Customer Reviews

Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show

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I own a number of burlesque-themed films on VHS, mostly actual stage performances from the 1940's and 1950's. These films are discussed in the book, and I was surprised to find descriptions that sometimes seem drawn from thin air.

On page 287, author Shteir tells us, "For example, in A Night At the Follies (1956), a murder provides an excuse to see undressed women backstage." There is no murder nor any other plot and no visits backstage -- it simply films an actual burlesque show.

On page 287 - 288, stripper Tempest Storm in A Night In Hollywood is described as "guiding audiences through an evening of burlesque striptease, comedy, ragtime and jazz music, and stripping." Storm doesn't guide anybody through anything. She does not appear until the very end of the show, as was the custom for the star, and dances for eight minutes without one audible word.

On page 288, describing female impersonator Vicki Lynn's act in Varietease, "In the last moments, Lynn takes off the wig to reveal her bald head." Actually Lynn has a full head of hair, without any sign of baldness.

On page 289, turning to mainstream movies, Shteir comments on the 1958 hit The Naked and the Dead, and stripper Lili St. Cyr's role. She tells us the movie "pumped up the sex and violence considerably, partly by casting St. Cyr to play Croft's wife." Wrong. Sergeant Croft's wife was played by Barbara Nichols. Lili St. Cyr played Private Wilson's girlfriend, and she was only in the film for two minutes. Shteir does not mention the brevity of St. Cyr's role, but tells us, "St. Cyr plays a selfish, cold, neurotic, sexually omnivorous stripper - a cartoon of a woman." Wrong, wrong, wrong. The only thing right is that St. Cyr played a stripper. Everything else is completely at odds with the film, where Lili is a warm, smiling, light-hearted woman who knows she'll be arrested if she strips but performs as usual because, "I gotta have integrity with my public, even if I gotta pay for it." All we see of her act is a slow dance that resembles a hula (and reveals less). Wilson adores her, and she sends him money when he's overseas.

Shteir has academic credentials and a reputable publisher, but I wouldn't trust anything she says.

"Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Shows," is quite simply this author's interpretation of those things she read regarding burlesque...things any one could read on their own, and decipher their own way. Would I consider her to be an expert on the history of burlesque? No! Reading her list of notes I'm not sure she talked to anyone who was involved in burlesque-there are certainly people still alive who worked the venue. My suggestion for those who like the history of burlesque, read books written by those who were there...Gypsy Rose Lee, Georgia Sothern, Ann Corio, Morton Minsky, and even Erik Preminger. There are also excellent books available by noted historians such as David Kruh and Robert Allen as well. There are even a couple historical societies out there that are working to preserve the history of burlesque and the theatres where burlesque shows were performed. But please take this book with a grain of salt. All I did was skim it over, and I'm listing just a few bloopers found...


P 235: "I didn't want to stand behind the counter and serve people, explained Rose La Rose, who before her death in 1957 owned several burlesque theaters in Toledo, Ohio."

However on page 241 the author writes, in 1960 Rose became a pornographer.

Now if Rose died in 1957, as the author states, how can she become a pornographer in 1960? It's well known among burlesque historians that Rose owned two different theatres in Toledo, not SEVERAL, and that she died in the summer of 1972.


Page 238: Tex Guinan? I assume the author means Texas Guinan...


Page 240, she writes: "Buddy Wade's tap shoes caught fire, the sparks ignited her costume, and she burned to death one night at the Old Howard in Boston."

Curious, I emailed David Kruh, a historian and the author of, "Always Something Doing: Boston's Infamous Scollay Square." This is his response...

"No one I've contacted is aware of any fire at the OH that killed anyone. There were two fires of which I am aware at the OH. The first was way back in 1846 and was the original wooden structure (that house the church), which burned down. That's when the owners built the theater you and other devoted patrons knew and loved.

The second fire that I know of was in 1960, seven years after the theater was closed by the city. Some homeless men that were sleeping inside got out safely, and there was one firefighter slightly injured that day. But no deaths."


Page 241: "In 1954 the darling of burlesque Loretta Miller watched one of her fans shoot himself at the LA Follies Theater."

Both the LA Herald-Express and the LA Mirror report things a bit differently-but they both report the police shot Roger around dawn while Miller was home in bed.

"According to Loretta Miller, as told to John Grover, "This is the strangest thing that's ever happened to me in show business. I still can't believe it. I've been a specialty dancer and worked in chorus lines for nearly ten years, and I don't understand this poor kid Roger Whittier. I thought it was a gag at first when a Mirror reporter called me out of bed this morning to tell me about his death."


There are things in this book that are not that difficult to double-check, but I believe this author took everything she read regarding burlesque to be fact. It's Rozell Rowland, not ROSE ZELLE. Maybe that's being picky, but this is history-so the author, a professor, in my opinion has an obligation to the public to get it right!

I would only recommend this book as a fictional Fairy Tale. It is filled with errors and falsehoods. For instance, Rose La Rose's Towne Hall theater was NOT a 'porn theater', in the '60s. I know because I was there. Rose was VERY particular what the dancers did on Her Stage. She insisted on a rehersal, before we got to do a live show. If she didn't like something, she let us know. Any dancer who did Porn was fired on the spot!!! Her theater didn't show any movies between the shows, either. She prided herself on hosting only live burlesque shows.

When I saw the first review on this book, in the Washington Post, I sent in my comments ... which were printed. (Text below.) If anything, my attitude has become more 'fixed' regarding Professor Shteir's book:

Rather than something by a professor expounding upon the 'societal implications of the strip tease', (BORING) I suggest you run reviews on books that were written by people who had actually been there (i.e.: 'Gypsy', recently re-issued) or people who've interviewed the folks that were in Burlesque. Many 'old timers', unfortunately, have passed on and these writings may well be their last impressions of 'the good old days'.

Jane Briggmen recently released "Burlesque, Legendary Stars of the Stage". Many of the people she interviewed are no longer with us. She has just finished "Burlesque, Book II" which will be published in the near future. The second book portrays many of the 'younger' acts (people still alive, but getting on in years ... like myself). She also heads up the 'Golden Days of
Burlesque Historical Society' and is in the process of amassing a very large collection of Burlesque memorabilia that will be given to an accredited University for preservation, in the future:
http://www.burlesquehistory.com/

As someone who was 'in the business', it really irritates me when some Academian publishes their impressions of what Burlesque was all about. They weren't there. They don't know. Watching Burlesque shows makes them no more able to understand the 'hows & whys' of Burlesque than watching a few operations would make me a surgeon.

Please point readers to books that accurately portray the era, not the 'wanna bees'.

Thank you,

Daphne Lake
"Miss Elegance"

It would be hard to think of a topic that was less likely for academic research than striptease. Full of fanciful characters, unlikely stories of origins, and tall tales, the world of the stripper has not been seriously documented, and yet the career of stripping is one full of questions about the place of women in society, exploitation of workers, and the old fascination of watching women take their clothes off. In _Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show_ (from the less-than-salacious Oxford University Press), Rachel Shteir, a professor of theater, has produced a big, thorough book for which she has dug into newspaper and legal records all over the country, and also into such resources as the Sally Rand Archives in Chicago and the Gypsy Rose Lee papers in New York. There are illustrations here, some of them pretty, none of them scandalous, and Shteir's tone throughout is a serious one, although there is plenty of bounce in the subject and much good humor quoted from many of the people profiled here. It is an authoritative tome on what many would consider a frivolous or even offensive topic, and has much to tell us about the relationships between the sexes.

Much of this history has to do with the Minsky family in their Lower East Side theater, who parodied Ziegfeld and brought the girls to working class audiences. The Minskys were responsible for many innovations in burlesque. They introduced many comic and slapstick acts, and boosted ticket prices. They didn't mind offending the censorious, and they were willing to break the law for publicity purposes. They introduced the runway, the extension of the stage that enabled a performer to remain onstage but to penetrate into the eager and enthusiastic audience; the runway was named by an appreciative wit the "Bridge of Thighs". The Minskys enjoyed titling their productions in jubilantly obscene ways, as they brought out _The Sway of All Flesh_, _Panties Inferno_, and _Dress Takes a Holiday_. debuted Gypsy Rose Lee in 1931, and she graduated into Ziegfeld a few years later. She was the most famous stripper in history, and gets a full and fascinating chapter here. Because she had more than just her looks going for her, she stretched her career into a third decade and wrote best-selling mysteries and stories for _The New Yorker_. Her memoirs were turned into the Broadway musical _Gypsy_ in 1959. Shteir works on the premise that stripping enabled women to work in a particular field, to develop themselves artistically, and to harness a sexuality that men would pay for. Maybe stripping was a blow for feminine power, but sometimes it was just survival. Carrie Finnell, whose "Educated Bosom" premiered the twirling of tassels, said, "I ain't in it for glory, I want to eat."

Stripping is not dead, but it has well passed its heyday. Among the many reasons which Shteir cites for its decline is urban renewal, which took away many of even the most famous burlesque houses. Others became adult film venues, first showing films of famous strippers in their routines, to go along with the on-stage acts, and then just showing regular adult fare. The visibility of broader expanses of skin in routine situations has made a difference; the Frenchman who invented the bikini had to hire a stripper to model his invention, since no professional model would do so, but of course bikinis (and less) can be seen on beaches the world over now. Most importantly, performances featuring nudity became just women without clothes, simply appearing topless in go-go bars. The fun, parody, and eroticism of the tease was gone. Striptease was an influential movement, and Shteir quotes such authors as Jean Cocteau and e. e. cummings who had much to say on the stripper's art. (At one point, however, she muses, "Perhaps it is absurd to bring Samuel Beckett into a discussion of striptease at all. And yet.... ) Shteir's book is therefore a memorial, a fine documentation of a way of entertainment that has had its day.

Shteir's thorough research is fleshed-out by her concise writing and moderate tone. This is a scholarly but entertaining review of how show-business from the early 19th century to the present has explored its outer limits, and how the clientele have responded. It will take its place in due course with contemporary accounts of gladiatorial contests, bear-baiting and the bullring: those times and places where entertainment as either the living spectacle, or the distant retrospective confronts us with just what sort of people we are, that we get our jollys in such a medium.

Striptease is a great book that gives the history of this art form and the people who performed over the years. Also, the people who've tried to squelch this medium of entertainment for "our good". It's very informative and a fun read also. Some photos of ladies from the early 1900's to '60's, but this is not Playboy, these women were from a much different era, when a naked ankle was scandalous! Reading this makes me wish there were still classy strip clubs, but alas, after the 60's and the sexual revolution, I think only the crass strip joints survive, maybe not even them. This is a good read!

i have to say i totally disagree with some of the reviews on this site.

this is a really interesting, ambitious book on for the most part previously unwritten about subject. it's not a reported book, but rather an old-fashioned work of history written by an enthusiast. it synthesizes and enormous amount of information and writes about the performers in a tender and engaging way.

unlike some of the schlocky, sentimental books that have appeared on the subject from the 1930's on forward--some of them written by strippers, others by burlesque impresarios--this book is up to something else. it tries to put striptease into historical context, comparing it to other genres of american popular entertainment, talking about the women's lives and careers, their choices and performances. it covers the most important period in burlesque. if the book is sometimes uneven in its writing and documentation, it makes up for that with its clear observations. i reccommend it highly.

fiona cointreau, pittsburgh, pa

This was probably the worse book I have ever had the misfortune to examine. Did the author check anything she wrote in the book, or did she just blindly copy her "National Enquirer" type sources? Dixie Evans is NOT an alcoholic and Rose LaRose was NOT a pornographer.

Burning to death from tap shoes is probably the silliest thing I have ever read!

Stick to "Gypsy" or "My Journey Burlesque" for first hand accounts. There are other excellent reference books available.

Being in Burlesque was fascinating. There were always new adventures, new friends and the glamor. This book, as well as being filled with errors, trivializes this wonderful venue. Don't waste your money.

This book really started my serious fascination with Burlesque Striptease. It truly deserves status as an art form. Shteir has broken it down and explained the history of the style from its inception, in a studied and reverant way. If you really seek a firm understanding of the history of this art form (perhaps to better appreciate the burlesque revival we are currently experiencing) this is a wonderful book for you. Ladies will enjoy the astute feminist take on the topic, as well as the empowered women of the Burlesque world. Gentlemen with likely appreciate the eye-candy, as well as the vintage element of the tease--buy a copy, and tell prospective girlfriends that you are "...so tired of explicit internet images..."