Burlesque! To taunt, tantalize & tease....
The Art and the Science of the infamous Strip-tease, is aimed, not at our brains, not at our hearts or even at our stomachs, but rather...a little bit south of all three.
Over the last 20 years, Burlesque has been enjoying a grand resurgence in popularity, which leads me to wonder if perhaps we, as a society, are growing tired of the "in your face” sexuality that seems to saturate today’s media and entertainment. Perhaps, we just want a little mystery, a little provocation, a little tease. Burlesque is not about what you actually see as the performer removes piece after piece of clothing, but rather what you might see, or wondering what’s still hiding beneath those scanty costumes. Burlesque teases not just the eyes, but also the imagination.
Throughout the ages, women have enjoyed bewitching and enchanting men with their beauty and their sexuality and men have loved watching them in return. Perhaps one of the greatest questions man has pondered since the dawn of time has been, what’s under those clothes she’s wearing? For centuries women were considered the weaker sex, so using their feminine wiles to ensnare and ultimately conquer their male counterparts was a wise and wily strategy to get women exactly what they wanted. The power to provoke, to delight and to incite desire, was what ensured the Delilahs, the Bathshebas and the Jezebels of ancient times their place in the history books.
One of the most famous temptresses of Biblical times, Salome, provoked and inflamed King Herod with her "Dance of the Seven Veils". The removal of each veil displayed more and more of her feminine charms until she was as naked as Eve was before him. All this, to have the head of John the Baptist brought to her, on a silver platter. Powerful stuff, wouldn't you say?
The origins of striptease as a performance art are widely disputed and various dates and occasions have been given for its birth from ancient Babylonia to twentieth century America. The term 'striptease' was first recorded in 1938, but the term 'stripping', in the sense of women removing clothing to sexually excite men, seems to go back at least 400 years. Although the Bible records Salome's erotic dance before the king, the first mention of her removing seven veils occurs in Oscar Wilde's scandalous 1893 play “Salome”, which many have claimed as the origin and inspiration of modern striptease. After Wilde's opus and Richard Strauss's 1905 operatic version of the play, the erotic 'dance of the seven veils', became a standard routine for dancers in opera, vaudeville, film and burlesque. A famous early practitioner, Maud Allan, gave a private performance of the dance to King Edward VII in 1907.
Modern burlesque can trace its roots to ballet in Europe during the Romantic period of the 1800s. Audiences – especially MALE audiences – were captivated by this newly free form of feminine expression. Ballerinas could leap and twirl and spread their legs across the stage in costumes that grew scantier and scantier as the years progressed.
When Mimi Francisque Hutin became the first solo ballerina to cross the ocean to New York City in 1827, controversy followed hard in her wake. Costumed in semi-transparent Grecian robes, when she spun and twirled, her skirts rose and rose and rose, revealing first her tight-clad calves, then her knees, then her thighs and finally her hips. In those days, only prostitutes could be expected to reveal their ankles, let alone their thighs and hips! Needless to say, Ms. Hutin’s show was a sold out success.
Other bawdy and brazen acts soon stepped in to sate America’s new found hunger for fleshy feminine spectacle. Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes arrived in 1869 and spent the next 20 years touring the country. Thompson sung bawdy ballads to get the audience riled up while the buxom ladies posed as classical goddesses, spicing up their act by displaying their ruffly drawers to the cheering crowds. True burlesque, American-style, had been born!
The first respectable burlesque show in America was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company. It was the creation of producer Michael B. Leavitt who often substituted female performers for male roles in his variety acts because it was an excuse for a woman to appear in long coats and tights with her legs scandalously displayed up to her hip. Another popular performance involved a bevy of beauties painted white and wearing figure hugging tights, posing in a tableau as living Greek statues. As long as the ladies held still and did not shimmy or dance, their near nudity was considered art. Leavitt's shows toured the US for nearly a decade to wild acclaim and very respectable profits.
Burlesque was the natural consort to Vaudeville, another hugely popular form of entertainment in the early 1900s. Vaudeville performers worked a strictly standardized touring circuit called a “Wheel.”. Each wheel of shows was contracted for a given number of performances on a predetermined tour of specific cities. Each show was then replaced another show and was in turn replaced by a successor. The shows rotated like the spokes of a wheel, hence the name. The wheels ensured that the show would always go on, but never encouraged much innovation or improvisation. Vaudeville was also fun for they whole family... or else. Performers who violated the rules on language or decency would find themselves fined or banned by managers. In Seattle, our own Moore Theatre still has "Legitimate Theatre" painted above its rear entrance to reassure patrons that nothing salacious is on display within. Columbia City Theater, Seattle's other original Vaudeville Theater was also known at the time as a "family entertainment" establishment. The Burlesque shows that accompanied the Vaudeville were run on the same wheel system and were kept completely clean – there were pretty ladies on display, dancing, but the clothes were modest, if flashy, and, most importantly, always stayed firmly in place over the women’s bodies.
Probably the most notorious Burlesque impressarios of the early 20th Century were the infamous Minsky Brothers of New York City. The Minsky’s would usher in the golden era of burlesque and help it evolve into the naughty, nearly naked adult entertainment we know today. Eldest brother Abe launched the family business in 1908 with a Lower East side nickelodeon showing racy films. His father then bought the National Winter Garden theater in the hopes his boys would start a respectable motion picture business. Sadly for Papa Minsky, the small theater’s awkward location on the 6th floor made it no match for the larger legitimate cinema chains. Hoping to bring in the crowds, the Minsky brothers tried hiring Vaudeville acts but could not afford any of the better performers. Then the enterprising Minskys considered Burlesque. Clean, wheel sanctioned Burlesque acts were cheaper than Vaudeville, and the wheels supplied a new show every week, complete with cast, costumes and scenery. However, the enterprising Minsky’s decided to try something a little spicier (and a little more economical) to entice their clientele to climb up six flights of stairs to their theater and began producing their own Burlesque shows.
Brother Billy realized that success in burlesque depended on how the girls were featured. Abe, who had been to Paris and seen the Follies Bergere and Moulin Rouge, suggested importing one of their trademarks: a runway to bring the girls out into the audience. The theater was reconfigured, and the Minskys were the first to feature a runway in the United States. Billy had the sign out front changed to "Burlesque As You Like It – Not a Family Show," and the Minskys were on their way!
Despite their great commercial success over the next 30 years, which included expansion into a posh new theater on Broadway and six theaters in other large east coast cities, the Minsky’s burlesque theaters attracted their fair share of legal attention from the authorities on behalf of a scandalized public.
The Minskys were raided for the first time in 1917 when Mae Dix absent-mindedly began removing her costume before she reached the wings. When the crowd cheered, Dix returned to the stage to continue removing her clothing to wild applause. Billy ordered the "accident" repeated every night. Thus began an endless cycle: to keep their license, the Minskys had to keep their shows clean, but to keep drawing customers they had to be risqué. Whenever they went too far, they were raided.
With burlesque thriving in New York (there were now 14 burlesque theaters, including Minsky's rivals), competition was fierce. Each year, various license commissioners issued restrictions to keep burlesque from pushing the limits. But convictions were rare, so theater managers saw no need to tone down their shows. In 1935, irate citizens' groups began calling for action against burlesque. The city's license commissioner tried to revoke Minsky's license but the State Court of Appeals ruled that he did not have grounds without a criminal conviction. Finally, in April, 1937, a stripper at Abe Minsky's New Gotham Theater in Harlem was spotted working without a G-string. The ensuing raid led to the demise not only of Minsky burlesque, but of all burlesque in New York. The conviction allowed Moss to revoke Abe's license and refuse to renew all of the other burlesque licenses in New York. After several appeals, the Minskys and their rivals were allowed to reopen only if they adhered to new rules that forbade strippers. Business under the new code was so bad that many New York burlesque theaters closed their doors for good. Eventually even the word "burlesque" was banned from public use and, soon after, the Minsky name itself, since the two were synonymous. With that final blow, Depression era style burlesque and the Minskys were finished in New York.
So now that I’ve told you a bit about the early history of burlesque performance, let’s get a little up close and personal with some of the classic ladies of the tassel.
What Makes a Real Queen of Burlesque? According to Shawna St. Claire, a founding member of the "Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society,"
"A Real Burlesque queen must have the experience of working the burlesque circuits. She would have learned the art of removing her costume, inch by inch, slowly and sensuously, with smoothness and grace. She never lost a beat of the music, nor forgot for even a moment that she must appear seductive and completely feminine from every angle to every viewers eye. She had to make every little movement count. Some dancers had an aloof style and never seemed to notice the audience. Other dancers were the personality type and had an intimate rapport with the audience. Those women could make every audience member feel she was performing just for them. But, she was always the lady. Her selection of music and wardrobe may have varied widely, but she was always the lady. The burlesque queen did her act well if she had been sexy but not vulgar, seductive but not lewd, pleasing but not offensive. She must be a real temptress, with class. "Tease" was the real name of the game."
The first name that comes to most people’s minds when Burlesque is mentioned is Gypsy Rose Lee. Made even more famous by the Broadway musical “Gypsy” based on her life, she epitomized class and grace as a performer. Not a single photo exists of Lee completely in the nude. If she had a "Gimmick" it was that audiences never witnessed any actual nudity. Usually she would duck behind the curtain so quickly after her final reveal to allow her audience’s minds to run wild about what they might have just seen. From the Book "Lady of Burlesque" by Robert Strom, Gypsy is quoted as saying "You don't have to be naked to look naked. You just have to "Think" naked."
Many performers lay claim to inventing the fan dance, however one would have to give credit to Sally Rand for the finest execution of the art form. On one occasion, Rand was warned that there were censors in the audience ready to shut down the theater if she showed too much skin. She performed her dance clad in a pair of ridiculous longjohns to thunderous applause.
One of the great Burlesque stars of the 1940 and 50s, The regal Lily St. Cyr often performed a Reverse strip, giving her audiences a sneak peek through the key of a woman getting dressed rather than taking it off. She received further notoriety for wearing 3 G-Strings: a top one in frilly black chiffon, a basic black one in the middle and a flesh toned net one for the last. One of St. Cyr's most popular routines was "The Flying G-String" in which her last undergarment was attached to a piece of invisible stage wire which pulled the g-string away just as the stage lights blacked out.
Blaze Starr and Tempest Storm were two performers of the 1950's that appealed to those with a taste for the top heavy. Starr famously took out an insurance policy for her attributes in the amount of 1 million dollars. Tempest Storm did not have any special gimmick or attraction to her other than her spectacularly large breasts, which were quite impressive in a pre-silicone era. Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis called her ample bosom “the two biggest props in Hollywood.” Her fame grew to equal her cleavage and Storm became the first Burlesque performer to ever play Carnegie Hall.
Burlesque had its heyday in the 1950's but unfortunately it's success proved to be it's downfall. It's popularity required more and more performers, some less talented then others. The gimmicks used by class acts like Starr and St. Cyr fell into disuse in favor of simply stripping off the dress. Sadly, audiences no longer had the patience to enjoy the tease. Purchasing naughty picture or blue movies of pinups like the famous Bettie Page or girlie mags such as Playboy was easier than visiting a burlesque club. And, as time went on and morays changed, strip clubs and porn theaters made the art of the tease look quaint and tame.
But a curious thing happened to Burlesque on its way to the mists of history – a resurgence of interest in the old-fashioned art of the tease began to grow. My first exposure to the New Burlesque was in New York City in the late 90's and early 2000's. Burlesque nouveau performers like the World Famous Bob, who could mix a mean martini using only her ample bosom, and the gloriously full figured Dirty Martini began to grace the stages at cabarets and small theaters around the city, unafraid to show their generous curves clad only in a sparkling g-string and glorious pasties. I personally had the great fortune of seeing a show or two at the Slipper Room, made famous again by the popular television show Mad Men.
Here in Seattle a small but determined group of women were embracing and redefining burlesque performance on their own terms. One important local burly pioneer is Tamara the Trapeze Lady who produced her first girlie show in 1995 with, "The Fallen Women Follies", an anything goes experimental stage for the stripper and sex worker community. Proceeds from the popular show were donated to women’s charitable organizations and the shows boasted everything from Belly Dance and Classical Violin to an actor in a "Barney the Dinosaur" costume rapping about tipping etiquette in strip clubs. From 2001 to 2005, Tamara produced and hosted "Burlesque Behind The Pink Door" at the popular Seattle restaurant of the same name. Although Tamara moved on in 2005, the show continues every Saturday night to this day. In May of 2006, after more than ten years of wildly successful shows, the newly renovated Columbia City Theater became the home of Tamara's "Columbia City Cabaret” - a marvelous vaudeville style variety show with a little naughty kick.
Burlesque troupes began popping up all over Seattle like rhinestones on a g-string! Some of the most well known troupes of the last dozen years include Gun Street Girls, Burning Hearts Burlesque, Cabaret Atomique, Burly-Q: a Queer Cabaret, The Von Foxies, Sinner Saint Burlesque and the Atomic Bombshells who regularly headline the Triple Door. Well known local performers with colorful stage names like Sugar La Vie, Bella Baretta, Babette La Fave, Inga Ingenue, Jezebel Vandersnatch, Miss Kitty Baby, Goody Goody, Fleur du Mal, the Emerald Dollies, Madisun Avenue, Indigo Blue, Violette Von Schpankitt, Paula the Swedish Housewife, Ivana Weiner, Jacqueline Hyde, Pidgeon Von Tramp & Ella Titsgerald and many, many more, can be found proudly bumping, grinding, twirling and teasing on stages around the Sound.
Today’s burlesque is now proudly produced by and for the women who perform it. Misogyny, sexism and disrespect have no place in modern striptease. In fact, women often outnumber men in the audience at many burlesque performances around town. For many performers, making elaborate layered costumes covered in fringe, feathers, and rhinestones and creating knockout pasties for the perfect punchline or elegant effect has replaced quilting and knitting. On a deeper level, burlesque can be an incredibly empowering experience for both the women on the stage and in the audience as they see REAL women of all shapes, sizes, colors and orientations portrayed as sexy, powerful and desirable. Even fellas can get into the act with boylesque performances! Modern burlesque welcomes everyone to the stage and to the audience, with a wink and smile!
And now, a little bit about me, your lovely hostess Miss Trixie Lane, the Queen of Shame. I moved to Seattle from New York City in 2001 and began my burlesque career just 3 months after I arrived. At first, I was known as the "Texas Tart” and my gimmick was to emphasize my Lone Star background with a lot of country charm. But as I slowly developed my craft, my cowgirl style gave way to performing bawdy bump n grind in elegant formal gowns with big retro styled hair and a giant fluffy boa. My motto: go big or go home! When a family member back in Texas discovered I was performing burlesque, she bestowed upon me the title of "Queen of Shame", a stage name I’ve proudly borne ever since! After a fabulous 8 year run of performing Burlesque in Seattle, I retired my tassels and bequeathed my favorite acts, costumes and props to several of my co-performers and friends. Miss Kitty Baby and Tamara the Trapeze Lady are still performing these legacy acts to great acclaim.
Now, like any good prima ballerina of a certain age, I have opened my own school of dance: The Kindergarten of Burlesque. The school’s unusual name comes from its equally unconventional location: in the former kindergarten room of a late 1950's elementary school that’s been converted into artists’ studios. Our amazing kindergarten studio is also home to two other unique, retro-themed businesses,
Old School Pin Ups and Seattle Retro Photography, which I run with my husband, premiere pin up photographer Lance Wagner. It’s a heck of a job bringing mid-century modern glamour and style to the people of Seattle and beyond, but somebody’s gotta do it!
My next Kindergarten of Burlesque class begins March 14th. The class includes five nights of lessons at our studio during which we prepare you to perform in two recital shows at the intimate Jewel Box Theatre inside the Rendezvous Bar & Grill. At the KOB, our students learn everything from developing a burlesque persona, to costuming, pastie making, dance movement and music selection. Burlesque is a thrill and applause is addictive. It is an incredible rush and is guaranteed to enhance any woman's sense of self and self-esteem.
If performing in public isn’t quite your style, you may still be interested in posing like a pin up. With 30 years experience in the business, Lance and I pride ourselves on producing not only gorgeous photographs but also giving our clients a fantastic, empowering experience. At Old School Pin Ups or Seattle Retro Photography, we provide hair, make up, and even wardrobe. My husband and partner Lance Wagner, uses vintage style- hot lights and individually lights each pose. Lance directs and guides you through the entire shoot, to ensure each image is beautifully crafted, showing you at your very best. Our sets, including the Bachelor Pad, the Tiki Room, the Exotic Oriental Bar or the Fluffy Pink Boudoir and seamless backgrounds serve as a sexy backdrop for your classic all American Pin Up photos. Yes, we photograph guys as well as we do women! Not in Pin Up style of course, but we sure can show you how to be retro cool. Everyone, including: Couples, Pregnant Couples, Families & Children enjoy looking Vintage and adorable!
I want to thank my many resources for this "Speech" Most especially to my friend and editor Lynn Rosskamp (owner of Pingi Hats). She edited the many words I poured into her inbox in a short amount of time and really gave me the confidence to deliver this speech before the audience at the Pacific Science Center on Feb. 10th 2011. I also wish to thank my lovely alumni of the Kindergarten of Burlesque that performed that night or helped out by working the audience, giving mini lessons or talking about their experiences and what Burly-Q has done for their self esteem and confidence levels. Thank you- Jane Doe, Fleur Du Mal, Bangin Bootie, B.B. Gunns. Those who performed include; Ella Titsgerald, Boom Boom L'Roux, Madisun Avenue and Mr. Vincent Drambuie, internationally famous Burlesque Emcee, for hosting our show.
Many thanks to Sara and Jesse and Jenny for having us at the Pacific Science Center, for their annual "Sultry Science Night", it was a genuine honor to be asked to do this. Resources:
Wiki Pedia-
