DANCER

No that's not Audrey....

 

STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES OF EVERY VARIETY

Missy here. Some of the mistresses profiled here at Mistress Manifesto started out in chorus lines or on stage in some way, such as Marion Davies and Gypsy Rose Lee. Men, called Stage Door Johnnies or Back Stage Johnnies, were like groupies in a way that they attempted to get into the personal life of a star. To get noticed they aimed to please and they used their money to do that. In the heterosexual world, they were men who waited to see a dancer come to the club, who wanted to adore them and gift them. Some of them were special fans or became fixated on a certain dancer and wished to make her life easier, Keep her, while others wanted to take her out of the life she was in and have her in theirs. Some of the dancers also also attracted a lesbian following although many of the clubs would not allow women in as audience.

In Leslie Zemeckis book we learn that burlesque dancers were pragmatic. They wanted and liked their independence and were generally careful to prioritize their careers.  On the other hand, making good money for yourself did not mean you had to reject help, favors, or gifts.

Excerpt pages 207-208 :

I found among Sherry Britton's papers the following, which she might have written, "Did you know that the girls had them in categories?  There were the Drugstore Johnnies, those who could be counted on to buy a girl the cosmetics she needed.  There were Dinner Johnnies, Nightclub Johnnies, and even, honestly, G-String Johnnies. You see, G-Strings were all handmade, elaborately beaded, and cost a small fortune. Of course, for many girls, it was a game of "How much can I get from him before he gets too much from me?

Sherry had her share of gifts, including the use of a Cadillac from an admirer that she drove around New York at 4 in the morning looking for - and finding - men.

The women had wonderful adventures outside of work. "It was a great life."  And there was no shame in having the men court the girls, Alexandra the Great maintains. "I thought I was very professional.  I conducted myself that way. I was treated that way.  I think a lot of people have the wrong idea of what it was like.

***

A TRY AT HOLLYWOOD as CHABING COOPER and GIVING UP ON LIFE

Isabel Rosario Cooper went back to entertainment or tried to.  Life in Hollywood didn't renew her work or fame that she'd left behind in Manila.

"Chabing (the name she used as an actor) went from playing a nurse, a geisha, a Siamese harem wife, a Native American, a Chinese servant, a Chinese-American secretary, a hula dancer, another Chinese servant, a Filipina servant, a Carabean slave, and an "Oriental" belly dancer.  In lower budget Charlie Chan films she has full scenes, exchanges dialogue with the lead.  In others she is just another body providing color, being a type.  (Pages 128-129)

"In the decade following her arrangement with MacArthur, Isabel Cooper relentlessly remakes herself, Isabel Kennamer, housewife from Washington, D.C; Belle Cooper, ingénue; Isabel Cooper, actress, possibly Isabel Moreno, wife, Chabing Cooper, nightclub hula dancer; Chabing, actress.  She shaves at least a decade from her actual age, claims to be white, Malay, Scottish, Irish, Javanese.  She moves from being a mistress to getting married, then divorced, to married again (and again.)

Finding herself evicted from a familiar role, and unsatisfied with the one that follows, she invents a plethora of selves in order to survive --sometimes just barely and with bruises to show--in the manifold niches available to women like her.  Both distant from and yet intimately bound to the war raging across both oceans, these roles show a woman making do with scant material and doggedly crafting a life and livelihood through ingenuity and manipulation, or what perhaps has been dismissed as "feminine wiles."  (Excerpt page 110)

The last film she appeared in was shot in 1953 and released the following year and was a fake documentary about burlesque. She had no other roles.

How Isabel continued to live is unknown. However, when she died, she was probably fifty years old and it was an overdose of barbiturates and was likely suicide. Her once upon a time husband, Frank Kennamer, now remarried with children, and a lawyer, was called upon and provided her a burial plot but it is without a headstone in Holy Cross Cemetery, Los Angeles.

There may have been an investigation but the file is lost.

C 2023 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights

 

ISABEL ROSARIO COOPER IN THE PHILIPPINES - VAUDEVILLE

This image comes from a brief news item that appeared in November 2017 in an

on-line newspaper called Philstar Global. Learned that date taken and photographer are unknown. It also appears in Empire's Mistress starring Isabel Rosario Cooper as a black and white copy. Even from afar one can see the dimples that gave her that nickname.

SURPLUS WOMEN IN BRITAIN AFTER WORLD WAR I

WWICENTENARY - SURPLUS WOMEN AFTER WORLD WAR II 

It might help to understand what the women of Great Britain faced after World War I, which is a man shortage.  This effected marriage prospects and increased a need and desire for employment.  In this interesting article, which comes from World War I Centenary, 

It begins: More than 700,000 British men were killed during World War One.  This tragic loss of life affected the lives of young women in 1920's Britain.  Virginia Nicholson has discussed in her 2007 book, Singled Out, the difficulties of unmarried women following the gender imbalance of the population which followed World War One.  The  middle classes were especially affected with a higher proportion of officers killed than those in lower ranks.  The 700,000 deaths resulted in a particularly large gap between the male and female populations of people aged 25 -34 with 1.158,000 unmarried women and 919,000 unmarried me, according to the 1921 census.

CLEO OBJECTS TO THE COURTESAN LABEL, SUES, and WINS AGAINST FEMINIST AUTHOR SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

Simone De Beauvoir, a feminist writer who became famous for a book called "The Second Sex," published in 1949 which is now considered a classic and revolutionary, called Cleo de Merode a Courtesan. A Mistress. A hetaeri. In The Second Sex the author examines how women have been treated throughout history. She got in trouble when she wrote that about Cleo was a courtesan. The old dancer, then about seventy-five, sued. By 1952 she had won and the defamation was removed from future printings.. 

Having had the admiration of many men, what would the beautiful ex dancer admit to? If not the King, then who? Was she rewriting her own history, saving face, or forgetting?

Like other women we've covered here at this blog, Cleo wrote and published a memoir. Hers, entitled "Le Ballet de Ma Vis" (In English, "The Dance of My Life,") came out in 1955. In it she admitted to having been involved with only two men in her life! Perhaps the woman, raised Catholic by her Baroness mother, was saying a lot to admit to two.  Born illegitimate, she never married or had children.

The list of artists, sculptors, and photographers she posed for is long. It's not likely they used a body double.  She no doubt wished to engage men's imaginations.  She was seen nude, but perhaps it could be said artistically nude rather than pornography nude.

She wrote that for a decade, until he died in 1904, she'd been engaged with a French aristocrat. Then, she said she'd been the companion of a Spanish Diplomat from 1906-1919.

I do wonder if the woman actually went from 1919 to 1966 without ever another boyfriend. It seems anything us possible but it's my opinion she chose to admit to two long term relationships. In other words two men she thought worth writing about.

Cleo had enough money to the beach town on the southwestern coast of France called Biarritz which had once been a cool place for nobles to vacation. She lived to be 91 years old and as they years past became unknown.

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

FOLIES BERGERE CLEO DE MERODE

CLEO DE MERODE by GIOVANNI BOLDINI 1901

 

CLEO DE MERODE TRIES TO TAKE NEW YORK BUT FAILS

Cleo de Merode arrived in New York City in 1896 at the height of her fame in Europe where the Germans and Austrians loved her as much as the French and the first locally taken photos of her appeared in September of that year in the New York Journal.

She had hopes of attaining even greater fame and fortune but she failed. My notion is that perhaps during this era when so many were leaving Europe to immigrate to America and leave behind allegiance to Kings the supposed consort of a King seemed to be just too Old School, from the Europe they left behind. 

According to Michael D.Garval, the author other book on Cleo that was a primary reference for this month's posts, there's the possibility that Americans were merely curious about what Paris thought of as beautiful when they went to see her. They might also have been disappointed in her skills at dance. In New York she presented herself as the star of a ballet called Phryne on Broadway.  Perhaps they were expecting "a spectacle of sexuality" and got classical dance instead and felt disappointed.

Cleo danced at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris when she was twenty-five. (Colorized videos are being posted this month thanks to YouTube contributors.) Watching them it seems to me her presentations were graceful and modest rather than exotic. Was it that her modest performances didn't live up to her racy or sensationalized reputation? Cleo would end her dancing career around the age of thirty-nine, having begun at seven. It was a long run and is still typical of dancers who are often suffering from injuries and arthritis by forty.

Her apparent failure in New York City didn't stop the dancer from continuing on in her tour of America.  She appeared in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and smaller cities in the Midwest.

But then, what did she do until she died at ninety-one?

Had she made a fortune to sustain her? Or had she been given gifts enough to sell? 

Perhaps we will never know the details but the world would hear of Cleo De Merode again long after she had been a star.

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

My notes from the book on Cleo by Michael D. Garval included

CLEO DE MERODE DANCES AT THE 1900 PARIS WORLD EXPO

Javanese traditional dance performed at the 1900 Paris World Expo. HD & colorized with Deoldify AI  (I just love seeing old photos and films re-colorized!)  Posted b History In Color.

BAL DE LA COURTURE PARISIENNE

FLAMENCO

LOLA MONTEZ - DANCER - 19th CENTURY RADICAL

According to this video, Lola Montez was a feminist and politically astute.  She was self employed - true.  SHE WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED SMOKING A CIGARETTE!

BALLET PANTOMIME

Amelie Dieterle artist

TAVERNE OLYMPIA

GYPSY ROSE LEE - STRIPPER MISTRESS OF WAXY GORDON in the SPEAKEASY ERA

Update : Here's an interesting article from Daily Mail UK about Gypsy's son Erik Preminger's new film about his mother!
DAILY MAIL : STRIPTEASE ARTIST GYPSY - DOCUMENTARY

Rose Louise Hovick - Gypsy Rose Lee

1911-1970

To prepare to write this Mistress of the Month post, besides reading author Karen Abbott's book cover to cover, I watched a few YouTube videos including excerpts from the film in which actress Natalie Wood played Gypsy.  I found a joking and fully clothed Gypsy Rose Lee on an old television show called "What's My Line," which is in black and white and seems extremely dated.

Gypsy projected humor and a certain optimistic joy of living.  It is that attitude that she brought into her burlesque theatre routines.  Her smile was dazzling, but her first set of caps that made her teeth thick, even, and white, was a first perk when early on she was the mistress of a New York mobster named Waxy Gordon, original name Irving Wexler.

Years ago I attended a musical play about Gypsy Rose Lee at a local college theater department.  The play as well as most every mention of Gypsy (and her sister, who became the actress June Hovic) seems to include their mother, Rose, who was the back stage mother from hell, something that perhaps actress Wood had in common with them. 

Why was Rose hell?  Well, I imagine that she was not just driven but a Narcissist and not just a Narcissist but a Malignant Narcissist.  Both of her daughters learned to keep her out of their business eventually. With all the pushy single mothers back in the day getting their pretty and talented daughters to support them, well, maybe this was what it took to survive starvation.  It was the early 1900's when Rose as a single mother of two daughters with no other talent than her pushiness - which likely repelled their fathers - decided her girls were destined for show business.

Petite and blond June, the looker when they were kids, was the one Mama Rose promoted first.  No doubt these two sisters were highly incompatible by their natures and no doubt mom set up a competition between the two but for a while Rose Louise, the darker haired daughter who would become a world renown stripper, was outdistanced by her sister. The one thing both of them had in common was Rose, who as an irrepressible mom had to be dealt with, had to be kept out of their lives as much as possible.

If June went the way of the "good girl," Gypsy, went the way of the "bad girl," at least by reputation. Mom taught her that men should get just the opposite of what other girls, and other strippers, gave, which even then, in acts that generally were tame compared to what strippers do at your local venue, was too much.

Was virginity really expected?

During the Great Depression, according to the author, seven out of ten single men and women were active sexually.  That was risky taking. It was illegal to advertise birth control.  Lovers had to mail order "marriage hygiene" products, tried the rhythm method, or invested in a 14 caret gold button IUD!

The woman who appeared on "What's My Line," has in common with actress Marilyn Monroe, the forgiveness of popular culture, the understanding that sometimes when you are a nobody with nothing coming out of nowhere, you do things which are maybe immoral or wrong. A certain aspect of our popular culture figures any kind of work is better than a handout.

To tell the truth, Gypsy got out of stripping not just because she was aging but because the up and coming strippers were going well beyond anything she ever did, making her stripping seem like a comedy act by the 1950's.  Still, she was active as an entertainer from 1928-1969.
Believing that the tease was what her audiences wanted, rather than blatant nudity that shows all, it wasn't until her last strip that she was briefly seen entirely in the nude and then for a fast second before she went behind the curtains.  She kept that ongoing joke of a tease going for years and years.

Gypsy married, divorced, married and had one son, Eric, who, according to some sources, was supposedly the son of film director Otto Preminger, rather than her husband at the time, and divorced.  She married a third time and divorced again.
But for our purposes here, we enter into the reasons beyond a strip act that came to be thought of as tame, for the "bad girl" reputation that Gypsy Rose Lee had back in her early days.

According to author, in the 1930's in New York, there were "animal parties" which were basically sex parties, and gypsy went to them though at heart she was asexual.  It is not said if she simply watched, held her men at arms length, or if she was actually participatory, but her attitudes about sex were very pragmatic. Rose knew it and was indignant that Gypsy had gone this low.


Rose might have objected to her daughter being sexual but Waxy Gordon was not Gypsy's first lover nor did she aim to be married to Mr. Right.  She had lost her virginity to "Ed" a wealthy man connected to Broadway and literary circles that she aspired to.  Then she had a fling with Red who taught her how to Kiss.  Then a Crooked cop.  As she worked her way down to Waxy, who was a short, plump and dangerous man with a diamond bracelet on his own wrist, a man who made his money in speakeasies during Prohibition, she got to know that he knew everyone in the mob from Lucky Luchiano to Arnold Rothstien.  Waxy ran 32,000 speakeasies, illegal nightclubs that served illegal liquor and varied from beautiful locations with the finest of liquors to what amounted to holes in the wall with stuff that could kill off your liver laced with dangerous chemicals.  He brought in 80% of the liquor from Canada and the Bahamas and worked with Irish gangs.  It was rumored that his tactics included murder and even a 6000 foot beer pipeline underground.  Waxy Gordon lived in splendor with a wife and three children, not that he was known to be faithful.  When the average person was earning less than $2000 a year, he was paying about $6000 in personal rent, the children were in expensive private schools and rode horseback.  Waxy is said to have worn underwear bought for $10 a piece under his slick custom suits.  In 1930 he had money to spare from an estimated income of 1.5 million in income, for which he paid $10.76 in taxes.  As a side, the television series Boardwalk Empire has Waxy as a character.

After he set eyes on Gypsy, he sent over four bottles of champagne in a typical act of generosity to those he was interested in and soon they had an implicit agreement that he would open doors for her.  He called her the day ater they met and said she had to go to his dentist to have her teeth straightened.  Mama objected so they didn't go.  But then came the next message from a friend who said Waxy was very hurt and that she had better go.  It was a warning.  The doctor owed Waxy and soon she had new caps that looked like real teeth.  When he asked her to perform at a prison benefit she went.  Rose had bought them a house for $8000 in Queens but it had no furniture.  Waxy started having furniture delivered.  Soon, according to her blond actress sister June, Gypsy became the Pet of the Underworld.  She too was concerned about what was happening to her sister who said "I will never be Louise again.  Call me Gypsy."   Gypsy said, "Nobody is going to be a roadblock for Gypsy Rose Lee."

Gypsy started to think that all men were married and wanted a mere ornament of a woman who would help them live a fantasy life. 

As for Waxy, Gypsy called him "Mr. Gordon and he called her "kid."

Rose decided to like him.  She said, "Give me a true blue gangster anytime."

Nobody was kidding anybody.

While June proved to have no talent or instinct for stripping as an art form and felt ashamed when she tried it,  Rose with the help of Waxy was soon working for the Minsky Brothers, entertainment pioneers if you include stripping.  But now she had to step into Waxy's world which including the shocking parties in which there was smoking and conversation, but mostly sex.  June went to one and soon fled.  How could Rose have allowed it? June was convinced it was because her mother never loved her.

Maybe Rose only loved herself?


C 2018  All Rights Reserved  Mistress Manifesto Blogspot

MEMOIR OF A GEISHA FILM TRAILER

 I loved this film, not only for its artistry but its story, its "reveal" of a life we modern women probably could not imagine. Based on the novel by Arthur Golden, who interviewed Mineko Iwasaki, and he says other Geisha as well, it is assumed to be close to her life story. One of my platonic men friends said that he felt sorry for the girl in this story.

HAWAII - PAN AM POSTER

DEUX

CONTEMPLATIVE BALLARINA

from publicdomainpicture.net