarding insolvency were even worse than Great Britain’s. The long arm of the Gallic Law caught up with him and he ultimately wound up in a French Debtors Prison. What the English could not accomplish, the French did with the cruelest of ease. Thanks to a few supporters he had left, they were able to bail him out and pay off his debt.

By now it was 1835 and from all accounts poor Beau was merely a shadow of his former self. He had completely let himself go and no longer cared about his appearance. He was barely recognizable to the few friends who had remained loyal to him. To complicate matters even more, he began to suffer from seizures and psychotic episodes. It was apparent that he was suffering from advanced stages of syphilis, which left untreated, can diminish a persons mental capacities. He died penniless and forgotten in a charity hospital in 1840 and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Caen, France.

His Legacy Endures:

It’s for good reason that he is remembered as “The Father of The Modern Trouser” or “The Father of The Men’s Suit”. Anyone who has worn a tailored business suit, who has worn a necktie or who prefers light starch in their shirts, can thank Beau Brummell. In fact, anyone who enjoys personal hygiene by bathing daily owes a major debt of gratitude to Beau Brummell!

Beau Brummell, liberated men from the restricting, affected clothes of the previous century. He created a men’s style that was comfortable but at the same time practical and elegant. The perfect attire for the Industrial Revolution to come. Decades later in the early 20th century, Coco Chanel would do the same for women and there is no doubt in my mind that she was influenced by Beau Brummell.

There have been many films made about our Sartorial Hero, but my favorite one is “Beau Brummell, This Charming Man”, a BBC TV movie released in 2006. James Purefoy nails it with his performance as our subject and Hugh Bonneville plays a good foil as the the Prince Regent. There is a link below and I highly recommend this film, it’s a lot of fun to watch.

There is also the statue to Beau Brummell in London’s Oh-So-Exclusive Jermyn St.. Beau’s former stomping ground is just as fashionable today as it was back in the 1800’s when Beau would strut his stuff down the street with a Dandy’s swagger. There is a PMA color called “Brummel Brown”, a watch by Le Coultre, a pop band. Even in literature where he appears as himself in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Novels.

This stylish Rake, lives eternally as a Male Muse, inspiring all genders to think outside the box and to create trends, not to follow them.

The Beau Brummell Statue on Jermyn Street in London. Courtesy TripAdvisor

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Custom Made Fantasies from the Historical to the Hysterical©

The Beautiful Miss Blow

Isabella Delves Broughton Blow was born on the 19th of November 1958 and died May 7th 2007. What transpired in those 48 years is a tale of creativity, betrayal and tragedy. A trendsetting prophet who loved fashion more than it loved her, she took her life after swallowing a lethal dose of paraquat, thus banishing the painful demons that haunted her during the course of her short life. She was an original eccentric, her eye for fashion and for the designers who created them became cultural events. Her idiosyncratic sartorial choices and how she wore them became works of art. A woman whose talents could not be quantified. She joined the Pantheon of other ambulatory art pieces that include Daphne Guinness, Anna Piaggi and Daniel Lismore.

Tarot Card XVI: Blow and McQueen running from their personal demons in this iconic image by David LaChapelle. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery London

Seeing that iconic picture of Isabella and Alexander McQueen running away from the flaming tower reminded me of the two subjects of the “Tower” Tarot having made landfall and now, like the subjects of the tarot, are trying to runaway from their specific demons. It was like they both drove each other into madness with their symbiotic relationship. And both shared the illness of suicide; McQueen eventually took his own life a few years after she exited hers.

Isabella was just as much a product of her times as she was a product of her past: And it’s important that we study the Whole picture in order to understand this most tragic Muse. The first time I saw Isabella Blow was in a documentary about royal portrait painters. In it, they were contrasting traditional portraitist with a contemporary fashion shoot. There was one particular scene depicting the progress of a shoot of Fredrick Windsor, whose mother is non other than Princess Michael of Kent. A woman who is a very accomplished historical author, whose books I love to read. But in this scenario was living up to her nick name, “Princess Pushy”. It was no surprise then that she was trying to micromanage every detail in the annoyingly condescending way that only royals know how to do.

To the Manor Born: Isabella and her husband Detmar Blow at Hilles House. Photographed by Oberto Gili.

While everyone else in the crew was playing “duck and cover” there was one lone voice who dared to stand up to HRH with the same socio-economic lilt. “But Ma’am doesn’t understand…” was her Third Person refrain to every suggestion put forth by the Princess. It was obvious that this girl was “to the manor born”, only their appearances couldn’t be more different; She was dressed in an outrageous hat and and an outfit to match. Her name was Isabella Blow. I was hooked. From that moment on I made it a point to follow her career and I was devastated when a few years later she took her own life.

Isabella was the eldest daughter of a family who could trace their lineage back to a Page who fought alongside Edward the Black Prince. That’s a long time ago! Sadly, mental health was a recurring issue with her family since her grandfather Sir Henry John “Jock” Delves Broughton (try saying that name three times quickly) who was one of the subjects in the “Happy Valley Murders” a story which was to eventually become a book and then a feature film in the 1987 film: “White Mischief”. Worth watching if you ask me. Quick film synopsis: A high society love triangle ends tragically in a murder-suicide. Sorry, spoiler.

White Mischief: Izzie’s Grand-papa and her two-timing Step Granny. Here played by Joss Ackland and Greta Scaachi in the 1987 film. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Being that she was eldest daughter and not son, society saw her as useless since she could not inherit property. And if she couldn’t inherit property, then how could she possibly manage the family fortune? She did have a younger brother whose drowning she witnessed when she was just four years old. It was the beginning of the end for her family since she, and her other two sisters were quickly dispatched to different boarding schools. Finally when Izzie(Isabella) was fourteen, her mother walked out of the marriage and out of their lives. Her dad subsequently re-married and (no-surprise) Izzie did not get along with her new step-mama, causing life-long friction between her and her father. So much so that in the end, he cut her out of his will.

But Izzie marched on, after completing her studies at Oxford, she then moved on to New York to study Art History at NYU. After that her story gets a little hazy and no amount of research brought me clarification, just obfuscation. From what I was able to glean was that while in NYC, she fell into the orbit of the Warhol Factory Crowd. Then she apparently married a Brit who moved to Texas in order to make it in the oil business. During this time she allegedly worked as a rep at the Dallas Apparel Mart for the French designer Guy Laroche. This one I find a little hard to wrap my head around. Being that I live in Texas and am all too familiar with its suffocating provinciality, I can’t imagine Isabella working here. But I digress. After her stint in the Lone Star State, she bolted sans husband, to either New York to work at Vogue Magazine as an assistant to Anna Wintour. OR back to England to be a Nanny for Bryan Ferry’s son, Otis. Either way, can you blame her?

Isabella with Bryan Ferry. He would prove to be a loyal friend to the end. Courtesy of The Daily Mail, UK.

Another twist to this story was that Bryan, being friends with Wintour, secured the Vogue gig for Izzie once her nanny duties were completed. This particular story has a bit more credibility since it was recounted by her husband Detmar to a reporter for The Daily Mail newspaper. Nonetheless her friendship with Ferry lasted her entire lifetime and he was to play a pivotal role in her legacy.

_{Bryan Ferry remembers his longtime friendship with Isabella at SHOWstudio}

So from there, she continued her association with Vogue’s parent company Condé Nast, by moving on to work at Tatler Magazine in London. That was where she evolved into the hat wearing eccentric we all loved. Much like her friend Daphne Guinness, she transformed herself into a walking work of art, using fashion as her medium. Taking advantage of her influential position at a major cultural platform, she went on to discover the talents of designers, models such as Philip Treacy, Sophie Dahl, Stella Tennant, Hussein Chalayan, Miucca Prada, Viktor & Rolf and most auspiciously, Alexander McQueen. A designer with whom she would embark on a creative, symbiotic relationship that ended with the ultimate betrayal.

Tragic Muse: Isabella with her beloved dog, wearing a design by Hussein Chalayan and photographed by Steven Meisel two of her many discoveries.

And as if all of this activity wasn’t enough, she also found the time to make a cameo appearance in Wes Anderson’s film: “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”

Like most larger than life figures, the more Isabella expanded her persona, the harder it was to fit in with the norms & conventions of the fashion industry. Because no matter how much lip service is paid to creativity, in the end, fashion is a business. So Isabella found herself floundering from one position to the next, brokering deals and staging over the top fashion shoots. A consultancy here, a styling gig there. In the end she would wind up kicked to the curb by an industry that she loved, but that did not love her back.

Perhaps the most telling of these scenarios was her association with Alexander McQueen. After discovering him while he was still a student at Central Saint Martins in London. She picked him from the litter and nurtured his career, eventually brokering a lucrative deal between McQueen and Tom Ford of Gucci, who was looking to expand its licensing division. Obviously she assumed that she would secure a high profile position in this new endeavor. But when it came time to sign the contract, her name was not even mentioned and McQueen did not lift a finger to correct this. This was to have a devastating effect on her, spiraling into a nadir of depression and suicide attempts. As a friend observed: “Everyone got contracts, Izzie wound up with a frock”. Sadly this is not such an unusual modus operandi in an industry that ironically idolizes women while at the same time will brutally purge those who are considered irrelevant.

Meet the Blows: Isabella & Detmar’s lavish fantasy wedding at Gloucester Cathedral. Hat designed by Philip Treacy. Otis Ferry was one of their pages. Seeking photographer’s name for credit.

Somewhere along the line Isabella married a fellow blue blood by the name of Detmar Blow, who, like Isabella was asset rich but cash poor and who’s grandfather, in the irony of ironies also died by suicide as a result of drinking paraquat (Izzie’s poison of choice). So Isabella Delves became Isabella Blow and their wedding at Gloucester Cathedral featured all the trappings of a medieval fantasy wedding complete with pageboys and Isabella wearing a medieval style helmet designed by Philip Treacy. Together she and Detmar set about to transform “Hilles”, their little “Arts & Crafts cottage” into an eccentric’s Salon where they entertained high profile creative types as well as Isabella’s protégées. But sadly, happiness would elude Isabella on the domestic front as well when it was discovered that she could not bear children.

To add to her aggravation, Mother in Law from Hell appeared on the scene, demanded that Izzie and Detmar relinquish the house to her whenever she felt the need to stay there. The excuse being that since the couple was childless, it needed to be made available to one of Detmar’s siblings who wasn’t (and there were a few, despite Detmar being the eldest son). This must’ve triggered ugly memories of being displaced by her father’s new step-family, because even though Detmar wanted to fight it out, Izzie did not and the couple temporarily separated.

With early protégée Philip Treacy. She is wearing one of his whimsical creations. Thanks to her society connections, his designs graced a number of royal heads. Courtesy Getty Images

Again, society rears up its ugly head to obsolesce those women who unable to serve as brood mares to the patriarchy.

So with her marriage and career on shaky ground, Isabella sunk deeper into her funk. Electric shock therapy and hospitalization didn’t help. Her deteriorating condition was further exposed by a highly sensational and unsuccessful suicide attempt in 2006. While stuck in traffic on a busy overpass in London, she climbed out of her taxi and thew herself to what she hoped would be her death. But no death, just two very badly broken ankles. But broken ankles or not, she flew to Dubai Fashion Week on an imaginary expense account, passing herself as the “Elsa Klensch of Al-Jazeera” then again to Fashion Week in Bombay where she passed herself off as a Vogue representative who had flown into town in order to select the new editor of Vogue India.

Eventually her shenanigans caught up with her and she wound up back in London broke and her reputation in tatters. But Izzie rallied, as most manic depressives are wont to do. Soon she was on her way to new adventures and projects. About a week before her passing, she posed for photographer Tim Walker, wearing a chain mail hood and mime makeup. It’s a sad picture to see; even though Isabella was not a conventional beauty, in her earlier pictures, her eyes sparkled with mischief and creativity. Here she looked like she had her life’s blood drained from her and looked much older than her 48 years on this earth. It’s a disturbing portrait, considering how her previous collaborations with Walker produced groundbreaking, iconic images.

“All The Wine In Your Life’s All Dried Up”. The haunting final portrait by Tim Walker

A few days before May 7, 2007, while staying at Hilles, she would take a lethal dose of Paraquat. This was her seventh suicide attempt in a little over a year and the seventh time was the deadly charm. She announced her deed to her family long after it was too late to save her from poisoning. She was hospitalized and died in her sleep a few days later. In the time that transpired between her swallowing the poison and expiring, she was busy planning her funeral. She wanted it to be as whimsical as her fashion statements. And what an event it was! The services took place in Gloucester Cathedral, where she was previously christened then married, now served as the venue for her Last Hurrah. She was brought in on a horse drawn carriage, her coffin bedecked by flowers and topped off by one of Philip Treacy’s creations. The boys that served as pages at her wedding, where now her pallbearers. Otis Ferry (Bryan’s son and her former charge) was amount them. If Isabella Blow was over the top in life, she definitely raised the bar in death.

From Page Boy to Pallbearer:(L) Otis Ferry (far right) carries Issie’s coffin into Gloucester Cathedral. (R) Her flower bedecked coffin topped off by Treacy’s Galleon Hat. Courtesy Getty Images

Then bad news rained upon more bad news: It was announced that her family was going to have to auction off Isabella’s couture collection in order pay off her Death Tax. That’s similar to the Inheritance Tax here in the States. It’s ironic that someone who spent most of her life worrying about money was now plagued by financial obligations in death. Luckily her friends stepped in and prevented this from happening. Namely Daphne Guinness and Bryan Ferry. The Isabella Blow Foundation was created to preserve her comprehensive collection while serving as a tax shelter for her already burdened family.

Fair Weather Friend: (L)A distraught Alexander McQueen leaving the services. (R) The friends in happier days. Credits: Left: Getty Images, Right: Richard Young

It was Daphne’s brainchild to create an exhibition called Fashion Galore! honoring the memory of Isabella while showcasing her extensive wardrobe collection. Bryan Ferry contributed the song “When She Walks In the Room” which had been her favorite song of his (and my personal favorite too) to promote the event. A promotional video was created by Ruth Hogben using Bryan’s song and Isabella’s wardrobe from the exhibition. The video was shot at Doddington, her ancestral home. It’s a moving tribute and the words to the song resonate with the telling ironies of her life. “Fashion Galore!” was a tremendous success at its opening at London’s Courtauld Gallery in 2013. Then the collection went on to make the rounds of the fashion capitals of the world to tremendous fanfare. Thanks to the proceeds from the Fashion Galore exhibit, the Isabella Blow Foundation emerged; A foundation dedicated to providing educational scholarships and mental health services in the form of art therapy to those suffering from mental illness.

_{Daphne Guinness Interviewed by SHOWstudio discussing the “Fashion Galore” Exhibition and creation of the Isabella Blow Foundation.}

Isabella managed to redeem herself in death as she was never able to in life. Perhaps in the end those “frocks” that she received as consolation prizes after getting screwed out of a deal are the keys to her immortality. Her couture collection at the Isabella Blow Foundation is now a permanent record for the study of the cultural trends of the turn of the 20/21st centuries. Her energy is palpable in the design of these confections, since she herself served as an inspiration for each and every one of them. These dresses and hats, each one a work of art in their own right, like the muse who inspired them, are forever a part of a greater legacy.

I’d like to conclude this post with the lyrics from “When She Walks In The Room” written by Bryan Ferry. Even though he composed this a prior to their acquaintance, the lyrics resonate with the ironies of her brief life.

“When She Walks In The Room”

Lyrics by Bryan Ferry, courtesy of Universal Music Publishing

“So you talk to the walls

Always know

’cause they’ve seen it all

And heard it all before

And your fair weather friends

Fail to speak

They’re so afraid still waters run deep

And they’re don’t understand

Or perceive

That you can’t see the woods for the trees

Christmas trees you were sure

Weren’t the sort

To build up your hopes

Then sell you short

Yeah to build you up

And sell you short

All your life you were taught to believe

Then a moment of truth – you’re deceived

All the wine in your life’s all dried up

Is now the time to give up?

Like the soft paper cup that you squeeze

So you take this and that and then some more

And you make your way through the door

You make up your way through the door”

_{No portion of this article can be reproduced without the written permission of the author.}

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Meet Musidora

I am starting a new section in Newsletter: “Meet the Muse”, that honors cultural icons who influenced fashion, culture and the arts. The definition of Muse is generally attributed to a woman who is a source of inspiration, don’t be surprised to find guys and non-binary individuals in future posts.

So as our first post in this category, it’s only natural that we begin with a woman with the solipsistic name of “Musidora”. Born Jeanne Roques on February 23, 1889, Musidora , whose name means “Gift of the Muse”, was a silent screen actress, director and producer whose ghoulish exotic beauty captivated European audiences and served as a later inspiration for the likes of Theda Bara, Vampyra, Cat Woman and a dozen contemporary “Goths” such as Siouxsie Sioux and Courtney Love.

She is best known for her starring role as Irma Vepp in the silent horror serial “Les Vampires”, directed by Louis Feuillade, who was also a ground breaking film maker in his own right. Feuillade was a great supporter of her work and went on to collaborate with her on one more film. “Judex”. After that, Musidora spread her wings, producing, writing, directing and starring on 10 more of her own films. Two of those were based on books written by her friend, the French novelist, Colette. Sadly all of her films are lost with the exception of two: “Soleil et Ombre” and “La Terre des Taureaux”. Of her collaboration with Feuillade, only “Les Vampires” still exists.

But just looking at those few surviving images flickering on the screen, it’s easy to see how she seduced audiences back in the day and how she continues to seduce us now. Her mannerisms and affectations look strangely contemporary and she continues to be imitated and satirized in modern culture. Everyone from Diamanda Gàlás to Elvira imitated her look. She was even the subject of a Drag satire, “The Mystery of Irma Vep” by Charles Ludlam and a 1996 update “Irma Vep” starring Maggie Cheung in the title role.

Many filmmakers of note such as Luis Buñuel (Andalusian Dog) and Fritz Lang (Metropolis) credit her for inspiring their directorial style and the visual style of their films. The illustrator René Grau changed his painting style and began using only primary colors in her honor. So much was her influence that the French began referring to her as “La Dixieme Muse” (The Tenth Muse). Sadly with the onset of the talkies, Musidora’s acting career began to fade, but she did not let this minor detail stop her; She continued to write, produce and direct until her death in 1957.

So the next time you apply thick dark eyeliner, enjoy an Ann Rice novel or consider wearing all black, remember the great debt that we owe to the Mother Muse of All Goths: Musidora.

Spawns of the Muse: Can you name them all?

Would you like to see more of Musidora? Click on the images below to see her as Irma Vep in “Les Vampires”.

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