Okimonos Netsukes du Japon des XVIII et XIX siecles.Arts

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Question: What virtue do you admire most? Answer: Intellectual honesty. Question: What is the ideal result of education? ”11 In that same letter, however, she acknowledged to Daisy that at first she had found it alien to be on the vaudeville stage with trained animals, dancers, and acrobats. Thus Helen, like this reader, agreed that certain aspects of the work in vaudeville were, indeed, somewhat crass and commercial. Nonetheless, she chose to remain in vaudeville between 1920 and 1924. Why did she do so?

In her description of the mature Helen Keller who was her contemporary, Pitrois speaks of Helen’s many contributions to society, including a massive correspondence with numerous friends and even strangers who needed her advice on issues related to disability. It is only in the last four pages of the sixty-one-page manuscript that Pitrois had any ethical disagreements with, any real criticism of, her subject. A single choice on the part of Helen Keller tarnished her reputation for Pitrois and numerous other Europeans: it was her decision to allow herself to be drawn to the vaudeville stage and to perform with Anne Sullivan.

Keller, however, had delighted in the opportunity to perform in a blond wig and white makeup and, above all, to meet stars like Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, who was one of her heroes. When the opportunity to perform in vaudeville presented itself, Keller didn’t hesitate. Always an extrovert, she loved the adventure of vaudeville and the people that it brought into her life. “I found the world of vaudeville much more amusing than the world I had always lived in, and I liked it.