In the chapter entitled Bye Bye Burlesque towards the end of Leslie Zemeckis' book, Beyond the Burly Q, the author reports what various strippers she included in that book had to say about the end of the profession that sometimes also meant the end of their personal careers. Some of them would've aged out by the early 1970's anyway but some simply had no idea what else they could do for a living besides burlesque. They were used to being independent women who earned their own money.
When burlesque first developed as an art form it occupied a gray area of entertainment but was close to a variety show like vaudeville. It was about comedy and included a straight man and other often actors on stage. It was not necessarily about taking it all off. Then over a few decades things changed and the art form was challenged.
The reasons include:
A new morality in which various cities banned burlesque, which included arresting dancers which made it difficult for them.
In the 1960's. Go Go dancers who were also often dancing near nude and pole dancing.
The woman's movement (feminism). (I suppose that in the 1970's feminists thought of strippers as women who were repressed by men, but it was also a time when sexual liberation influenced ordinary women.)
Drag shows by transgender burlesque entertainers and "drag queen" types.
Nudie films that were also shown in the same theaters or between live entertainment. Some of the dancers were paid a little money to allow filming, not porn, but substitutes for live performances that were then showed in theaters.
Pornography, especially so.
Excerpt page 297: By the 1960's, a 'burlesque" show was stripped of chorus girls minus the production numbers divested of novelty acts, and missing live musicians. The emcees were gone, song and dance acts were banished, and specialty dancers were dropped.
Blaze Starr remembers, "You were on the stage during your act and it was a huge club. And over all the way across the building on the wall was hardcore porn."
Excerpt page 302: Once the strip clubs came in burlesque was out.
My notes. The strippers and others who had worked those theaters felt their art had been degraded by pornography. However some think that burlesque exists in contemporary entertainment, citing Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bette M, and RuPaul.
The argument for the current existence of burlesque is that it was once low culture but went mainstream. The height of burlesque happened in the World War II era when there was a surge in popularity. (This figures in the story of Blaze Starr being prompted to please the army men in an audience by taking off her top.) In 1931 it went to Broadway and at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair Sally Rand and Faith Bacon appeared with fan dances.
However, I think the popularity and success of Dita Von Teese challenges the idea that burlesque is a lost art. I've watched her performances on YouTube videos (as well as the performances of some of other contemporary dancers). I think Von Teese has created shows that are of the highest quality and that her performances take into consideration how every move will appear to the audience.
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