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| Painting of Faatima |
WHO WAS FATIMA? Fatima was a belly dancer and entertainer who performed at the Bird Cage Theatre in the 1880s, where she got her start. She became well-known there. She later took the name of "Little Egypt" aka Syrian born Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos (1871-1937). In 1893 she appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago. When she moved away from Arizona, a giant painting of her was delivered to the Bird Cage Theatre.
The painting is huge. I think it must be at least 9 feet high and 4 feet wide.
I haven't been able to find out who commissioned the painting or who sent it, but today (2019) it hangs in the lobby, on the wall to the right of the front door.
GHOST IN THE PAINTING - In 1993 when I visited Tombstone, I took pictures inside the Bird Cage Theatre. At that time, my abilities to sense ghosts and spirits was not active like it is today. When I was in the lobby, I asked Billy (who manages the theatre) to stand next to the painting and I took a photo of him. The full picture appears in my first book "Ghosts and Spirits"- available on Amazon.com.
When I mailed the photo to Billy (this was before the Internet, he called me when he got it, and said I captured the face of the male actor that he has sometimes seen crossing the stage when he was closing up at night!
BOOK COVER - The face looks like a balding man with a beard and moustache and it's very clear in the painting. This year, we took a photo of Fatima's painting to ensure that we had a clean, ghost-free photo of it. I distinctly remember when I took the photo in 1993 that I did not use a flash. When I took several other photos afterward, there was no face in them. The ghost had decided to show up when Billy was standing next to it!
NEXT: The Bird Cage Ghost Tour Begins
