Roy Kemp's previously unpublished burlesque portfolio presents thirty-nine dancers performing in authentic clubs and backstage settings in 1950s New York. This nostalgic collection includes nearly 250 never-before-seen black and white and color photographs of well-known dancers, including Tempest Storm, Liz O'Leyar, Murine, Rita Gable, and Princess Domay, as well as other sultry performers, quite famous in their heyday. Kemp's talents as a photojournalist provide a fresh perspective on the lives of burlesque performers in this golden era. An artist as well as an investigator, Kemp created striptease photo montages and composed biographies for several dancers, giving the reader an intimate feel for the campy burlesque culture. This time capsule depicts live performances and peeps into club dressing rooms, and offers unedited material from pin-up photo sessions. It is a must-have for aspiring dancers, aficionados, or any modern-day guy or gal who appreciates the style and grit of this fabulous art form.

Charlotte Greenwood never intended to become a comedienne, but she was unfashionably tall at 5'10"" and her early aspirations to become a great dramatic actress eventually led her to the field of comedy. Greenwood, whose early life had taught her nothing if not how to be optimistic, stifled her disappointment and used her considerable skill to become one of the greatest comedic actresses of the early twentieth century. Based on Greenwood's unpublished memoirs; this biography presents a personal, detailed look at her colorful life. Beginning with her early years in Philadelphia, Boston and Norfolk, it relates her struggles with ill health, her social difficulties caused by her then unusual height and her realization of her ambition to become an actress. The main focus of the work is her career, which spanned more than 50 years and ranged from vaudeville to the stage and, finally, to films (during the World War II years she starred in Twentieth Century Fox musicals with Cesar Romero, Betty Grable, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Haley, Don Ameche, and Carmen Miranda). Her roles in a variety of works including ""The Passing Show of 1912"", ""So Long Letty"" (both stage and film), and ""I Remember Mama"" are also discussed. Special emphasis is placed on her career-defining (and best-known) role as Aunt Eller Murphy in the 1955 film adaptation of ""Oklahoma!"" Charlotte Greenwood's performance history, a list of her known recordings, and a filmography for her husband Martin Broones are also included.

This entertaining and enlightening book depicts the rise of popular culture in America by brilliantly recapturing the essence and commercial trappings of one of its most vital forms of entertainment-the vaudeville show. Vaudeville was a meeting place, an inclusive form of theatre that flourished especially in New York, where it fostered cultural exchange among the city's ethnic groups. In The Voice of the City, Mr. Snyder reconstructs the famous acts, describes the different theatres, and shows how entrepreneurs created a near monopoly over bookings, theatres, and performers. He also gives us vaudeville's decline, its audiences usurped by musical comedy, radio, and the movies. "A fascinating and highly readable social history....By exploring the place of vaudeville in the neighborhoods and in the city central theatre district, Robert Snyder brilliantly illuminates the way city culture was made and worked in the lives of people at the turn of the century."-Thomas Bender. "The most authoritative book on American vaudeville...also a remarkably good read, filled with colorful details and incisive commentary on American popular culture in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century."-David Nasaw.

Martini Man goes beyond the simple caricature of the boozy lounge singer with a penchant for racy humor to reveal the substantive man behind that mask. Although Martin's movie roles receive in-depth attention in this incisive biography, as does his career-defining partnership with Jerry Lewis, details of Dino's personal life also abound, such as how Shierly MacLaine dropped by his house "to tell Dean she was in love with him-even though his wife was in the other room." William Schoell's chronicle is a sympathetic portrait that recreates the life and times of one of America's favorite entertainers.

From the early days of minstrelsy to Black Broadway, this book is the story of African American entertainment as seen through the eyes of its most famous as well as some of its most obscure practitioners. The book forms a chronological arc that moves from the beginning of African American participation in show business up through the present age. Will Marion Cook and Billy McClain are discovered in action at the very dawn of black parity in the entertainment field; six chapters later, the young Sammy Davis Jr. breaks through the invisible ceiling that has kept those before him "in their place." In between, the likes of Valaida Snow, Nora Holt, Billy Strayhorn, Hazel Scott, Dinah Washington, and others are found making contributions to the fight against racism both in and out of "the business."

Will Rogers played a prominent role in American culture and society in the 1920s and 1930s. Star of Broadway, radio, and film; political pundit and newpaper columnist - Rogers was one of the most successful and best loved figures in entertainment in this period.

This study explores a wide range of Victorian and Edwardian musical life including brass bands, choral societies, music hall and popular concerts, and analyzes the way in which popular cultural practice was shaped by, and in turn, helped shape social and economic structures. The text has been fully revised in order to consider recent work in the field.

For the first time, stunning images of the women of the burlesque stage are gathered together in one great volume. In period photographs the timeless beauty of those exotic women who titillated, teased, and sometimes tortured their audiences is captured and celebrated. These memorable images make it clear that, when it comes to a beautiful body and a gorgeous face, tastes change very little. And just as in the past, the imagination is encouraged to run wild and ponder what might have been. This is a book to relax with and enjoy over and over again. Its rich, nostalgic view of a bygone era in American entertainment will please everyone, men and women alike. A "revealing" piece of Americana!

This text represents the distillation of over 30 years experience as a music hall chairman. It provides both a source book for music hall chairmen and an historical insight into the genre, as well as over 600 song titles of the period given, together with their lyricists, composers, dates of first performance or publication and the artists who made them famous. Introductions and back announcements are given for each - some straightforward, some funny and some downright saucy! Whether researching for a music hall evening, or reading purely "for pleasure", this volume should make informative and amusing reading.

In recent years, the number of strip clubs in the United States has increased dramatically. Dressed up with terms such as gentlemens clubs, they often feature valet parking, limousines, executive dining rooms, extravagant menus-and, of course, topless or nude women dancing on stage. Stripping has become a big business, with over 3.5 million people, primarily men, attending clubs each week. But what about the women who perform in the clubs? Why do they do it? What is their perception of their job.

Numerous interviews with working strippers accompany extensive research inthe literature. Some steeppers see stripping as simply a job, others view it with a degree of embarrassment, while many see it as an opportunity for empowerment . Few became strippers by design but a surprising number continue to strip for many years. The use of drugs and instances of abuse are covered, as are the views of the strippers families.

Gigs provides a fascinating account of a unique victory for musicians against repressive entertainment licensing laws. It provides a much-needed study of the social, political, cultural and legal conditions surrounding a change in law and public attitudes toward vernacular music in New York City.

This second edition includes a new preface by Hamish Birchall and an introduction by the series editors, Guy Osborn and Steve Greenfield, as well as an afterword by the author, and it will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of social attitudes toward the popular arts and the use of constitutional litigation for social change.

Focusing on Glasgow's earliest surviving music hall, the Britannia, later the Panopticon, this book explores the role of one of the city's most iconic cultural venues within the cosmopolitan entertainment market that emerged in British cities in the nineteenth century. Shedding light on the increasing diversity of commercial entertainment provided by such venues - offering everything from music hall, early cinema and amateur nights to waxworks, menageries and freak shows - this study also encompasses the model of community-based, working-class music hall which characterised the Panopticon's later years, challenging narratives of the primacy of city centre variety. Providing a comprehensive analysis of this dynamic popular theatre of the industrial age, Maloney examines the role of the hall's managers, marketing and promotional strategies, audiences, and performing genres from the hall's opening in 1859 until final closure in 1938. The book also explores stage representations of Irish and Jewish immigrant communities present in surrounding city centre areas, demonstrating the Britannia's diasporic links to other British cities and centres in North America, thus providing a multifaceted and pioneering account of this still extant Victorian music hall.

Glasgow has always been known for its live music, and at the heart of any music community it is the live venues and buildings that are important, and play host to local and touring acts. One of the main reasons for Glasgow's continued blossoming as a cultural capital is the infrastructure of clubs and buildings available for live performances. This book in glorious colour throughout tells the history of the city's music through Glasgow's famous landmark buildings by people best placed to tell those stories - music writers and journalists and historians. This book is a collection of memories and stories about the buildings that hosted stars such as Michael Jackson, Joan Armatrading, Joy Division, among many thousands more - ranging from the Apollo to the Pavilion, Piping Centre, Sub Club and King Tut's.

From the vaudeville era, through the Astaire-Rogers movies, to the intricate artistry of bebop, tap has dominated American dance with its rhythm, originality, and humor. This book collects the voices and memories of thirty of America's best-loved tap-dance stars and two hundred rare theater, film, and publicity photographs. Here Shirley Temple recalls her magical duo with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson; Fayard Nicholas describes his days at Harlem's Cotton Club performing with Cab Calloway; Fred Kelly visits his and his brother Gene's Pittsburgh dance studio; Hermes Pan reminisces about his work with George Gershwin, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire; and, in a chapter new to this edition, Toy and Wing tell about their days as the world's leading Asian tap duo. Appended with the most comprehensive listing of tap acts, recordings, and films ever compiled--newly updated for this paperback edition--"Tap!" brings to life the legends of one of America's most cherished and enduring art forms.

This is a one-of-a-kind reference work to the history of vaudeville, performance art, burlesque, revue, and comic opera. Most of these artists are not profiled in other reference books and the author has done deep research, including archival work and personal interviews, to uncover the rich history of this American artform. This will be a must-have for students of theater history and performance art, but it is also essential for anyone insterested in the cultural history of America.

Mae West, Sarah Bernhardt, Ethel Barrymore and Helen Keller are perhaps among the best known women to appear on vaudeville stages. Each came to vaudeville by a different path and with a different offering: Mae West entered vaudeville with a song and dance routine when she was 13 years old. Ethel Barrymore dropped in on the Palace Theater to present one-act plays. Sarah Bernhardt was being celebrated by the British for her fifty years on the dramatic stage when she agreed to appear in the U.S. Helen Keller appeared on the stages of first-class vaudeville houses with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, telling about how she overcame the handicaps of blindness and deafness. Many other women followed their own paths to become vaudeville headliners. This book tells the stories of 80 who were among the top vaudeville acts in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when entertainment was often live variety shows in theaters across the country. Singers, singer-comediennes, comediennes, dancers, sister acts, actresses, male impersonators and novelty acts are covered as separate categories. Biographies of the performers in each category appear in order of the date they entered vaudeville, an arrangement that allows the reader to trace the history of vaudeville itself. A final section concentrates on the headliners' heritage, taking a broad look at the group according to ethnic background, socioeconomic background, family life, and other factors, including what happened to them after vaudeville died.

This work reveals the often racy, ribald, and sexually charged nature of the vaudeville stage, looking at a broad array of provocative performers from disrobing dancers to nude posers to skimpily dressed athletes. Examining the ways in which big-time vaudeville nonetheless managed to market itself as pure, safe, and morally acceptable, this work compares the industrys marketing and promotional practices to those of other emergent mass-marketers of the vaudeville era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Included are in-depth examinations of important figures from the vaudeville stage such as Annette Kellerman and Eva Tanguay. The work attempts to address historical context as one means of understanding theseperformers with an appreciation for their rebelliousness. It discusses censorship and content control in the vaudeville era, and concludes with an analysis of films part in the fall of vaudeville. Many photographs, cartoons, and other illustrations are included.

From 1905 to the crash of 1929, Sam Shubert (1874-1905) and his brothers Lee (1874-1953) and J. J. (1878-1963), despite poor beginnings and near-illiteracy, created a theater monopoly unrivaled in history. Their ruthless business tactics and showmanship made 42nd Street the heart of American popular theater and won them the most sought-after stars of the day, including Al Jolson, Carmen Miranda, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Mae West, and Fred Astaire.

The Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino is easily overlooked by modern-day visitors to the Las Vegas strip. Originally opened in May 1955, it quickly rose in popularity as the city's first racially-integrated hotel and casino. Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, and other A-list black singers and musicians performed at the Moulin Rouge on a regular basis, and for once they were allowed to spend the night in the same Las Vegas hotel where they performed. Sadly, the Moulin Rouge fell from fame almost as quickly as it had risen, closing its doors in November of 1955 and filing for bankruptcy only a month later. For the next several decades, the Moulin Rouge stood largely abandoned, until a devastating May 2003 fire left the hotel's signature marquee standing sad but stoic in front of the fenced-in remains of the historic hotel.This book is an original and comprehensive work of scholarship on the history of the Moulin Rouge, explaining the important role that the hotel-casino played in early desegregation efforts in Las Vegas. It addresses the many contributions that the Moulin Rouge made in transforming Las Vegas into a truly cosmopolitan city, while describing the painful journey that blacks in Las Vegas have taken in an effort to achieve equal rights from the Jim Crow era to the present day. With the Moulin Rouge as the backdrop, it provides an overall analysis of the evolution of race-relations in Las Vegas, including a detailed account of the landmark desegregation agreement which was made at a 1960 meeting between Las Vegas hotel owners, black leaders, and government officials - at the then-closed Moulin Rouge. Finally, it examines recent efforts to rebuild and renovate the historic establishment.

The performance art of burlesque, once a faded form, has made a comeback in the twenty-first century, and it has shimmied back to life with a vengeance in Cleveland. Thanks to fans and entrepreneurs, neo-burlesque has taken the stage--and it's more inclusive, less seedy, and emphatically fun. Rust Belt Burlesque traces the history of burlesque in Cleveland from the mid-1800s to the present day, while also telling the story of Bella Sin, a Mexican immigrant who largely drove Northeast Ohio's neo-burlesque comeback. The historical center of Cleveland burlesque was the iconic Roxy Theater on East Ninth Street. Here, in its twentieth-century heyday, famed dancers like Blaze Starr and comics like Red Skelton and Abbott and Costello entertained both regulars and celebrity guests. Erin O'Brien's lively storytelling and Bob Perkoski's color photos give readers a peek into the raucous Ohio Burlesque Festival that packs the house at the Beachland Ballroom every year. Today's burlies come in all shapes, ethnicities, and orientations, drawing a legion of adoring fans. This is a show you won't want to miss.

Today, 16-18 Beak Street is a burger bar, but don't let the muddy grey of the whitewashed oak walls deceive you. This building was once filled with dancing showgirls in glitzy costumes, performing to over 100 people a night. For this corner of Soho once housed Murray's Cabaret Club; night after night it forged fantasies for deadened aristocrats, served dishes of dreams to Arab businessmen, and provided refuge for hounded celebrities. Founder Percival 'Pops' Murray introduced London to the 'Cabaret Floorshow', hiring an army of dancers, musicians and seamstresses to make sure that everything was perfect - from the dancers' painted nails and intricate costumes, to the polished wood walls and the gleaming glass stage. However, the spell was broken in 1963 when the Profumo Scandal erupted - a love triangle between a Murray's showgirl, Britain's Minister of War, and a Soviet spy, all at the height of the Cold War. Here, Benjamin Levy tells the story of Murray's founding and the tales of the dancers both before and after their time at the club, the work that went into the shows and - in dazzling photographs and designs - reveals the recently discovered costumes that were worn in London's most glamorous floorshow.

The boat on which Edna Ferber based her famous novel brought excitement and entertainment to isolated small towns up and down the East Coast in early twentieth-century America. The builder of the boat, James E. Adams, was a farmer from Michigan who taught himself to be a circus aerialist, started and prospered with his own carnival company, and later, when retirement proved boring, decided to build himself a showboat. The book traces the history of the James Adams from its inception until its demise twenty-seven years later, a tale that includes fires, sinkings, a shooting, arrests, and even several deaths.

Following the tremendous success of his first book on the subject, The Queens of Burlesque, Len Rothe has again pulled from his collection of original photographs of entertainers this delightful selection of over 100 images of Burlesque stars. Together with a revealing text that introduces burlesque to today's new audience, these photographs retain the surprise and teasing elements that endeared the dancers on stage in the heydays of burlesque shows, before television. In theaters throughout America, striptease dancers entertained grateful audiences. Here are Tempest Storm, Scarlett O'Hara, Lili St. Cyr, Georgia Sothern, and Zorita and her doves. With this book, they look out again with timeless beauty and show you the Bare Truth.