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ZEINAB KHALIL, a young countryside girl who moved to Cairo in
the early 40's and appeared in the nightclub arts scene suddenly.
Her first appearance was in the Badeia Masabny's famous nightclub
in which she presented many of the today's named stars of dance,
cinema and theatre actors, actresses and singers. Badeia received
this young girl and recognised her potential and handed her over
to a very prominent dance teacher of that time named Jacque, who
trained her in the arts of Ballet, Jazz Tap, Contemporary Modern
Dance as well as of course helped shape and develop her own approach
to her home grown Egyptian Baladi style. This prepared the young
Zeinab Khalil for joining the Badeia troupe of dancers as one
of the chorus line dancer who would be spread around the queen
of show time Badeia. Then Badeia noticed her even more as the
one dancer in her troupe who executed all the dance routines perfectly
and was leading the rest of the dancers in rehearsals as well
as in performances, and gave front line positions and named her
the stage name of "SAMYA GAMAL".
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During that period of time of
Samya's starting in the Badeia Masabny Club there was another
young dancer who started a short time before her and was ahead
of her as far as being presented to the audience in solo spots
as well as gaining her own fame and admiration by the club frequenters,
her name was Taheyya Karioka. Quite soon after that Badeia gave
the young Samya her solo spots in the show, as well as having
her, like Taheyya singing and dancing in the sketches with monologists
and sometimes the comedians who required a good dancer to bounce
off for their show. A very strong friendship was struck between
Taheyya and Samya, and I am presenting to you 2 extremely rare
photographs that present their united feelings and remained friends
until the last days of Samya, which came a few years before Taheyya's.
During her work in Badeia's club,
Samya also struck a strong friendship and kinship for a young
foreign singer from Lebanon, who was not yet recognised by Badeia
or the audience. His name was Farid Al Atrash. The opportunity
came and Farid was given his solo parts in singing in the club,
and he was becoming more and more admired for his unique voice
and compositions. A love story that echoed and still echoes until
today happened between Samya and Farid. It was her very first
and most important love story that changed her life completely.
(Please refer also to the article on Farid Al Atrash).
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Samya continued on her artistic
road with her excellent Egyptian Dancing and next to her work
in the club, she only did some private, and very highly profiled
weddings and functions, but never in other nightclubs.
Samya's first chance in acting
came slightly earlier than her colleague Taheyya and it was in
a film by the director Farid El Gendy. The film was called "Min
Fat Adimo" (He who has no past has no Future). However this film
died a terrible death and was a terrible box office flop. But
this was no fault of any of the people who worked on the film
in any way. It was a political film about a particularly terrible
and corrupt member of the parliament who was not in office at
the time of making the film. But alas, by the time the film was
finished he came to be prime minister.
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Of course needless to say the
film went under the chopping scissors of the censorship department,
which left the film as a bunch of completely unrelated, non-sequitor
picture clips that were incomprehensible. The nasty part is that
it was released in the cinemas, which made all the actors and
people who worked on the film look very idiotic. This put Samya
out of the film business for a few years, until she was given
a supporting role in some minor level films, and she shined through
those. But during all this time, dancing was her main love and
centre of her life and she searched and was seeking the top composers
and arrangers to make her music for her, as well top choreographers
to work on her dancing as well as costume designers and makers
of that time. She even travelled abroad to dance in Lebanon and
Syria, and she was very well received there and became a household
name.
Her love story during all that
time was growing stronger with Farid who had started in cinema
as well, but as he was singing and acting in films by other producers
and directors, it was impossible for him to insist on her playing
opposite him in those films. His first film was called "Entisar
El Shabab" (The victory of Youth) in which he starred opposite
Rawheyya Khaled, and the second film was "Ahlam El Shabab" (Dreams
Of The Youth), in which starred opposite the legendary actress
Madiha Yousry, and a third film "Gamal We Dalal" (Beauty and Coyness)
in which he appeared with dancer Beiba Ezz Eddin, but she was
the girlfriend of the film producer.
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When Farid decided to produce
his own films he could never dream of producing it without the
apple of his eyes, Samya. The film was named "Habib El Omr" (The
Love Of My Life). And success showered the two lovers like an
avalanche of amazingly good luck.
The more their love and relationship
got stronger and the fire between them was burning with powerful
flames, the more this attracted the eyes of people and admirers
as well as those who were jealous. To be precise, Samya had a
very rich admirer who was trying his best to attract her attention,
showering her with presents, jewellery, money and property in
an attempt to drag her away from Farid and have her for him self.
However, Samya was very clear and straight with him and told him
that her heart is closed and the key to the lock was in Farid's
pocket. Put her admirer did not relent and tried every possible
way, he even produced a film the story of which was about this
woman who was an artist and who was in love with another fellow
artist, and the story ends with that the love from the man was
false and pretentious and cheating her, while there was another
"true" admirer who was very keen on her and who was showering
her with his love and gifts and she was not reciprocating his
love, and when her beloved left her and let her down, no one stood
by her except that other lover, forgiving her and loving her even
deeper and stronger, even though as an artist she almost reached
the stage of setting down like the sun at sun set. The film was
named "Al Ghoroub"(The Sunset).
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Of course Samya knew what he was
trying to say in that film, and she understood his intentions
in that action, but she still accepted the leading role in the
film and presented some of her best dance routines while continuing
her love and close relationship with the love of her life, Farid.
The film was completed and the preview night was the night when
all the leading artists and all the film crew would be there,
as well as a big host of who is who in the cinema and art world
would come. This is the night when her admiring producer has kept
for the special occasion when he will presents her with a contract
for three new films, and a check with an advance on each of the
three films, not forgetting his undying love and a proposal of
marriage. This type of evening would end in a big party and a
big banquet dinner that would be remembered by all. However, Samya
did not attend that preview evening or the party and spent the
night with her beloved Farid laughing their heads off at his opponent.
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All this was very strong fathers
in the cap of their love and close kinship until the time came
and Samya asked Farid to be married and crown their relationship
and love with the honest thing to do, however he delivered a bomb
that shattered not only her heart, but all her dreams and hopes
and killed a certain sparkle in the her magical host of emotions
she felt for him and because of her love for him. Farid said that
as he comes from a royal family from the Druz Mountains, it would
be an unforgivable shame to his people and they would actually
kill him, or disown him if he married a dancer / actress. Samya
would have preferred to have been hit by a runaway train at that
moment and wished she was dead instead. She closed her doors and
became a recluse who never saw any one for a while, but the work
offers kept coming and were met with refusals until she was offered
to work as a dancer in some European nightclubs which she accepted
and thought of it as something that will help her forget her tragic
shock and heart burning memories. She also accepted a film offer
for a film leading in front of a Lebanese singer called Mohamed
Mar-ie, who did not make it too big in the art world except for
one song "La Ya Helow La" (No, my beautiful one, No).
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When Samya returned to Cairo and
worked in some of the clubs, she met an American gentleman by
the name of Jack King, a man who was a ranch owner and who fell
madly in love with her and wanted to marry her and take her back
to the United Sates. Samya felt that there was no reason not to
get married and travel abroad again. Jack King announced his conversion
to Islam and was named Abdullah King, and they married and off
she went to the United States. Samya kept touch with all her friends
in Cairo and it was only one year before she asked for a divorce
and returned to Egypt to continue with her artistic career.
A few months later, Samya met
Roshdy Abaza, an Egyptian film star, who was an extremely attractive
man and was the star of the screen who broke all the young women
of Egypt's hearts by getting married to Samya. They lived together
happily, raising his daughter until she was married off and Samya
retired from the world of artistic performing. In 19// Samya made
a short come back to the world of dancing and was very well received,
and celebrated he re-launch into the world of stardom with a private
party that was thrown for her by the great composer of Egypt the
Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who had previously composed dance pieces
especially for her. This artistic come back lasted only for a
short period of time when she retired permanently and she lived
alone until her final day.
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During the amazing and exciting
artistic life of Samya Gamal the dancer there was a big turning
in the fashion of dancing that we may take a short stop to have
a quick look at. Samya was the first dancer to dance barefooted.
Usually ALL the dancers danced with shoes until one night Samya
was presenting a show and during her involvement with the heat
of the music, rhythm and complex choreography, one of her shoes
slipped off, or broke, and she quickly ripped off the other one
and danced barefoot, which was a major cause for admirations and
applause by the audience who respected her bravery and courage
to dance barefooted. It was said that the very next evening all
the dancers in all the nightclubs in Cairo where dancing without
shoes, as if dancing barefoot was a fashion invented by Samya
Gamal.
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As we are stopping at this type
of story, here is another one for you: This story involves King
Farouk the last king of Egypt before the 1952 revolution and Samya
Gamal. This is a rumour that was invented and is NOT true. As
with all royal banquets, particularly when there would be foreign
guests, a Dance show would be presented and would be the featured
highlight of the evening's entertainment. Samya was one of the
dancers who was invited over and over and over and over again
to the point that it was the cause of some sick minded people's
doubts, particularly those who were very keen to tarnish the king's
reputation and to turn the public's opinion on him as a womaniser,
and named Sama "The Official Royal Dancer Of Egypt", however,
various trusted sources in the art world, and who were very close
to Samya confirmed again and again that Samya was never involved
with the king and that the man who may have called for her by
name to dance in his banquets, had never passed on more than admiration
for one of his country's prominent artists.
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