A very graceful dancer during her time. She made her debut at age 15 dancing at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. After this she moved to New York and got hooked up with Thomas Edison and made her first film at 16 in 1894. She became well known on the Metropolitan Stage in her 20's. She danced Loie Fuller's Serpentine Dance, where she danced with voluminous draperies (see clip) as well as the Flag Dance, where she dressed in American colors of stars and stripes and waved the flag while she danced, as well as the beautiful Butterfly Dance where she's used many different colors and danced like a airy butterfly (pictured left) as well as performing the Tambourine dance and Sun dance.

    She not only danced these dances but they were also filmed in the 1890's, which was a rarity for the time. There are a few other dance films made in that era as well of Jigs, Clogs, Apache dances etc. Annabelle maintained her popularity when The sale of her films was further boosted in December 1896 when it was revealed that she had been approached to appear naked at a private dinner party at Sherry's Restaurant, New York. After Edison, she moved to the stage and was featured in the 1900 version of "The Sprightly Romance of Marsac" under the name "Annabelle Whitford." She later starred as the Gibson Bathing Girl in the

first of Ziegfeld's Follies in 1907 then again in 1908 and '09. She is said to have retired in 1912 upon her marriage to James Buchan. She died pennieless in 1961.

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