Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Kelly DiNardo just posted this video of Catherine D'Lish in her blog , and I'd never seen this clip before. As a rule I wouldn't copy post the same video, but in this case I just have to say, Play it again! Catherine D'Lish and the Royal Crown Revue Now you know why everyone who's ever seen Ms. D'Lish perform gets a little dreamy-eyed at the mere mention of her name. I mean!!! Posted by Jo Weldon, Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque , for burlesquedaily.blogspot.com .

Kelly DiNardo just posted a link to Kara Mae's Lili Ct Cyr Gallery, which features pictures of the lingerie I mentioned in the comments in my November 5 post. The very first picture is the ad I was talking about! Click the images to see lots of great lingerie ads on Kara's site.

Kelly DiNardo lists some of the effects Lili has had on other pop culture icons in her article in USA Weekly. When she asked me about her, naturally I had to talk about Rocky Horror! ( Click here to find out why.) I often suspect that when people who are just beginning to examine burlesque talk about the influence of Gypsy Rose Lee, they're really thinking of a combination of Gypsy and Lili and they don't yet know the difference. Gypsy was certainly an all-out showgirl, and she had the saucy tongue and the entrepreneurial genius, but Lili's pictures have inspired a lot of fancy props and costumes too. Do a Google image search on each of them and you'll see what I mean. Image from the Staley Wise Gallery, which exhibits many amazing collections, including the photos of Bruno Bernard (Bernard of Hollywood). Click the image for more gorgeous shots. 'In the Broadway musical Pal Joey, reporter Melba Snyder sings about meeting a Gypsy Rose Lee-esque character who ske...

If you haven't yet visited Kelly Di Nardo's Blog, you must. Any fan of burlesque and exotic dance is sure to be thrilled with her articles, links, and interviews. We decided to interview each other some time ago, and I'm just now in town long enough to start editing all the interviews I've done in the past month. I'm pleased to start my return to blogging with this interview! First, the adorable Kelly: How did you get interested in burlesque? I was working for Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan on their biography of Frank Sinatra. One of their research requests for me involved Lili St. Cyr. I became fascinated and started reading a lot about her and the other women of burlesque. I was surprised to learn how the men of burlesque were still well-known names -- Abbott and Costello, Jackie Gleason -- but that for the most part the general public didn't know much about the women of burlesque. What does burlesque mean to you? There's so much to it. It ...