bettie page blog

This, from the The Times-Picayune April 08, 2009 8:30AM:

Long before stripper poles cropped up on every corner, Bourbon Street in the 1940s and '50s was a swanky place. Men in dinner jackets and neckties and women in party dresses and white gloves would fill the smoky dens of the 500 Club, the Sho-Bar, the Casino Royale and the Poodle's Patio.

Beauties with exotic names -- Wild Cherry, Lilly Christine the Cat Girl, Evangeline the Oyster Girl, Alouette Leblanc the Tassel Twirler -- would lure in customers with elaborate acts, popping out of oyster shells or spinning pistols. The shows often included contortionists, magicians and acrobats, all backed up by live jazz bands.

Ms. LeBlanc was a featured dancer in the 1995 film "Naughty New Orleans," about a young girl who works as a stripper in a New Orleans nightclub.

She was among the former dancers featured in a panel discussion presented by Rick Delaup (filmmaker and producer of "Bustout Burlesque" in New Orleans) in 2002 at the Shim Sham club, where a revival of burlesque was under way.

Speaking on tape, dancer Ms. LeBlanc was blunt: "What killed burlesque was the drugs, " she said. "The first club owner who convinced the first drugged-out bimbo to get up and dance for nothing but tips -- that was the end of burlesque."

Peggy Scott-Laborde's 1993 documentary "Bourbon Street: The Neon Strip" explored the checkered history of Bourbon, with special attention paid to the bustling burlesque era of the 1920s through 1960s.

"She could do things with a tassle like no one else could, " former club owner Frank Caracci recalled admiringly of his star stripper Ms. LeBlanc.

In a 1991 Times-Picayune story headlined "Recalling the flavor of old Bourbon," staff writer Frank Gagnard noted that Ms. LeBlanc was among the regulars at the 500 Club and "performed in a chaste costume resembling a one-piece black bathing suit."

He went on to write: "Burlesque eventually went the way of vaudeville and the brontosaurus, being replaced on Bourbon Street by the T-shirt and eggroll dispensers. There are a few faded hold-outs, but the glory days are gone. There probably will be no more stories like the one about the resourceful transvestite revue in which the drag queens went out on strike one night and were replaced by real females - who nevertheless were represented to the customers as female impersonators.

That was Bourbon Street."

Dixie Evans encountered a few rats in the early 1950s, but not all of them were customers. Some were actual rodents.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES has a great profile of Dixie Evans, chronicling her burlesque career, the history of the Exotic World Museum and the Exotic Dancers League of America, ending with a nod to the ne0-burlesque movement and the role the Burlesque Hall of Fame has had in maintaining the past and envigorating the present.

Virginia may be for lovers, but is it too shy for burlesque?

A profile of UK performer Roxy Velvet in the University of York's student paper/website, NOUSE.

Bettie Page YouTube videos inspires Bryn Mawr students to start their own burlesque troupes and create a theater, according to The Bi-College News Online.

A profile of Glasgow's Club Noir (with video).

The Canberra Times talks to "The Burlesque Hour".

Miss Marion is an accomplished visual artist and burlesque performer showing her paintings and some skin in Paris.

The Guardian discusses The Ministry of Burlesque.


Dr. Sketchy's Art Club from nick lucchesi on Vimeo.

Video of St. Louis' Dr. Sketchy's Art Club.

Photos and video of the Dallas Burlesque Festival.

Headline: Burlesque Blossoms as Economy Crumbles.



More MINSKY'S links:
Variety
LA Weekly
Los Angeles Downtown News
Pasadena Star-News
Santa Monica Mirror
Ventura County Star

Check out the SEX WORKERS ART SHOW, currently featuring burlesque luminaries Simone De La Getto, Jo Weldon, World Famous "BOB"

Interesting interview with Toronto performer Sasha Von Bon Bon in the PINK TRIANGLE PRESS.

AMISH BURLESQUE: "The opening number is a striptease where the only thing removed is a sock in about five minutes," says producer Marty Schiff... READ MORE

Cool interview with Oxford performer Tempest Rose by the OXFORD MAIL.

EXAMINER review of MINKSY'S, a musical set in the world of early Burlesque. Previewing in Los Angeles, the show is bound for Broadway. Good ol' Wikipedia fills in the history of the show, which was developed from the 1968 feature, THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S, which, in turn, was inspired by true events. LA OBSERVED spotlights the musical as well. NPR talked to George Wendt, one of the stars of the show.

The Los Angeles Times profiles Betty Rowland, an original 'Minsky's' girl. The former burlesque dancer, 93, describes a tough but rewarding experience performing during the Depression.

Australian Stage interviews Ali McGregor about the connections between stand-up comedy, burlesque, cabaret and opera.

"Teasy Does It" -- an article in NZ Herald News about New Zealand's Hootchy Kootchy Girls expands into a general article about the development of neo-burlesque.

Daily Free Press profile of the Boston Baby Dolls.

A BroadwayWorld.com article on Denver's Black Box Burlesque: For the first time since the 1930's a theatre is being built specifically to house burlesque, headed up by Reyna Von Vett of last fall's acclaimed Leadville or Bust.

NY Daily News introduces us to Stiletto Spy School.

Des McAnuff explains why there are now burlesque dancers in his reinvention/revival of GUYS AND DOLLS, currently on Broadway. "Miss Adelaide keeps telling us that she has a chronic cold because of her skin exposure," McAnuff laughs, "and that makes a lot more sense if she's a burlesque stripper than a nightclub dancer."

Grand Rapids performer, the hula-hooping burlesque dancer named "Vivacious Miss Audacious", is interviewed by her father's (uncomfortable) co-worker.

Review of the burlesque-themed "mocumentary" TUMBLING AFTER.

TIMES ONLINE uncovers DIY Lingerie.

A thoughtful post on the meaning of burlesque. Worth the READ. (Sammy Snapshot's Thoughts & Images blog)

Dita vs. The Pussycat Dolls:

"It drives me crazy when the media or groups like the Pussycat Dolls try to sanitize and take away the sexual and nudity aspects of burlesque."

She added: "I'm sorry, but if you're not up there taking your clothes off and dancing around in pasties and a G-string, it's not burlesque.

"It can be cabaret, or it can be cute and funny and retro-showgirly, but it's not burlesque. They were strippers, and that's the way it was."

...he didn't want 'boas, strippers, and (expletive)' in his neighborhood... - Boston Babydolls vs. City Hall!

Seattle Weekly's 26 pic slideshow of Moisture Fest Burlesque...

Denver Post's slideshow from the New Denver Civic's "Leadville Or Bust" and "Black Box Burlesque."

Video of Los Angeles' Burlesque Bingo at the Key Club, on LA Weekly's site.