Episode 36: Kaloma

Kaloma was a photogravure produced in 1914 by the Pastime Novelty Company, a company once located at 1313 Broadway in New York. We don’t know who the photographer was and we don’t know who the lovely lady who modeled for the photograph either.

We do know that in the same year, a composer named Johann Schmid (aka Giré Goulineaux) wrote a Hesitation Waltz called Kaloma inspired by the famous photograph. He even put a retouched version on the cover of the sheet music in case there was any confusion as to why he chose the name. His publishing company was right down the street from the company who produced the Kaloma photogravures.

Kaloma was also featured on the cover of I Married Wyatt Earp, published in 1976. The book was later discovered to be a complete fabrication. However, by the time it was discredited, many people had already started believing that the woman on the cover of the book was Josephine Earp, leading to high sales prices of Kaloma during the 1980s and 1990s.

While the identity of the woman pictured in thisi famous image is lost to time, there is a very good theory that she is silent film star Virginia Pearson. What do you think… is she the mysterious Kaloma?

Finally, here is the link to the mysterious Kybele Hotel, located in the heart of Istanbul.