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In an interview, ( www.litnet.co.za/skrywersonderhoud-carel...ewe-van-ben-viljoen/ ) Carel van der Merwe indicated the lovers met in 1899:
"The disclosure at the end of 1903 of his extramarital relationship with May Belfort did a lot of damage to his reputation in the then largely Calvinist Boer community, as did his participation in the Boer War Spectacle at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. Finally, his emigration to the USA in 1904 also removed him from the public eye.... I was surprised at how serious Ben's extramarital affair with brunette Irish variety artist May Belfort really was. It wasn't just a short-lived flirtation, but a long relationship that changed the course of Ben's life. When Ben met her in Johannesburg in early 1899, May was already a woman with a reputation for her daring vaudeville shows on the stages of London and Paris' variety theaters and nightclubs. In Paris, she performed regularly in the nightclub Le Cabaret des Décadents... she then sang in a meowing voice: "I've got a pussy cat, I'm very fond of it." The ambiguous meaning of this did not escape her appreciative male audience. Her private life was notorious even in these decadent circles and among her bedfellows were also numerous women... You can hardly imagine a more unlikely relationship - the Boer General and the bisexual foreign stage artist."

Here is a translated version of the text from the website referenced above; I hope this works:

Thank you Rob and Sturgy,

It is good to read an appraisal free from the bias of the late nineteenth-century English-speaking press.
At the time, Viljoen's side of the story was completely drowned out by those who did not want anything to detract from the jingoistic headline "Boer General routed by an English actress".

Postscript.
May Belfort's possessions were destroyed when her home was burnt to the ground. All her stage costumes, press clippings, programs, and mementoes of a life in the theatre were lost to the flames.
I would love to know how Viljoen's tunic button avoided the same fate.

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Here are a few of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters and lithographs depicting May Belfort (all c. 1895).











Also the cover of The Music Hall and Theatre Review, for 27 July 1906.


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Neville, many thanks for turning a simple uniform button into a great story. Even during the war Ben Viljoen was a fresh breath of air among his largely humourless, bible bashing, monogamous and philoprogenitive colleagues. Consequently, and with due respect to Boer women of the day, I think we should show a certain level of sympathy and understanding for Ben wanting to hook up with a damsel with the qualities and looks of Miss Belfort. Attached a picture of him with a twinkle in his eye, taken on the vessel on the way to captivity in St. Helena.

I forgot I had this one.

The quality of the print isn't brilliant, but it is still good to see a photograph of Viljoen in the field. Taken at Pont Drift, on the Tugela.




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