American burlesque
Encyclopedia
American Burlesque is a genre of variety show. Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 and minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

s, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy (lewd jokes) and female striptease
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...

. By the early 20th century, burlesque in America was presented as a populist blend of satire, performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

, music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 and adult entertainment
Sex industry
The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...

, featuring striptease and broad comedy acts.

The entertainment was presented often in cabarets and clubs, as well as music halls and theatres. Performers, usually female, often created elaborate tableaux with lush, colorful costumes, mood-appropriate music, and dramatic lighting; novelty acts, such as fire breathing
Fire breathing
Fire breathing is the act of creating a fireball by breathing a fine mist of fuel over an open flame. Proper technique and the correct fuel create the illusion of danger to enhance the novelty of fire breathing, while reducing the risk to health and safety...

 or contortion
Contortion
thumb|upright|Contortionist performingContortion is an unusual form of physical display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body. Contortion is often part of acrobatics and circus acts...

ists, might be added to enhance the impact of their performance. The genre traditionally encompassed a variety of acts: in addition to the striptease artistes, there was some combination of chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

 singers, comedians, mime artist
Mime artist
A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...

s, and dancing girls, all delivered in a satiric style with a saucy edge. The striptease element of burlesque became subject to extensive local legislation, leading to a theatrical form that titillated without falling foul of censors.

Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by attempting to recreate the spirit of burlesque in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s, and it inspired a 2010 musical film, Burlesque
Burlesque (film)
Burlesque is a 2010 musical film directed and written by Steven Antin and starring Christina Aguilera and Cher. The film was released on November 24, 2010 in North America....

, starring Christina Aguilara and Cher.

Literary and theatrical origins

The term "burlesque" more generally means a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. Burlesque in literature and in theatre through the 19th century was intentionally ridiculous in that it imitated several styles and combined imitations of certain authors and artists with absurd descriptions. Burlesque depended on the reader's (or listener's) knowledge of the subject to make its intended effect, and a high degree of literacy was taken for granted.

Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as "travesty" or "extravaganza
Extravaganza
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus, revue, variety, vaudeville and mime...

", was popular in London theatres between the 1830s and the 1890s. It took the form of musical theatre parody
Parody music
Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...

 in which a well-known opera, play or ballet was adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical play, often risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and quoting or pastiching
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...

 text or music from the original work. The comedy often stemmed from the incongruity and absurdity of the classical subjects, with realistic historical dress and settings, being juxtaposed with the modern activities portrayed by the actors. The dialogue was generally written in rhyming couplets, liberally peppered with bad pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

s. A typical example from a burlesque of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

: Macbeth and Banquo enter under an umbrella, and the witches greet them with "Hail! hail! hail!" Macbeth asks Banquo, "What mean these salutations, noble thane?" and is told, "These showers of 'Hail' anticipate your 'reign'". A staple of theatrical burlesque was the display of attractive women in travesty roles
Breeches role
A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...

, dressed in tights to show off their legs, but the plays themselves were seldom more than modestly risqué.

Burlesque in America


There were three main influences on American burlesque in its early years: Victorian burlesque, "leg shows" and minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

s. British-style burlesques had been successfully presented in New York as early as the 1840s. They achieved wide popularity with productions by Lydia Thompson
Lydia Thompson
Lydia Thompson, born Eliza Hodges Thompson , was an English dancer, actress and theatrical producer....

 and her troupe, the British Blondes, who first appeared in the United States in 1868. "Leg" shows, such as the musical extravaganza The Black Crook
The Black Crook
The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras , an American playwright...

(1866), became popular around the same time. The influence of the minstrel show soon followed; one of the first American burlesque troupes was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, created in 1870 by Michael B. Leavitt
Michael B. Leavitt
Micheal B. Leavitt was an American theater entrepreneur, manager, and producer. He entered show business as a blackface minstrel show singer. By the 1860s, Leavitt had made the leap to management and, following the precedent set by others, was touring variety show troupes in rural areas, billing...

, who had earlier feminized the minstrel show with his group Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels
Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels
Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels was a blackface minstrel troupe composed completely of women. M. B. Leavitt founded the company in 1870. Unlike mainstream minstrelsy at the time, Leavitt's cast was entirely made up of women, whose primary role was to showcase their scantily clad bodies and tights,...

. American burlesque rapidly adopted the minstrel show's tripartite structure: part one was composed of songs and dances rendered by a female company, interspersed with low comedy from male comedians. Part two featured various short specialties and olios
Olio (musical number)
An olio is a Vaudeville number, short dance or song performed as musical encore after the performance of a dramatic play. It can also be defined as a collection of various artistic or literary works or musical pieces used between acts in a burlesque or minstrel show. This was common on showboats in...

 in which the women did not appear. The show's finish was a grand finale. Sometimes the entertainment was followed by a boxing or wrestling match.

Originally, burlesque performances included comic sketches lampooning
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

es and high art, such as opera, Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 drama, and classical ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

. The genre developed alongside vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and ran on competing circuits. Possibly due to historical social tensions
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....

 between the upper classes and lower classes of society, much of the humor and entertainment of later American burlesque focused on lowbrow
Low culture
Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures....

 and ribald
Ribaldry
Ribaldry is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross indecency. It is also referred to as "bawdiness", "gaminess" or "bawdry"....

 subjects.

By the 1880s, the four distinguishing characteristics of American burlesque had evolved:
  • Minimal costuming, often focusing on the female form.
  • Sexually suggestive dialogue, dance, plotlines and staging.
  • Quick-witted humor laced with puns, but lacking complexity.
  • Short routines or sketches with minimal plot cohesion across a show.


The artist and writer Jerome Myers
Jerome Myers
Jerome Myers was a U.S. artist and writer. Born in Petersburg, Virginia and raised in Philadelphia, Trenton and Baltimore, he spent his adult life in New York City. Jerome worked briefly as an actor and scene painter, then studied art at Cooper Union and the Art Students League where his main...

 gave a view of burlesque as observed in the working class neighborhoods of New York in the early years of the 1900s:
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 (who starred in the 1915 film Burlesque on Carmen
Burlesque on Carmen
Burlesque on Carmen is Charlie Chaplin's thirteenth film for Essanay Films. It was released in 1915 and then later recut into a different version in 1916. Charlie Chaplin played Darn Hosiery and Edna Purviance played Carmen. Carmen was very popular at this time and one of the reasons Chaplin...

) noted in 1910: "Chicago ... had a fierce pioneer gaiety that enlivened the senses, yet underlying it throbbed masculine loneliness. Counteracting this somatic ailment was a national distraction known as the burlesque show, consisting of a coterie of rough-and-tumble comedians supported by twenty or more chorus girls. Some were pretty, others shopworn. Some of the comedians were funny, most of the shows were smutty harem comedies – coarse and cynical affairs".

By the early 20th century, there were two national circuits of burlesque shows, as well as resident companies in New York, such as Minsky's
Minsky's Burlesque
Minsky's Burlesque refers to the brand of American burlesque presented by four sons of Louis and Ethel Minksy: Abraham 'Abe' Bennett Minsky , Michael William 'Billy' Minsky , Herbert Kay Minsky , and Morton Minsky . They started in 1912 and ended in 1937 in New York City...

 at the Winter Garden. The uninhibited atmosphere of burlesque establishments owed much to the free flow of alcoholic liquor, and the enforcement of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

 was a serious blow. The popular burlesque show of this period eventually evolved into the striptease
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...

 which became the dominant ingredient of burlesque by the 1930s. At first soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...

s showed off their figures while singing and dancing; some were less active but compensated by appearing in elaborate stage costumes. Exotic "cooch" dances (similar to bellydancing) were brought in, ostensibly Syrian in origin. Strippers gradually supplanted the singing and dancing soubrettes; by 1932 there were at least 150 strip principals in the US. The transition from traditional burlesque to striptease is depicted in the film The Night They Raided Minsky's
The Night They Raided Minsky's
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a 1968 musical comedy film directed by William Friedkin and produced by Norman Lear. It is a fictional account of the invention of the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque in 1925...

(1968).

By the late 1930s, a social crackdown on burlesque shows began their gradual downfall. The shows had slowly changed from ensemble ribald variety performances, to simple performances focusing mostly on the striptease. In New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia clamped down on burlesque, effectively putting it out of business by the early 1940s. Burlesque lingered on elsewhere in the U.S., increasingly neglected, and by the 1970s, with nudity commonplace in theatres, American burlesque reached "its final shabby demise".

Burlesque shows on film

During its declining years and afterwards, films sought to capture the spirit of American burlesque. For example, in I'm No Angel
I'm No Angel
I'm No Angel is Mae West's third motion picture. West received sole story and screenplay credit. A young Cary Grant plays her leading man for the second time. Being Pre-Code, this was one of the few Mae West movies that was not subjected to heavy censorship...

(1933), Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....

 performed a burlesque act. The 1943 film Lady of Burlesque
Lady of Burlesque
Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee...

, although a murder-mystery, spends much of its running time depicting the back-stage life of burlesque performers.

The first motion-picture adaptation of an actual burlesque show was Hollywood Revels (1946). Much of the action was filmed in medium or long shots, because the production was staged in a theater and the camera photographed the stage from a distance. In 1947, film producer W. Merle Connell reinvented the filmed burlesque show by restaging the action especially for movies, in a studio, where he could control the camerawork, lighting and sound, providing close-ups and other studio photographic and editorial techniques. His 1951 production French Follies recreates a classic American burlesque presentation, with stage curtains, singing emcee, dances by showgirls and strippers, comic sketches and a finale featuring the star performer. The highlight is the famous burlesque routine "Crazy House", popularized earlier by Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...

. Another familiar sketch, "Slowly I Turned
Slowly I Turned
"Slowly I Turned" is the most common name associated with a popular vaudeville sketch that has also been performed in cinema and on television. Comedians Harry Steppe , Joey Faye , and Samuel Goldman each laid claim to this timeless classic of show business, also referred to as,...

" (later famous as a Three Stooges routine), was filmed for Connell's 1953 feature A Night in Hollywood.
Other producers entered the field, using color photography and even location work. Naughty New Orleans (1954) is an example of burlesque entertainment on film, equally showcasing girls and gags, although it shifts the venue from a burlesque-house stage to a popular nightclub. Photographer Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw was an American photographer and filmmaker.Klaw is best-known for operating a mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women from the 1940s to the 1960s...

 filmed a very profitable series of burlesque features, usually featuring star Pin-up girl
Pin-up girl
A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...

 Bettie Page
Bettie Page
Bettie Mae Page was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of Pinups"...

 and various lowbrow comedians (including future TV star Joe E. Ross
Joe E. Ross
Joe E. Ross was an American actor known for his trademark "Ooh! Ooh!" exclamation, which he used in many of his roles. He starred in such TV sitcoms as The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You?.-Career:...

). Page's most famous features are Striporama
Striporama
Striporama is a 1953 comedy film directed by Jerald Intrator. The film starred a number of burlesque comedy, dance and striptease acts that were popular during the early 1950s. Today, it is best known as one of the few feature films starring pin-up model Bettie Page.-Plot:A meeting of the “Council...

(1953), Varietease (1954) and Teaserama (1955). These movies, as their titles imply, were only teasing the viewer: the girls wore revealing costumes, but there was never any nudity. In the late 1950s, however, provocative films emerged, sometimes using a "nudist colony" format, and the relatively tame burlesque-show movie died out.

As early as 1954 burlesque was already considered a bygone form of entertainment; burlesque veteran Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...

 laments the passing of burlesque in the musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 Top Banana
Top Banana (musical)
Top Banana is a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft which premiered on Broadway in 1951. Comedian Phil Silvers starred, and won the Tony Award in 1952.-Production:...

. The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) celebrates classic American burlesque.

Neo-Burlesque

A new generation nostalgic for the spectacle and perceived glamour of the old times determined to bring burlesque back. This revival was pioneered independently in the early 1990s by Billie Madley's "Cinema" and later with Ami Goodheart in "Dutch Weismann's Follies" revues in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Michelle Carr's "The Velvet Hammer" troupe in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and The Shim-Shamettes in New Orleans. Inspired by old time stars like Sally Rand
Sally Rand
Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...

, Tempest Storm
Tempest Storm
Tempest Storm is the stage name of an American stripper, burlesque star, and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best known burlesque performers of the 1950s and 1960s. She is regarded as having one of the longest careers as a burlesque performer,...

, Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...

 and Lili St. Cyr
Lili St. Cyr
Lili St. Cyr , was a prominent American burlesque stripper.- Early years :She was born as Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky...

, more recent performers include Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is an American burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, author and actress.-Early life:...

, Julie Atlas Muz
Julie Atlas Muz
Julie Atlas Muz is a New York City-based performance artist, dancer, burlesque artist, stage director, and actress....

 and Agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

 groups like Cabaret Red Light
Cabaret Red Light
Cabaret Red Light is a theater group based in Philadelphia that performs vaudeville, burlesque, spoken word and puppet theater, set to original music by The Blazing Cherries. In their first season, between November 2008 and July 2009, Cabaret Red Light staged the series "The Seven Deadly Sins"...

, who have included political satire and performance art in their acts. The revival of roller derby
Roller derby
Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short matchups in which both teams designate a scoring player who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team...

 also features elements of burlesque.

Today Neo-Burlesque has taken many forms, but all have the common trait of honoring one or more of burlesque's previous incarnations, with acts including striptease, expensive costumes, bawdy humor, cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 and comedy/variety acts. There are modern burlesque performers and shows all over the world, and annual conventions such as the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival
Vancouver International Burlesque Festival
The Vancouver International Burlesque Festival is an annual event taking place over three days and featuring dancers, comedians and musicians. The festival debuted in February 2006....

 and the Miss Exotic World Pageant
Miss Exotic World Pageant
The Miss Exotic World Pageant is an annual neo-burlesque pageant and convention, and is the annual showcase event the Burlesque Hall of Fame...

 are held. In 2008, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

noted that burlesque had made a comeback in the city's art performance scene.

A 2010 musical film Burlesque
Burlesque (film)
Burlesque is a 2010 musical film directed and written by Steven Antin and starring Christina Aguilera and Cher. The film was released on November 24, 2010 in North America....

, starring Christina Aguilara and Cher, "wags its derrière, in the direction of new burlesque, but it’s strictly old school ... with a story line that had already gathered dust by ... 1933.

Notable writers, stars and agents

  • Abbott and Costello
    Abbott and Costello
    William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...

  • Jack Albertson
    Jack Albertson
    Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...

  • Robert Alda
    Robert Alda
    Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:...

  • Michael "Atters" Attree
  • Milton Berle
    Milton Berle
    Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...

  • Immodesty Blaize
    Immodesty Blaize
    Immodesty Blaize is a British burlesque dancer who performs internationally. She was crowned Reigning Queen of Burlesque in June 2007 at the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame formerly known as Exotic World.- Rise to fame :Her ethnic heritage is Croatian, Russian and Irish...

  • Jac Bowie
    Jac Bowie
    Jac Bowie is an Australian burlesque agent, promoter and producer. A former flight attendant, she gained recognition for transforming burlesque, banned in 19th century US, into the burlesque ball, a contemporary Australian event of class and sophistication.Bowie staged the first burlesque ball in...

  • Fanny Brice
    Fanny Brice
    Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...

  • Sherry Britton
    Sherry Britton
    Sherry Britton was a burlesque performer of the 1930's and early 1940's. The 5'3" Britton had an 18" waist, and was once said to have a "figure to die for"...

  • Ann Corio
    Ann Corio
    Ann Corio was a prominent American burlesque ecdysiast and actress. Unlike others in her profession, Ann Corio did not have a stage name.- Biography :...

  • Toppsy Curvey
    Toppsy Curvey
    Toppsy Curvey is a former big-bust feature dancer and pornographic video actress in the United States. Toppsy was a feature dancer in the late 1980s and by 1994 she began a brief soft-core pornographic video career...

  • Catherine D'lish
    Catherine D'lish
    Catherine D’lish is an American performance artist specializing in classical strip tease and burlesque. Elaborate costumes and decorative props are part of her show. She has been the headlining performer at multiple events in the genre including the 50th anniversary celebration of Playboy...

  • Danny Dayton
    Danny Dayton
    Danny Dayton was an American actor and television director. Beginning in the 1950s, he played many roles in film and on TV...


  • Jami Deadly
    Jami Deadly
    Jami Deadly is an American born actress, glamour model, singer, burlesque dancer, and horror host. Jami grew up in Texas where she starred in the NTTV show, Deadly Cinema. Jami has been featured in Lowrider, Rue Morgue, Skin Two, Marquis, Deadbeat Magazine, Ol' Skool Rodz, Bite Me, CK Deluxe,...

  • Millie DeLeon
    Millie DeLeon
    Millie DeLeon was the stage name of American burlesque dancer Millie Lawrence. She is listed in some records as "Elizabeth," "Maud" and "Maude"-Biography:...

  • Dirty Martini
    Dirty Martini (burlesque)
    Dirty Martini is a New York City-based Burlesque dancer, pin-up model and dance teacher.She is best-known for her over-the-top performance acts, which mostly incorporate various classic burlesque styles such as the fan dance, balloon strip tease, the Dance of Several Veils, and shadow stripping,...

  • Phyllis Dixey
    Phyllis Dixey
    Phyllis Dixey was a British singer, dancer and impresario. Her earlier career was as a singer in variety shows in Britain. During World War II, she joined ENSA and entertained the British forces...

  • Leon Errol
    Leon Errol
    Leon Errol , was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.-Biography:...

  • W. C. Fields
    W. C. Fields
    William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

  • Gentry de Paris
    Gentry de Paris
    Gentry de Paris is a Paris-based burlesque dancer, art director and playwright.In 2009, Gentry wrote, directed and starred in the Gentry de Paris Revue with Dita Von Teese at the Casino de Paris directed by Philippe Calvario...

  • Jackie Gleason
    Jackie Gleason
    Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...

  • Gilda Gray
    Gilda Gray
    Gilda Gray was a Polish born American actress and dancer who became famous in the US for popularizing a dance called the "shimmy" which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions....

  • Bob Hope
    Bob Hope
    Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

  • Bambi Jones
    Bambi Jones
    Bambi Jones , also known as Doris Kotzan was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She is known for being the Original Burlesque dancer and author of her new book My Journey BURLESQUE The Way It Was. She appeared in the documentary "Exotic World & The Burlesque Revival".-History:Bambi Jones was born in...

  • Bert Lahr
    Bert Lahr
    Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...

  • Michelle L'amour
    Michelle L'amour
    Michelle L'amour is an American neo-burlesque performer who grew up in Orland Park, Illinois. In 2006, she performed stripteases on NBC's America's Got Talent, Showtime's , and small touring performances. Her tagline is "The Ass That Goes POW!" and she sells related promotional products...


  • Pinky Lee
    Pinky Lee
    Pincus Leff , better known as Pinky Lee, was an American burlesque comic and host of a children's television program, The Pinky Lee Show, in the early 1950s.-Biography:...

  • Gypsy Rose Lee
    Gypsy Rose Lee
    Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...

  • Lola the Vamp
    Lola the Vamp
    Lola The Vamp is the only burlesque performer in theatrical history to perform burlesque for the academic award of PhD. She is undertaking a creative component PhD involving the production of creative product and thesis at Griffith University...

  • Jayne Mansfield
    Jayne Mansfield
    Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...

  • Minsky Malone
    Minsky Malone
    Minsky Malone creative director of is a Melbourne, Australia based creative director for stage, and an international Burlesque performer. For the last 20 years she has been performing around the world, first starting with her troupe in the seaside tourist town of Blackpool in northern England...

  • Missy Malone
    Missy Malone
    Missy Malone is a Scottish burlesque performer currently based in central England. She is known throughout Europe for her high calibre performances that fuse classic 1950s pin-up girl style and modern rock energy.- Early years :...

  • Tim Moore
    Tim Moore (comedian)
    Tim Moore was a celebrated American vaudevillian and comic actor of the first half of the 20th century. He gained his greatest recognition in the starring role of George "Kingfish" Stevens in the CBS television series, Amos 'n' Andy...

  • Chesty Morgan
    Chesty Morgan
    Chesty Morgan is a Polish-born Jewish American exotic dancer who starred in two films directed by Doris Wishman.-Biography:An orphan, Morgan was sent from Poland to live in Ein Gev, a kibbutz in the British Mandate of Palestine, at the outbreak of World War II.Morgan married an American and moved...

  • Julie Atlas Muz
    Julie Atlas Muz
    Julie Atlas Muz is a New York City-based performance artist, dancer, burlesque artist, stage director, and actress....

  • Kitten Natividad
    Kitten Natividad
    Kitten Natividad is a Mexican American film actress and exotic dancer, noted for her 44-inch chest and appearances in cult films by her ex-partner, director Russ Meyer.-Early years:...

  • Bettie Page
    Bettie Page
    Bettie Mae Page was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of Pinups"...

  • Tracy Phillips
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    Molly Picon
    Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....

  • Miss Polly Rae
    Miss Polly Rae
    Miss Polly Rae is a singer and dancer based in the United Kingdom and is one of the leading figures on the current burlesque scene.-Miss Polly Rae:...


  • Angie Pontani
    Angie Pontani
    Angie Pontani is a contemporary burlesque dancer, choreographer, producer, and costumer based in Brooklyn, NY. She was crowned Miss Exotic World in 2008.-Biography:...

  • Rags Ragland
    Rags Ragland
    Rags Ragland was an American comedian and character actor. Ragland first made his reputation in burlesque, where he was one of the house comics for the famed Minsky burlesque shows...

  • Sally Rand
    Sally Rand
    Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...

  • Harper Ray
    Harper Ray
    Harper 'Danger' Ray is an award winning theatre maker. He runs the contemporary theatre company Another Midas, which specialises in new and interactive performances. He has worked in London’s West End as Artistic Director for a large Neo-Burlesque venue called Too 2 Much; formally The Raymond...

  • Liz Renay
    Liz Renay
    Liz Renay, née Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins was an American author, actress and convicted felon, who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living ....

  • Lili St. Cyr
    Lili St. Cyr
    Lili St. Cyr , was a prominent American burlesque stripper.- Early years :She was born as Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky...

  • Satan's Angel
    Satan's Angel
    Angel Cecelia Helene Walker is an American exotic dancer specializing in stripping and burlesque under her stage name Satan’s Angel. She started dancing in San Francisco in 1961, after winning an amateur strip contest at North Beach nightclub Moulin Rouge...

  • Tura Satana
    Tura Satana
    Tura Satana was an American actress and former exotic dancer. She was best known for her role as "Varla" in Russ Meyer's 1965 cult film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.-Early life:...

  • Phil Silvers
    Phil Silvers
    Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...

  • Red Skelton
    Red Skelton
    Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

  • Blaze Starr
    Blaze Starr
    Blaze Starr is an American former stripper and American burlesque star. Her vivacious presence and inventive use of stage props earned her the nickname "The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque"...

  • Tempest Storm
    Tempest Storm
    Tempest Storm is the stage name of an American stripper, burlesque star, and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best known burlesque performers of the 1950s and 1960s. She is regarded as having one of the longest careers as a burlesque performer,...

  • Dita Von Teese
    Dita Von Teese
    Dita Von Teese is an American burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, author and actress.-Early life:...

  • Mae West
    Mae West
    Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....


See also


External links

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