Lili St. Cyr
Encyclopedia
Lili St. Cyr was a prominent American
burlesque
stripper
.
in 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky. Her grandparents, the Klarquists, reared her and her two show business sisters, Dardy Orlando and Barbara Moffett.
Having taken ballet lessons throughout her youth, she began to dance professionally as a chorus line girl in Hollywood. Unlike other women who have stroke-of-luck stories about being plucked from the chorus line and selected for a feature role, St. Cyr had to beg her manager at the club to let her do a solo act. From her self-choreographed act she eventually landed a bit part at a club called the Music Box in San Francisco, with an act called the Duncan Sisters. It was here that she found a dancer's salary was only a small fraction of what the featured star's salary was. The difference was that the featured star was nude.
From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, St. Cyr with Gypsy Rose Lee
and Ann Corio
were the most recognized acts in striptease. St. Cyr's stage name is a patronymic
of the French aristocracy, which she first used when booked as a nude performer in Las Vegas. Although more obscure towards the end of her life, her name popped up regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over her, and her attempted suicides.
St. Cyr was married six times. Her best-known husbands were the motorcycle speedway
rider Cordy Milne
, musical-comedy actor and former ballet dancer Paul Valentine, restaurateur Armando Orsini, and actor Ted Jordan.
throughout the late 1940s into the 1950s. However, Quebec's Catholic clergy condemned her act, declaring that whenever she dances "the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of sexual frenzy." The clergy's outcry was echoed by the Public Morality Committee. St. Cyr was arrested and charged with behavior that was "immoral, obscene and indecent." She was acquitted but the public authorities eventually closed down the Gayety Theatre where she performed. In the 1980s, St. Cyr wrote a French autobiography, "Ma Vie de Stripteaseuse." In the book, she declared her appreciation for the Gayety Theatre and her love for the city of Montreal
.
While St. Cyr starred in several movies, an acting career never really materialized. In 1955, with the help of Howard Hughes
, St. Cyr landed her first acting job in a major motion picture in the Son of Sinbad
. The film, described by one critic as "a voyeur's delight", has St. Cyr as a principal member of a Baghdad harem populated with dozens of nubile starlets. The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. St. Cyr also had a role in the movie version of Norman Mailer
's The Naked and the Dead
in 1958. In this film, St. Cyr plays 'Jersey Lili', a stripper in a Honolulu night-club and girlfriend of a soldier who boasts to his pals that he has her picture painted inside his groundsheet. Regrettably, heavy edits of St. Cyr's night-club routine by censors result in some choppy editing in an otherwise finely crafted film. But St. Cyr's movie career was short lived, and typically she settled for playing a secondary role as a stripper, or playing herself. Her dancing is featured prominently in two Irving Klaw
films, Varietease and Teaserama.
St. Cyr was also known for her pin-up photography, especially for photos taken by Bruno Bernard, known professionally as "Bernard of Hollywood", a premier glamor photographer of Hollywood's Golden Era. Bernard said that she was his favorite model and referred to her as his muse.
, the "Undie World of Lili St. Cyr" designs offered costuming for strippers, and excitement for ordinary women. Her catalogs featured photos or drawings of her modeling each article, lavishly detailed descriptions, and hand-selected fabrics. Her marketing for "Scantie-Panties" advertised them as "perfect for street wear, stage or photography." St. Cyr spent her final years in obscurity and in seclusion, tending to her cats.
under her birth name, "Willis Marie VanSchaack". She had borne no children in any of her marriages.
, legions of new fans began rediscovering some of the dancers in Irving Klaw
's photos and movies. During this time, A&E
devoted a special to burlesque in 2001 which included a piece on St. Cyr.
by Richard Rodgers
and Lorenz Hart
, the singer (reporter/would-be stripper Melba Snyder) rhetorically asks at the climax of the song "Who the hell is Lili St. Cyr?" [I.e., what has she got that I don't have?]. Meanwhile, in the 1975 musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, the final line of the song "Don't Dream It" (sung by the character Janet Weiss, as played by Susan Sarandon
) is "God bless Lili St. Cyr!"
In 1981, actress Cassandra Peterson
became famous for her character Elvira, who achieved her trademark cleavage wearing a Lili St. Cyr deep plunge bra.
In 1989, one of St. Cyr's husbands, Ted Jordan, wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe
entitled Norma Jean: My Secret Life with Marilyn Monroe (New York: William Morrow and Company
, 1989), in which Jordan claims that St. Cyr and Monroe had a lesbian affair. The claim is widely disparaged by Monroe biographers. Liza Dawson, editor for William Morrow, publisher of the Jordan book, makes a more credible claim in an interview with Newsday
in 1989. Dawson stated that "Marilyn very much patterned herself on Lili St. Cyr—her way of dressing, of talking, her whole persona. Norma Jean was a mousy, brown-haired girl with a high squeaky voice, and it was from Lili St. Cyr that she learned how to become a sex goddess."
The song, "Lily Sincere" on the 2009 Kristeen Young
album, Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker
is an homage to Lili St. Cyr.
In 2010, Elvis Costello
's title track of his album National Ransom
mentions "And Millicent St. Cyr" in its introduction. See liner notes for full lyrics.
Rocky Horror Picture Show: "God Bless Lili St. Cyr!"
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
burlesque
American burlesque
American Burlesque is a genre of variety show. Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy and female striptease...
stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
.
Early years
She was born as Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
in 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky. Her grandparents, the Klarquists, reared her and her two show business sisters, Dardy Orlando and Barbara Moffett.
Having taken ballet lessons throughout her youth, she began to dance professionally as a chorus line girl in Hollywood. Unlike other women who have stroke-of-luck stories about being plucked from the chorus line and selected for a feature role, St. Cyr had to beg her manager at the club to let her do a solo act. From her self-choreographed act she eventually landed a bit part at a club called the Music Box in San Francisco, with an act called the Duncan Sisters. It was here that she found a dancer's salary was only a small fraction of what the featured star's salary was. The difference was that the featured star was nude.
From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, St. Cyr with 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 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 :...
were the most recognized acts in striptease. St. Cyr's stage name is a patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
of the French aristocracy, which she first used when booked as a nude performer in Las Vegas. Although more obscure towards the end of her life, her name popped up regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over her, and her attempted suicides.
St. Cyr was married six times. Her best-known husbands were the motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
rider Cordy Milne
Cordy Milne
Cordy Milne was an American international motorcycle speedway rider who finished third in the 1937 Speedway World Championship final, behind his brother Jack and second placed Wilbur Lamoreaux...
, musical-comedy actor and former ballet dancer Paul Valentine, restaurateur Armando Orsini, and actor Ted Jordan.
Career
St. Cyr started her professional career as a chorus line dancer at the Florentine Gardens, in Hollywood. Two years later, her stripping debut was at the Music Box, in an Ivan Fehnova production. The producer had not even seen her perform—her striking looks were what won him over. The act was a disaster. Instead of firing her, Fehnova reconsidered and put together a new act. At the end of the dance, a stagehand would pull a fishing rod attached to St. Cyr's G-string. It would fly into the balcony and the lights would go dim. This famous act was known as "The Flying G", and such creative shows would be St. Cyr's trademark. Over the ensuing years and in a variety of different venues, many of St. Cyr's acts were memorable, with names like "The Wolf Woman", "Afternoon of a Faun", "The Ballet Dancer", "In a Persian Harem", "The Chinese Virgin", as well as "Suicide" (where she tried to woo a straying lover by revealing her body), and "Jungle Goddess" (in which she appeared to make love to a parrot).Montreal
Lili St. Cyr received the title of the most famous woman in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
throughout the late 1940s into the 1950s. However, Quebec's Catholic clergy condemned her act, declaring that whenever she dances "the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of sexual frenzy." The clergy's outcry was echoed by the Public Morality Committee. St. Cyr was arrested and charged with behavior that was "immoral, obscene and indecent." She was acquitted but the public authorities eventually closed down the Gayety Theatre where she performed. In the 1980s, St. Cyr wrote a French autobiography, "Ma Vie de Stripteaseuse." In the book, she declared her appreciation for the Gayety Theatre and her love for the city of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
Hollywood: nightclubs, films and photographs
While performing at Ciro's in Hollywood (billed as the "Anatomic Bomb"), St. Cyr was taken to court by a customer who considered her act lewd and lascivious. In court, St. Cyr insisted to the jury that her act was refined and elegant. As St. Cyr pointed out, what she did was slip off her dress, try on a hat, slip off her brassiere (there was another underneath), slip into a négligée. Then, undressing discreetly behind her maid, she stepped into a bubble bath, splashed around, and emerged, more or less dressed. After her appearance as a witness, as a newspaper account of the time put it, "The defense rested, as did everyone else." St. Cyr was acquitted.While St. Cyr starred in several movies, an acting career never really materialized. In 1955, with the help of Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, St. Cyr landed her first acting job in a major motion picture in the Son of Sinbad
Son of Sinbad
Son of Sinbad is a 1955 American film directed by Ted Tetzlaff. The movie takes place in the Middle East and consists of a wide variety of characters including over 127 women.Initially, the film was shot in 1953 and planned to be released in 3D...
. The film, described by one critic as "a voyeur's delight", has St. Cyr as a principal member of a Baghdad harem populated with dozens of nubile starlets. The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. St. Cyr also had a role in the movie version of Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's The Naked and the Dead
The Naked and the Dead (film)
The Naked and the Dead is a 1958 widescreen film based on Norman Mailer's World War II novel The Naked and the Dead. Directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in Panama the screenplay attributed to the Sanders Brothers adds a strip tease and larger action scenes to Mailer's original narrative...
in 1958. In this film, St. Cyr plays 'Jersey Lili', a stripper in a Honolulu night-club and girlfriend of a soldier who boasts to his pals that he has her picture painted inside his groundsheet. Regrettably, heavy edits of St. Cyr's night-club routine by censors result in some choppy editing in an otherwise finely crafted film. But St. Cyr's movie career was short lived, and typically she settled for playing a secondary role as a stripper, or playing herself. Her dancing is featured prominently in two 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...
films, Varietease and Teaserama.
St. Cyr was also known for her pin-up photography, especially for photos taken by Bruno Bernard, known professionally as "Bernard of Hollywood", a premier glamor photographer of Hollywood's Golden Era. Bernard said that she was his favorite model and referred to her as his muse.
Retirement
When St. Cyr retired from the stage she began a lingerie business in which she would retain an interest until her death. Similar to Frederick's of HollywoodFrederick's of Hollywood
Frederick's of Hollywood is a well-known retailer of women's lingerie in the United States, with stores in many modern shopping malls across the USA....
, the "Undie World of Lili St. Cyr" designs offered costuming for strippers, and excitement for ordinary women. Her catalogs featured photos or drawings of her modeling each article, lavishly detailed descriptions, and hand-selected fabrics. Her marketing for "Scantie-Panties" advertised them as "perfect for street wear, stage or photography." St. Cyr spent her final years in obscurity and in seclusion, tending to her cats.
Death
She died January 29, 1999 in Los AngelesLos 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...
under her birth name, "Willis Marie VanSchaack". She had borne no children in any of her marriages.
Legacy
After St. Cyr's death, with a renewed interest in burlesque, and especially in Bettie PageBettie 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"...
, legions of new fans began rediscovering some of the dancers in 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...
's photos and movies. During this time, A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
devoted a special to burlesque in 2001 which included a piece on St. Cyr.
Influences and cultural references
St. Cyr is famously referenced in two different songs that were both stage and movie musicals. In the song "Zip" from the 1940 musical Pal JoeyPal Joey
Pal Joey is a 1940 epistolary novel by John O'Hara, which became the basis of the 1940 stage musical comedy and 1957 motion picture of the same name, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart....
by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
, the singer (reporter/would-be stripper Melba Snyder) rhetorically asks at the climax of the song "Who the hell is Lili St. Cyr?" [I.e., what has she got that I don't have?]. Meanwhile, in the 1975 musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, the final line of the song "Don't Dream It" (sung by the character Janet Weiss, as played by Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
) is "God bless Lili St. Cyr!"
In 1981, actress Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson is an American actress best known for her on-screen horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation...
became famous for her character Elvira, who achieved her trademark cleavage wearing a Lili St. Cyr deep plunge bra.
In 1989, one of St. Cyr's husbands, Ted Jordan, wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
entitled Norma Jean: My Secret Life with Marilyn Monroe (New York: William Morrow and Company
William Morrow and Company
William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, and sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981. It was sold along to the News Corporation in 1999...
, 1989), in which Jordan claims that St. Cyr and Monroe had a lesbian affair. The claim is widely disparaged by Monroe biographers. Liza Dawson, editor for William Morrow, publisher of the Jordan book, makes a more credible claim in an interview with Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
in 1989. Dawson stated that "Marilyn very much patterned herself on Lili St. Cyr—her way of dressing, of talking, her whole persona. Norma Jean was a mousy, brown-haired girl with a high squeaky voice, and it was from Lili St. Cyr that she learned how to become a sex goddess."
The song, "Lily Sincere" on the 2009 Kristeen Young
Kristeen Young
Kristeen Young is an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist from St. Louis, Missouri. She is noted for her aggressive style and four-octave vocal range....
album, Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker
Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker
Music For Strippers, Hookers, and The Odd On-Looker is the sixth album by Kristeen Young.-Recording and release:Recorded by Tony Visconti primarily in Los Angeles between March and April 2008.-Track listing:#"Son Of Man" – 2:38...
is an homage to Lili St. Cyr.
In 2010, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
's title track of his album National Ransom
National Ransom
National Ransom is the 2010 studio album by Elvis Costello. It was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with American songwriter and producer T-Bone Burnett, and was released on October 25, 2010 on the Hear Music label....
mentions "And Millicent St. Cyr" in its introduction. See liner notes for full lyrics.
Filmography
- Love Moods (1952)
- Bedroom Fantasy (1953)
- StriporamaStriporamaStriporama 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)
- TeaseramaTeaserama-Plot:This is a compilation of several 1950s burlesque acts, so there's no real plot to summarize. There are some strippers, some stand-up comics of the take-my-wife-please variety and cult favorite Bettie Page who introduces the acts and frames the film by strutting her stuff.- Cast :*Bettie Page...
(1955) - Son of SinbadSon of SinbadSon of Sinbad is a 1955 American film directed by Ted Tetzlaff. The movie takes place in the Middle East and consists of a wide variety of characters including over 127 women.Initially, the film was shot in 1953 and planned to be released in 3D...
(1955) - Buxom Beautease (1956)
- The Naked and the DeadThe Naked and the Dead (film)The Naked and the Dead is a 1958 widescreen film based on Norman Mailer's World War II novel The Naked and the Dead. Directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in Panama the screenplay attributed to the Sanders Brothers adds a strip tease and larger action scenes to Mailer's original narrative...
(1958) - I, Mobster (1958)
- Runaway Girl (1962)
External links
- Unofficial compilation of texts and images relating to Lili
- Lili St. Cyr interviewed by Mike WallaceMike Wallace (journalist)Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
on The Mike Wallace Interview October 5, 1957 - Lili St. Cyr Transcript of the Wallace interview.
Rocky Horror Picture Show: "God Bless Lili St. Cyr!"