Burlesque

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Lili St. Cyr (1946)

Burlesque was the name of a genre of American entertainment theater mainly in the first third of the 20th century, which was close to American vaudeville , but presented the striptease as a central attraction .

The artists did not completely undress but only took off certain items of clothing. Taking off gloves could become an erotic attraction. When the striptease became really undressing after 1930, the connection between moderation, dance, singing and suggested striptease dissolved.

etymology

Poster for a burlesque show (1898)

Under Burlesque a humorous theatrical representation with originally parody and grotesque elements understood. The word burlesque comes from the Italian word burla for "joke", which in turn comes from the Latin word burra for "trifle". In the Spanish theater of the Siglo de Oro there was a comedia burlesca , variants of the burlesque have existed all over Europe since the 17th century.

Origins

The shift in meaning from burlesque in the sense of a grossly comical play to burlesque as an erotically provocative show took place in London in the 19th century . A similar shift in meaning resulted from French vaudeville as a light comedy to American vaudeville as a series of artistic numbers.

Burlesque Show was initially called a British version of pantomime , for example by James Planché . In the Victorian era , this burlesque became a symbol for a popular culture of workers, which was directed against the aristocratic high culture with calculated rudeness . The connection with revue elements gave these events an erotic connotation from around the middle of the century.

History and society

The word burlesque originally comes from the Italian word burlesco and the small form burla, which means “farce, fun”. Burlesque is referred to as a genre of US American entertainment theater - mainly in the first third of the 20th century - that was close to American vaudeville and presented the striptease as a central attraction. In doing so, the artists did not completely undress, but only removed a few items of clothing. Even taking off gloves could become an erotic attraction. When the striptease was completely undressed after 1930, the connection between moderation, dance, singing and suggested striptease dissolved. The art form is now making a comeback: some of the actresses from the variety show were hired by film and television productions. A problem at the time was poverty. Affected women therefore turned to burlesque in search of financial independence. Revue was considered a costly pleasure, while working-class burlesque performances provided affordable entertainment. Burlesque dancers in America were known to practice prostitution as well. These were immigrants who deviated from the prevailing role models and rejected a role-compliant family life in order to earn their own living. Burlesque developed in a similar way in Europe and the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. The geographic center was to be found in poorer neighborhoods in New York such as the Bowery in south Manhattan. Burlesque experienced its first climax after the First World War.

Burlesque in New York in the 1920s

In New York there were mostly unemployed, underpaid men. Nude dancing was a thriving business in the 1920s as the atmosphere in striptease bars and prostitution attracted people. Due to the economic hardship, traditional moral values ​​and norms dissolved - at that time these developments extended to the middle classes. The most famous burlesque producers in New York at the time were the Minsky brothers. They brought burlesque from the poorer neighborhoods to Broadway and introduced the concept of striptease, which had changed everything in burlesque. It was these brothers who popularized the term that combined the art of seduction with the elements of dance, revelation and comedy. The audience liked the mix of erotic, sex and comedy. Striptease artists of the 1920s in America were famous, for example Ann Cario or Maggie Hart, who were arrested in New York for being exposed during a performance. The actresses found their way out of poverty. Burlesque freed them from social constraints and some were given a financially carefree lifestyle. An actress who started her career at a young age earned an average of between $ 700 and $ 2,000 a week with the Minskys. As a result, burlesque collided with the social norms according to which women were assigned the role of passive and subordinate with the associated gender role clichés.

Furthermore, the conflict, on the one hand, between the demonstration of the man's financial potency in the role of the show-goer and, on the other hand, the woman's striving for economic independence is to be regarded as multifaceted and complicated. In the early days of burlesque, when the display of erotic and nudity took on different meanings, this form of moral abuse in patriotic America led to reprisals and bans on burlesque performances, up to and including the closure of revues. As a result of this stigmatization, burlesque was forced into illegality in the USA from the 1930s and came to a standstill.

'Rebirth' after World War II

With the loosening of the performance ban in the USA, burlesque experienced a 'rebirth' after World War II. The focus was no longer on exposing the body, but on the personality of the artists, their ability to interact with the audience and their expressiveness. It is crucial that the focus shifted from the body of the woman as an object of desire and desire to the woman as a performing artist. As a result, the transformation of the object assigned to the man showed the woman becoming a subject as an independent being. This represented a break with the social notions of femininity and masculinity. In addition, the image of the naked woman gained in popularity. Burlesque had to stand out from this in order to find its center in the artist, her costume and charisma. Ultimately, there was an opportunity for new male and female identity formation on stage and among the audience. Despite the economic boom, burlesque lost its popularity on both continents in the mid-1960s. Progressivism and optimism were the new drive and zeitgeist. Especially in America, the working conditions for burlesque artists deteriorated. Beauty pageants and top model productions were of interest, scanty clothing and nudity, as well as the fashion and body business, were more accepted than before.

US burlesque

Beginnings

Gypsy Rose Lee became famous for her burlesque shows

US burlesque had its origins in guest performances by British and French travesty shows since the second half of the 19th century. Women performed in pants, which was provocative. Otherwise, women almost exclusively wore long skirts in everyday life (compare trouser role ). The dancer Lydia Thompson shone with a leotard and short skirts in burlesque and from 1868 she became a celebrated star in New York City .

Modern burlesque as a stage show emerged under the influence of the great Parisian variety theaters such as Moulin Rouge or Folies Bergère , which were imitated by the Ziegfeld Follies at the beginning of the 20th century . The Burlesque included motifs from the sideshows of circuses and developed into an independent genre of entertainment theater, as the popularity of the US vaudeville waned in the late 1920s.

Burlesque gained popularity as inexpensive erotic entertainment through those traveling circuses that offered the suggested striptease, which was garnished with cheeky sayings, as a supporting program in their sideshow ("Carny-Shows"). These shows were aimed at simple audiences and didn't have a self-contained plot: just a pretty girl getting naked and some glamor and amusement. An important element of burlesque were interludes of well-known comedians , while the acrobatic numbers, which were surpassed in silent films , lost importance.

Minsky's Burlesque

Burlesque experienced its heyday as an independent genre in the years before the outbreak of the Second World War. The New York Burlesque Show is closely linked to the name of the brothers Abe, Billy and Herbert Minsky ( Minsky's Burlesque ), who ran a number of entertainment establishments from 1912 to 1937, mainly for an audience of immigrants from humble backgrounds. Since 1931 they even maintained a venue on Broadway (see New Victory Theater ). The movie The night flew Minsky ( The Night They Raided Minsky's , 1968) with Jason Robards about the alleged invention of the striptease in 1925 gives an idea of the old burlesque show.

One of the most famous American burlesque artists was Gypsy Rose Lee , who combined the striptease with educated small talk (cf. the song "Zip" from the musical Pal Joey , 1940). Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim portrayed her in the 1959 musical Gypsy .

It all started in 1912: The 'Burlesque Monarchs' of New York were the four Minsky brothers who owned 14 theaters. The National Winter Garden was known. Despite the lockouts and raids, the brothers were successful. A stage play that has been successful for years was "Anthony and Cleopatra". The question arises as to why Minsky's burlesque was so popular. One of the artists mentioned that there was exactly the burlesque that the audience liked, because the special 'Minsky humor' made it incomparable.

To experience burlesque in its primitive form, a visit to the Olympic on Fourteenth Street was enough. The audience had high expectations, so applause was only given when the artists disappeared behind the curtain. The audience didn't laugh that often, but wanted the artists to stay on stage. The visitors came to this theater because there they could experience their dreams and enjoy the moment. They seemed afraid of the artists' presence, so they fell silent.

The comedians in burlesque included WC Fields , Phil Silvers or Abbott and Costello .

Aftertaste

Burlesque then continued to exist in various forms and tried to adapt to more modern phenomena such as the pin-up culture of the 1950s. During this time, actresses like Betty Page or Lili St. Cyr could be seen in performances that were called burlesque. With the beginning of the sexual revolution from the 1960s - on the one hand through the increased spread of pornography and on the other hand through the women's movement - the genre had outlived itself.

New burlesque

Burlesque only experienced its renaissance in the 1990s as Neo-Burlesque or New Burlesque in New York through Ami Goodheart's revue "Dutch Weismanns' Follies" and in Los Angeles through Michelle Carr's troupe "The Velvet Hammer Burlesque". These productions, which were based on the performances of great burlesque dancers such as Mae West , Bettie Page , Gypsy Rose Lee , Dixie Evans or Lili St. Cyr , in turn inspired a new generation of dancers to new shows and a new approach to the tradition of burlesque .

Since the 2000s, burlesque has been revived under the motto Neo-Burlesque or New Burlesque in Canada and Europe (so in Berlin , Munich and Vienna), but mostly just called "Burlesque". A well-known actor is currently the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese . In Germany, the best-known representative of this art is Marlene von Steenvag .

literature

  • Robert C. Allen, Alan Trachtenberg: Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture . Cultural Studies of the United States. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill / London 1991, ISBN 978-0-8078-4316-1 .
  • Liz Goldwyn: Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens: The Last Golden Generation of American Burlesque Queens . Collins Design, 2006, ISBN 978-0-06-088944-9 .
  • Dita Von Teese: The Art of Burlesque - The Art of Fetish . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89602-752-8 (Original title: Burlesque and the art of Teese . Translated by Madeleine Lampe).

Web links

Commons : Burlesque  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. burlesque. In: Duden . Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  2. Burlesque from head to toe in Vienna. In: Augsburger Allgemeine . Retrieved January 23, 2020 .
  3. Kira Leinberger: Variety Show: When life seems boring, a lot of glitter helps. In: Szene38.de. November 13, 2015, accessed January 23, 2020 .
  4. Peter, Ann-Marie Barbara: Image and role of the sexes in the contemporary burlesque scene - a reconstructive study. Vienna 2013. p. 28.
  5. Lucinda Jarrett: Striptease: The Story of Erotic Undressing . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-352-00620-2 , p. 99 f .
  6. David Ballela: The Night They Raided Minskys ( English ) knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  7. Peter, Ann-Marie Barbara: Image and role of the sexes in the contemporary burlesque scene - a reconstructive study. Vienna 2013. p. 29
  8. cf. Gypsy Rose Lee strip routine. YouTube, 1943, accessed on January 23, 2020 (English, Gipsy Rose Lee with a short version of her striptease, excerpt from the film Stage Door Canteen ).
  9. Lucinda Jarrett: Striptease: The Story of Erotic Undressing . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-352-00620-2 , p. 133 f .
  10. ^ Edmund Wilson: Burlesque Shows . In: Laurence Senelick (Ed.): The American stage . Penguin, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-59853-069-8 , 1. The National Winter Garden, pp. 343-346 (English).
  11. ^ Edmund Wilson: Burlesque Shows . In: Laurence Senelick (Ed.): The American stage . Penguin, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-59853-069-8 , 1. The National Winter Garden, pp. 346-347 (English).
  12. ^ Edmund Wilson: Burlesque Shows . In: Laurence Senelick (Ed.): The American stage . Penguin, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-59853-069-8 , 1. The National Winter Garden, pp. 348-349 (English).