Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

About ten years ago I began a website called G-Strings Forever!, a tribute website to both strip joint strippers and burlesque. I was posting fuzzy digital photos of the scene I knew and setting up links and writing articles without the benefit of much site programming ability, and without blogging technology, flickr, or youtube. Inspired by the original Velvet Hammer website, I interviewed curfnt performers and burlesque legends. I wanted desperately to convey what was amazing and inspiring about these art forms and the people in them. Fortunately, as the School of Burlesque and The Burlesque Handbook have begun to keep me busier and busier, other, more able people have picked up that job, and one of the most inspiring is Holli-Mae Johnson, Editor-In-Chief of 21st Century Burlesque. Above: Holli-Mae, The Editor-In-Chief. How did you become interested in burlesque? Well, I suppose it was likely that, as a performer and with the friends and interests that I had, I would come across ...

Mother’s Day Burlesque Brunch A Salute To The Mothers Of Burlesque Featuring Legendary Burlesque Queens DIXIE EVANS TONI ELLING DEE MILO Performances by ANGIE PONTANI JO BOOBS MSTICKLE PERLE NOIRE DR. LUCKY THE WORLD FAMOUS *BOB* RUBY VALENTINE DJ MOMOTARO May 9,2010 Show starts @ 1:30PM Doors open @ 12:30PM Tickets and More Information The World Famous *BOB* and Jo Weldon of The New York School of Burlesque will co-host this landmark event featuring The Mother’s of Burlesque, Dixie Evans, Dee Milo and Toni Elling. The event will feature a question and answer panel with these legendary Burlesque Queens, select performance and tribute numbers by Angie Pontani, Mstickle, Jo Boobs, Perle Noire, Dr Lucky, The World Famous *BOB*, Ruby Valentine and DJ Momotaro. This is the first time in over a quarter of a century that these legends of burlesque are being showcased in New York City. This is truly a one of a kind event, not to be missed. THE CAST: DIXIE EVANS - Nob...

There's a fantastic article in Paraphilia Magazine Issue 3, pages 43-65. You can open and read the issue at the site.

Every year at The Burlesque Hall of Fame Striptease Reunion , several performers bring numbers constructed to tribute their favorite superstars of classic burlesque. Sometimes they are recreations, sometimes they are simply inspired by and include elements of movement, costuming, and/or lore associated with those performers. This year I'm tributing Sherry Britton, for which I have the honor of having had her guidance and suggestions before she passed away. As the BHOF Weekend nears (or I should say, zooms in, as I'm feeling a bit behind in my preparations!), I want to make note of some of the loveliest tributes I've seen, so I've asked the performers who did them to make some comments on the experiences they had with their numbers. This is the first of two or three posts I'll make about tribute numbers. Above: BOB and Ruby at the New York Burlesque Festival. Photo by Kitty Kowalski. Video of an Interview with Liz Renay "Last year for the NYBF 2007 I de...

Did you have close friends in burlesque, and do you still have them? For some reason I really got along great with all the girls, and I don't remember having any friction with any of them. If you featured you traveled a lot and had your own dressing room, and the locals and chorus girls hung together more, so I usually didn't get to know them well, but I did make friends. I've still got friends that I still write to from way back. I would say it was a very wonderful comaraderie among the women. There may have been more conflict in the big eastern theaters. When I lost my scrapbook in Miami Beach I put an ad out to help me find it, and I got 14 letters from young people saying they wanted to hear about mortal combat backstage! It wasn't like that. I would say every once in awhile there would be two redheads or two very famous dancers and we'd expect conflict because of what they had in common. Sometimes at 9 am we'd be downstairs for rehearsal with the piano pl...

I love talking with Dixie Evans. She is one of the friendliest, most gracious, most open-hearted people in the world, and one of the most open-minded as well. If you already know all about her, you'll enjoy the stories she tells in this interview; if you're not familiar with her, you'll find a new hero. Image snagged from Java's Bachelor Pad. Click the image for more Dixie. When did you get into burlesque? I was in chorus lines in Hollywood in other types of shows before I got into burlesque, in the late 1940s. I was a page too, that's a showgirl who walks with the curtain as it opens ad then you thrust your hands open as the star steps forward. I had just worked on a show that closed in two weeks. I was hanging out on the steps of a club and the club manager came out and asked me if I could cut my act short and mix with the audience a little more, and I said, "I don't work here!" and got up to leave. He followed me down the street and offered...

'"I love the boys, the girls, all the movers and the shakers who come to our show," said former burlesque phenomenon Dixie Evans, 80.' http://www.sbsun.com/ci_6325132 'Dixie plays a big role in keeping burlesque alive, Rio said, with a museum that allowed current dancers to learn from the original movers and shakers. Dixie's Exotic World, Home of the Movers and Shakers' Burlesque Museum and Striptease Hall of Fame in Helendale came about from her friend's collection of burlesque memorabilia. Jennie Lee ran the Sassy Lassy nightclub until she was diagnosed with breast cancer and moved to an abandoned goat farm in Helendale. Dixie and her friend held a reunion there every year for their friends in the burlesque business. "We didn't quite know what to do about the reunion when Jennie Lee died" in 1990, Dixie said. "But one thing was certain, she wanted to keep burlesque alive." So Dixie kept it going. That year marked the fir...