The Business of Burlesque in Fortune Magazine

You might have to be a ridiculous burlesque fanatic to enjoy this post, but here goes.

I recently got this copy of Fortune Magazine from February, 1935, that features an article called "The Business of Burlesque." Sadly, the first half of the article is missing from the magazine, and I have no idea who the author is, but the writing is actually quite tangy and good, so I suspect it might have been Somebody.

If you're obsessed like me, you'll be able to tolerate my terrible scans enough to click on these images to read some of this fantastic stuff. I never get tired of reading old stuff where the demise of burlesque is direly predicted, or looked back upon--I think the death of burlesque has been predicted every year since anybody ever reviewed it. And I suspect also the revival of burlesque was predicted or described shortly thereafter, burlesque being so frequently brought back.

Burlesque Article in Fortune Magazine, February 1935
Burlesque Article in Fortune Magazine, February 1935
Burlesque Article in Fortune Magazine, February 1935

If you know anything about this article, please contact me!

And if you ever want to get on my good side, give me stuff like this. Old Cabaret magazines, old clippings...I've had people give me old nudist magazines from the 70s with people with big bushes playing volleyball, and while I certainly enjoy that sort of thing from time to time, it doesn't really pump my nerdy nads the way pieces like this article do.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Charles Fenno Jacobs' pictures for "The Business of Burlesque, A.D. 1935," taken at the Wilner Chain in Manhattan, are as unblinking as the prose: "The insistent question most men ask about Burlesque is 'How moral are the girls?' If the answer isn't written in the work they do, take a producer's laconic comment: 'Some virgins, no professionals.'"

Writers didn't get bylines at Time Inc. publications in the 1930's, so even with the missing pages there would be no way to know who wrote it. The above text is from a flashback feature in 2000.

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