Under The Sea

Did you know that before the 1930’s burlesque artists could wear their birthday suit on stage?

The tease of burlesque is what makes it different from traditional striptease. Burlesque costumes really aid in putting the tease in striptease. You get to watch a beautiful stage model and dancer reveal all the secrets of the peel.

While the costumes really added glamour to the dancers stage presence Artists regularly performed topless and even at times bottomless, although they often would perform with a triangle of fur attached by glue or very thin strings much like a g string. This piece was called a merkin. These were often used in French postcards as well.

In 1934 LaGuardia began an all out attack on Minskeys and its dancers but by 1937 everything changed. Burlesque houses had closed right and left. Dancers and producers were jobless. They tried to move forward without the dancing girls but it just wasn’t the same.

“The theaters tried reopening, without the strippers, the G-strings, the dirty jokes without, in short, the audiences. One cleaned-up variety format called "vaudesque" was tried out, a reverse striptease in which girls started out nearly nude and then put their clothes on.

Well, it just wasn't the same.

By November, the Minskys were closed, broke and out of business. In the city, their day was done.

So the Minsky name went on to flourish in Newark and other such entertainment capitals. Meanwhile, a few other entrepreneurs managed to stay in business until 1942, when LaGuardia pulled the plug completely. By then, Phil Silvers, Gypsy Rose Lee, Abbott and Costello and the other headliners had moved on to other stages.”

So here’s a little nod to a time when you could indeed bare it all on stage.

Nowadays my stage is an ocean or my living space and studio and the audience is digital, but it’s still quite intriguing to take a stroll down memory lane, or maybe a stroll down MAMMARY lane is more appropriate for this set😂🥂

Photo set by my king, Jeremy Scheuch.