Youth of the world-famous dancer can not be called easy. Her father, a Dutch hatter, made a fortune on the stock exchange, but after a while went bankrupt and left the family. A few years later dying mother Gertrude Margaretha Zelle (real name exotic diva). Father decides to take on the education of sons and daughter sent to a nearby town to stay with relatives.
After school, a girl of eighteen decides to break out of the family and marriage is an ad in the newspaper. Its author, the officer Rudolf MacLeod, thirty-nine years, regarded it as a joke, but later he was still married to a young girl.
Two years the couple lived in Holland, they had a son, whom they named Norman. But then the father was transferred to the Dutch colony in Asia, the family he took with him. There they are born daughter.
At the beginning of the 20th century Margaret did not withstand the rigors of family life and the death of his son, so decides to escape from her husband in Paris. Begins the era of lack of money and doom, but the woman is not afraid of difficulties. She gets a job at the circus Mollier.
After some time he Mollier offers Margarete try to perform an exotic dance. Girl agrees, because during his life in the East Indies, she saw performances by local dancers.
At the end of the first month of 1905 was held the first performance of Margaretha. At that time it was called Lady MacLeod. However, three months later was chosen stage name - the "eye of the dawn," which sounds like Mata Harry.
Speeches Mata Harry shook the world, they cause delight and scandals, as she danced nearly naked. Particular success enjoyed number "Spell of Shiva", which created the illusion that a few seconds Mata Harry remained practically naked. But in fact, she had a little secret - a flesh-colored tights, but the audience simply did not have time to consider.
In an exotic dancer fell in love with a rich man, her love want even kings, her love affairs newspapers. And when Mata Harry was accused of betraying the country, continued to stand up for her influential fans.
Still, a great dancer, the ancestor of modern striptease, was sentenced to death by firing squad. Mata Harry was shot in 1917.
However, in a few decades back there was talk of innocence exotic diva. And the fate of Mata Harry is still shrouded in many mysteries and puzzles.