Burlesque
Funny Face and Gypsy are my favorite musicals. Audrey is untouchable and I love Natalie Wood but remember Faith Dane?
Faith Dane was in the Gotta Have a Gimmick number and played Mazeppa (looks like a young Tony Curtis in drag). It is one of my favorite scenes ever because it is burlesque and because of Faith Dane.
When I read Chateau Marmont it was written that she would annoy everyone with her bugle, often. The part of Mazeppa was a stroke of luck for the thirty something who had been trying for years to make it in show business. She played the part during the entire run of the musical and then the movie but after all that was Gypsy was over, she was out. She married a politician and "took off" with her bugle in politics. I love her!
Speaking of burlesque one of my travel destinations is the Exotic World Burlesque Museum since I read about it in 1995. I always thought it was cool that burlesque made a comeback of sorts but after seeing a few of the shows it just isn't what it was. How can it be? People now cannot capture the essence or be like people then, generations ago, no matter what. We are all a result of our time and our era is written all over our gestures, movement, gaits etc....However, it's still tres cool, of this time, popular and a refreshing alternative to the pole dancer.
When I wanted to know more about anything I went to the library. In the days pre Internet, finding information on old burlesque dancers wasn't easy. The names I looked up in the card catalog and even periodical Guide(serious research) were Lili St Cyr, Ann Corio (taken from an encyclopedia entry)and Gypsy Rose Lee. All I could find was the book The G String Murders more encyclopedia entries. The day I found the LP How to Strip for Your Husband at the library, I thought this is it, maybe this will clue me into more. I was twelve and the librarian didn't want to let me hear it but I kept telling her it was only music secretly hoping, somehow, there would be more.
The attraction had been the costumes I saw in Gypsy then the dancing, it was glamorous. What I wanted to know was who were these women, where and how did they grow up, how much more was there to burlesque and was the woman up the street with the feathered fans on her wall and the fluffy robe and all the make-up once one of them? She was old, old,old to me and I felt she was tres interesting but too shy to ever ask her if she was in show business. Turned out she was involved in carnivals and that's all I ever found out. I was in ballet and Lili St Cyr had been a ballet dancer per the encyclopedia entry. Ann Corio was Catholic and so was I. Costumes, dancing, glamour, all appealing to tweens.
Here It Is Burlesque was a book published in 1968 and was missing from the San Antonio Public Library holdings in 1983. UGH! Del Rio would do inter library loan from the San Antonio Public Library. In 1979 a video based on the book had been released but no dice. It wasn't until I came to Austin that I was able to procure a book on Minksy and the burlesque. That started a collection of burlesque music, books and cds and at one time costumes.
Now Funny Face I saw when I was eight and that started the entire facination with Beats, beatniks and existentionalism but that's another post.
Side Note: Now they even have Shimmy Magazine!
Faith Dane was in the Gotta Have a Gimmick number and played Mazeppa (looks like a young Tony Curtis in drag). It is one of my favorite scenes ever because it is burlesque and because of Faith Dane.
When I read Chateau Marmont it was written that she would annoy everyone with her bugle, often. The part of Mazeppa was a stroke of luck for the thirty something who had been trying for years to make it in show business. She played the part during the entire run of the musical and then the movie but after all that was Gypsy was over, she was out. She married a politician and "took off" with her bugle in politics. I love her!
Speaking of burlesque one of my travel destinations is the Exotic World Burlesque Museum since I read about it in 1995. I always thought it was cool that burlesque made a comeback of sorts but after seeing a few of the shows it just isn't what it was. How can it be? People now cannot capture the essence or be like people then, generations ago, no matter what. We are all a result of our time and our era is written all over our gestures, movement, gaits etc....However, it's still tres cool, of this time, popular and a refreshing alternative to the pole dancer.
When I wanted to know more about anything I went to the library. In the days pre Internet, finding information on old burlesque dancers wasn't easy. The names I looked up in the card catalog and even periodical Guide(serious research) were Lili St Cyr, Ann Corio (taken from an encyclopedia entry)and Gypsy Rose Lee. All I could find was the book The G String Murders more encyclopedia entries. The day I found the LP How to Strip for Your Husband at the library, I thought this is it, maybe this will clue me into more. I was twelve and the librarian didn't want to let me hear it but I kept telling her it was only music secretly hoping, somehow, there would be more.
The attraction had been the costumes I saw in Gypsy then the dancing, it was glamorous. What I wanted to know was who were these women, where and how did they grow up, how much more was there to burlesque and was the woman up the street with the feathered fans on her wall and the fluffy robe and all the make-up once one of them? She was old, old,old to me and I felt she was tres interesting but too shy to ever ask her if she was in show business. Turned out she was involved in carnivals and that's all I ever found out. I was in ballet and Lili St Cyr had been a ballet dancer per the encyclopedia entry. Ann Corio was Catholic and so was I. Costumes, dancing, glamour, all appealing to tweens.
Here It Is Burlesque was a book published in 1968 and was missing from the San Antonio Public Library holdings in 1983. UGH! Del Rio would do inter library loan from the San Antonio Public Library. In 1979 a video based on the book had been released but no dice. It wasn't until I came to Austin that I was able to procure a book on Minksy and the burlesque. That started a collection of burlesque music, books and cds and at one time costumes.
Now Funny Face I saw when I was eight and that started the entire facination with Beats, beatniks and existentionalism but that's another post.
Side Note: Now they even have Shimmy Magazine!
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