Goddess Nephythys, from a wall of King Tut’s Tomb. Zita Johann from The Mummy and Myrna Loy from Manhattan Melodrama wore dresses styled after Nephythys as did thousands of others.
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After a systematic search of the Valley of the Kings, the archeologist, Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun on November 4, 1922. The exotic wealth of the find sparked a great change in both women's fashion and what nightmares might have been uncovered after 3500 years.
5,398 items were found in the tomb, including a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones, trumpets, a lotus chalice, food, wine, sandals, fresh linen underwear, and maybe even a curse!
For many years, rumors of the "curse of the pharaohs” persisted, emphasizing the early death of some of those who had entered the tomb. The first of the mysterious deaths was that of Lord Carnarvon the financial backer of the search. He had been bitten by a mosquito, and later slashed the bite accidentally while shaving. It became infected and blood poisoning resulted. Colonel Aubrey Herbert, Carnarvon's half-brother, became nearly blind and died on September 26, 1923 also from blood poisoning related to a dental procedure. Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey of Egypt died July 10, 1923: shot dead by his wife. However, a study showed that of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years. All the others lived many years later, including Howard Carter, who died of lymphoma in 1939 at the age of 64.
Perhaps the popularity of this curse led John Balderston to revise Nina Wilcox Putnam’s story about a magician preserved by nitrates to be an Egyptian priest murdering for love in 1932’s The Mummy. Putnam, besides being a writer was an accountant credited with devising the first 1040 form – a far longer lasting curse than the Mummy’s.
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