Stage Name |
Birth Name | | Mata Hari |
Margaretha ( Marguérite)
Geertruida Zelle |
Mata Hari was a famous Dutch dancer
who almost danced nude ( Rare for the time.) She was the
second child of Adam Zelle and his wife Antje van der Meulen ( Only
girl in a family of four boys.) 'Mata Hari' was to become
one of the most infamous spies in history altho there is some
who feel she was just a scapegoat. She was married in 1895 to
a Naval officer in stationed in Java and was also the mother of
two children ( Norman & Juana.) After her divorce she would start
to use the name "Mata Hari" which was Malayan for 'Eyes
of the days' or 'The Sun'. Her dancing career started when she
moved to Paris and danced at Emile Guimet's ( Museum) in
1905. The dance she did was a Siva dance, which used shawls that
she slowly removed and danced very provocatively for the time,
she was an instant success, she claimed to be trained in exotic
ritual dance styles, however, a professional dancers work is usually
short lived and hers was no exception, it would only last from
1905 to 1912. Her fame made it easy to travel to
various European countries, so the French Secret Service asked
Mata Hari to mix and mingle with the Germans and find out as much
information as she could. However, the French became suspicious
of her and arrested her of espionage and being a double-agent
when she tried to cross the French border to visit a lover. She
was interrogated and confessed to being a German spy code-named
H21 ( New reports say she was framed.) When she went to
trial and the verdict of guilty came in, she would be executed
by a French firing squad on 10/15/1917, ( As she was a convicted
of being a double spy for Germany and France.) She was immortalized in the movie
which starred Greta Garbo and Ramon Navarro in the title role
in 1932. At her execution, it is rumored that she blew a kiss
towards the firing squad. | 
