Two original photographs of "The Human Vesuvius" Carmen Amaya, 1944

Universal City: Universal Pictures, 1944. Two vintage photographs of Flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya, dubbed "The Human Vesuvius" by producer and impresario Sol Hurok, seen here in the traditional decorative jacket, shirt, vest, and high-waisted trousers usually reserved for male Flamenco dancers, 1944. One with a fragment of a mimeo snipe on the verso which includes a reference for the 1944 film "Follow the Boys," starring George Raft and Vera Zorina, and one with a mimeo snipe on the verso mentioning her acclaimed 1941 premiere at Carnegie Hall and her upcoming appearance in the 1945 film "See My Lawyer," starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson.

Widely regarded as the most extraordinary Flamenco dancer of the twentieth century, Amaya was the first female Flamenco dancer to master the adroit and intense footwork usually reserved for only the best male dancers. Born to a impoverished Spanish Romani family, Amay's father, Francisco Amaya "El Chino," would play the guitar while his daughter, reportedly as young as four, would dance and sing, begging and collecting change from passersby. By 1930 Amaya had become a Spanish sensation, performing throughout Spain and garnering international attention, and in 1941 made her infamous Carnegie Hall premiere, followed by an invitation to perform at the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. Achieving international fame, Amaya was particularly popular in the Americas, performing throughout Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and the US. It was at this time, at the peak of her fame in the 1940s, that Amaya appeared in several Hollywood films, appeared on Broadway, and toured the world, often accompanied by the great Flamenco guitar virtuoso, Sabicas, and her huge company made up almost entirely of her extended family. Amaya tragically passed away in 1963 at the age of 50 from kidney failure. Artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau famously said of Amaya, "Carmen Amaya is hail on a windowpane, a swallow's cry, a black cigar smoked by a dreamer, thunderous applause; when she and her family sweep into town, they cause ugliness, torpor and gloom to evaporate just as a swarm of insects strips the trees of their leaves."

8 x 10 inches. Very Good plus, with faint overall creasing.