Striptease Artists of the 1950s (Schiffer Books)

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It is somewhat disappointing that the video leaves off pretty abruptly somewhere in the mid-50s to the early 60s and the narrator speaks openly of the "decline" of stripteasing in the 60s. But there were still quite a few excellent girls working the circuit in the 60s, many of which went on to appear in famous "B" or exploitation movies. While most of the following are of strippers from the 1960s, I have included a couple of respected burlesque dancers, whose work had considerable influence on both the exotic dancing and stripping worlds. Striptease involves a slow, sensuous undressing. The stripper may prolong the undressing with delaying tactics such as the wearing of additional clothes or putting clothes or hands in front of just undressed body parts such as the breasts or genitalia. The emphasis is on the act of undressing along with sexually suggestive movement, rather than the state of being undressed. In the past, the performance often finished as soon as the undressing was finished, though today's strippers usually continue dancing in the nude. [2] [3] The costume the stripper wears before disrobing can form part of the act. In some cases, audience interaction can form part of the act, with the audience urging the stripper to remove more clothing, or the stripper approaching the audience to interact with them. Other rules forbid "full nudity". In some parts of the U.S., laws forbid the exposure of female (though not male) nipples, which must be covered by pasties. [2] In early 2010, the city of Detroit banned fully exposed breasts in its strip clubs, following the example of Houston, where a similar ordinance was implemented in 2008. [41] The city council has since softened the rules, eliminating the requirement for pasties [42] but keeping other restrictions. Both cities were reputed to have rampant occurrences of illicit activity linked to striptease establishments. [43] [44] For some jurisdictions, even certain postures can be considered "indecent" (such as spreading the legs). [45] [ self-published source] United Kingdom [ edit ]

For the Record: Paul Raymond (1969), the British stripclub owner Paul Raymond told his own story, on LWT. Married... with Children (1987–1997) often featured Al Bundy, Jefferson D'Arcy, and the NO MA'AM crew spending a night at the Nudie Bar. a b Clifton, Lara; Ainslie, Sarah; Cook, Julie (2002). Baby Oil and Ice: Striptease in East London. Do-Not Press. ISBN 9781899344857. a b Roy Hemming (1999), The melody lingers on: the great songwriters and their movie musicals, Newmarket Press, ISBN 978-1-55704-380-1In the 1880s and 1890s, Parisian shows such as the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère were featuring attractive scantily clad women dancing and tableaux vivants. In this environment, an act in the 1890s featured a woman who slowly removed her clothes in a vain search for a flea crawling on her body. The People's Almanac credits the act as the origin of modern striptease. A study of the role of women in society in the 1970s through the microcosm of the dying traveling ‘girl show’ industry, Meiselas’s Carnival Strippers brings to the fore differing views on women, sex, society, and class, exploring the sometimes hard-to-define line between independence and exploitation. “Being a stripper is as close to being in a man’s world as you can be,” says Lena. “It’s a tough life. You need strength and character. The men depend on you – to entertain them and to bring in money for them. There is a stripping aspect in the ancient Sumerian myth of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the Underworld (or Kur). At each of the seven gates, she removed an article of clothing or a piece of jewelry. As long as she remained in hell, the earth was barren. When she returned, fecundity abounded. Some believe this myth was embodied in the dance of the seven veils of Salome, who danced for King Herod, as mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew 14:6 and Mark 6:21-22. However, although the Bible records Salome's dance, the first mention of her removing seven veils occurs in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, in 1893.

In the United States, striptease started in traveling carnivals and burlesque theatres, and featured famous strippers such as Gypsy Rose Lee and Sally Rand. The vaudeville trapeze artist Charmion performed a "disrobing" act onstage as early as 1896, which was captured in the 1901 Edison film Trapeze Disrobing Act. Another milestone for modern American striptease is the possibly legendary show at Minsky's Burlesque in April 1925 that inspired the novel and film The Night They Raided Minsky's. Another performer, Hinda Wassau, claimed to have inadvertently invented the striptease in 1928 when her costume was shaken loose during a shimmy dance. Burlesque theatres in New York were prohibited from staging striptease performances in a legal ruling of 1937, leading to the decline of these " grindhouses" (named after the bump 'n grind entertainment on offer). [24] However many striptease stars were able to work in other cities and, eventually, nightclubs. This article is about the type of dance. For the race horse "Exotic Dancer", see Exotic Dancer (horse). For other uses, see Striptease (disambiguation). American burlesque dancer Lola Bel Aire performing a traditional striptease Josephine Baker in her "girdle of bananas" outfit, first seen in the Folies Bergère show La Folie du Jour in 1926–27 That being said, as this video proves, there was certainly a high art in dancers such as Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, Cherrie Knight and Lilli St. Cyr. I had heard of Miss Rand and her "fan dance" for years but had no idea of how intricate and indeed erotic it was until I saw this high-quality footage here. The Gypsy Rose Lee clip was an apt and welcome inclusion. When a stripper can drive you nuts by baring a little bit of clavicle, that's talent!You can't go wrong with a slip dress, a trench coat and heels. Consider your most flattering body part—be it legs, butt or breasts—and wear a dress cut to highlight it. And don't go without lingerie under: "You don't want it to be over too soon; it's supposed to be a tease." Fantasee Blu (11 November 2009). "Detroit City Council To Vote On Strip Club Restrictions". Detroit: Kiss-FM. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016 . Retrieved 29 January 2016. Modern striptease acts typically follow the sequence established in Burlesque: commencing in a dress, baring the upper body first, and continuing to a final reveal of the pelvic region. The traditional performance ended at this point, but modern acts usually continue with a nude dance section. This last element forms the major part of the act in small strip clubs and bars, but performances in larger venues (such as those done by feature dancers) usually place as much weight on the dance in the earlier sections. Striptease dance routines are usually improvised, except for male strippers who generally choreograph their performances and focus as much on the earlier sections as the later. [36] The Full Monty (2000) is an Americanized stage adaptation of the 1997 British film of the same name, in which a group of unemployed male steelworkers put together a strip act at a local club.

In ancient Greece, the lawgiver Solon established several classes of prostitutes in the late 6th century BC. Among these classes of prostitutes were the auletrides: female dancers, acrobats, and musicians, noted for dancing naked in an alluring fashion in front of audiences of men. [9] [10] [11] In ancient Rome, dance featuring stripping was part of the entertainments ( ludi) at the Floralia, an April festival in honor of the goddess Flora. [12] Empress Theodora, wife of 6th-century Byzantine emperor Justinian is reported by several ancient sources to have started in life as a courtesan and actress who performed in acts inspired from mythological themes and in which she disrobed "as far as the laws of the day allowed". She was famous for her striptease performance of Leda and the Swan. [13] From these accounts, it appears that the practice was hardly exceptional nor new. It was, however, actively opposed by the Christian Church, which succeeded in obtaining statutes banning it in the following century. The degree to which these statutes were subsequently enforced is, of course, opened to question. What is certain is that no practice of the sort is reported in texts of the European Middle Ages. Some claim the origin of the modern striptease lies in Oscar Wilde's play Salome (play), in 1893. In the Dance of the Seven Veils, the female protagonist dances for King Herod and slowly removes her veils until she lies naked. [19] After Wilde's play and Richard Strauss's operatic version of the same, first performed in 1905, the erotic "dance of the seven veils" became a standard routine for dancers in opera, vaudeville, film and burlesque. A famous early practitioner was Maud Allan, who in 1907 gave a private performance for King Edward VII. But it’s in the notes of writer Arthur Shay, who spent a week with the star in Memphis, Tennessee, in May 1949, that we meet the woman who emerges when the lights go down and the crowds depart and it’s clearly this Gypsy who truly connected to audiences wherever she went: a b Martland, Bill (March 2006). It Started With Theresa. Lulu Enterprises Incorporated. ISBN 9781411651784 . Retrieved 2012-08-01. In 1905, the notorious Dutch dancer Mata Hari, later shot as a spy by the French authorities during World War I, was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet. [20] The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled bra and some ornaments over her arms and head but exposing her pubic region. [21] Another landmark performance was the appearance at the Moulin Rouge in 1907 of an actress called Germaine Aymos, who entered dressed only in three very small shells. In the 1920s and 1930s, Josephine Baker danced topless in the danse sauvage at the Folies, and other such performances were provided at the Tabarin. These shows were notable for their sophisticated choreography and often featuring the women in glitzy sequins and feathers. In his 1957 book Mythologies, semiotician Roland Barthes interpreted this Parisian striptease as a "mystifying spectacle", a "reassuring ritual" where "evil is advertised the better to impede and exorcise it". [22] By the 1960s "fully nude" shows were provided at such places as Le Crazy Horse Saloon. [23] Charmion in her disrobing act, 1901 American tradition [ edit ]

A Victorian Lady in Her Boudoir (1896)

If it Moves it's Rude-The Story of the Windmill Theatre" (1969). A BBC television documentary on the Windmill Theatre. The Internet has a fair selection of vintage images of strippers and burlesque dancers from the nineteen-forties, the fifties, sixties, seventies, and so on. Many are strangely orphaned like most of the kazillions of images out there. Just think, every day there are more images merely uploaded than all of the pictures produced during the 19th century. That’s kind of staggering. Most of these pictures drift unanchored to any connecting narrative. Finalist for Canberra Local Business Awards for Outstanding Performing Arts 2021 and 2022 with both Jazida Productions AND Flazeda Philip Purser and Jenny Wilkes, 1978. The One and Only Phyllis Dixey. Futura Publications, London. ISBN 0-7088-1436-0.