Photo: George Silk / Time Life Pictures
Dancer and audience AT the Pink Pussycat, 1966.
Manson murders hung like an ominous vapor over the entire town and cocaine was about to replace marijuana and martinis as the intoxicant of choice. Even Jim Morrison, who viewed debauchery and no-holds-barred exhibitionism as a nearreligion, complained to an interviewer who was profiling him for a magazine cover story( he did the interview at the strip club The Phone Booth on La Cienega) that“ nothing was left to the imagination” anymore; the girls snaked around the stage nearly naked with money being thrown at them, all to the hammering carnival bark of“ Light My Fire” and“ Foxy Lady.” At places like The Classic Cat, where the first all nude dancer, Nancy Seaman, gyrated, crawled, teased and bared all to bikers, drunks and wide-eyed tourists, any sense of mystery, style, decorum— and burly— had vanished. One of the girls who worked during the era says of that time,“ I don’ t know how I kept my morality intact in that job, but somehow I did. I went to a party once and I knocked on the door and it was opened by a naked black woman. Behind her was this mountain of naked bodies and I just turned right around.” however, it was the infamous Body Shop that buried burly once and for all. It had the best, most beautiful and raunchiest strippers in the world— and it was the first all-nude joint which, of course, was then copied by all the other clubs in town. Girls from all over the world came to LA to dance at The Body Shop: Samoa, Sweden, South Africa, Australia. The Body Shop featured 100 revolving girls, had amazing stages, an intimate fireplace, and private rooms for table and topless lap dances. The list of girls went on for miles. To this day, there’ s still truly something at The Body Shop for everyone: French, blonde, Italian, brunette, Lolita schoolgirl, Playboy model etc. this second burlesque diaspora was swift and sad. Howard Levey gave up the organ, changed his name to Anton LaVey, and founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco. The Mayan made an appearance in Save the Tiger, as a porno theater
where Jack Lemmon consulted an arsonist. The Follies and Burbank were razed in 1974. Margie Hart had done so well in real estate that she could insulate herself from the media glare and quietly raise her children. But she would not be denied the spotlight. In the 1970s, she married LA City Councilman John Ferraro. Tongues wagged in the background but Mrs. Ferraro held her head high. The former burly dancer, notorious in her day, had made a place for herself in polite society. Lili St. Cyr retired and opened a lingerie company called Scantie-Panties and began collecting cats.( There were reports she had over 100.) Tura Satana became a nurse at a hospital and married a retired police officer. Kalantan got married and moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Betty Rowland, who never had a drink or a smoke, went into the bar business, opening Mr. B’ s in Hollywood. of course, there’ s the recent neo-burlesque revival happening in cities, film and TV but, like most revivals, it lacks the raw, unselfconscious verve of the original incarnation. Nostalgia is a fickle beast. It’ s always hard to put the genie back in the bottle and much of the acts and performers lack the sheer freedom, innate naughtiness and feral thrill that burlesque once provided: hushed, quixotic theaters that were the audiences only chance to glimpse private, midnight fantasies fueled by pent-up desire and cold martinis. Make no mistake, burly shows were a flash point of sexuality, bawdiness and teasingly, excruciating fun. So much of burlesque, back in the day, was about being an inappropriate female where, in reality, there wasn’ t much else for such an outlet, making today’ s revival seem pure parody, a sped-up spectacle for casino towns, less desperate feeling and more showbiz razzmatazz. it’ s like burly superstar Gypsy Rose always used to say as she counted her bounty after a nights seamy performance:“ Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.” t! treatsmagazine. com 49