Burlesque: A Living History

by Jane Briggeman

Join the journey-discover burlesque when it was part of a large theatrical world filled with dance, comedy, and live music. BURLESQUE: A Living History captures the spirit of this unique art form through hundreds of photographs and stories from many who were a part of America's most colorful past. This book highlights the careers and contributions of selected artists, many of whom were the nuts and bolts of burlesque. It also acknowledges just some of the young performers of today who are diligently working to remember the days of old. When burlesque theatres and clubs went dark, a whole world went dark with them. This book is a journey preserving just some of the history and memories of those who worked on a variety of those burlesque stages.

Genres: Nonfiction

444 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2009

Reviews

[Hedy Harper (Erin Hanton) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent entry level burlesque book. Not as comprehensive as some other books I own, especially as it focuses on artists the author personally knew. Unfortunately the book isn’t super well written and perpetuates the harmful and whorephobic idea that burlesque is classier than stripping or that the comics were more important than the women in old time burlesque; neither of which is backed up by the historical record, though often repeated. The book also overlooks burlesquers of color almost entirely. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge, but if you struggle with reading academic accounts and want something more detailed than a glorified picture book, this will get you started.

[Alice Urchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this is an interesting collection of short biographies on golden age burlesque dancers (and a few venues), but a lot of the biographies felt a little generic. For example, in a lot of places they'd say things like, "This dancer always worked well with comedians and said, 'The comedians I worked with were nice to me,'" (no mention of specific comedians she liked or any reason she liked them or favorite routines) or "This performer was fond of animals" (no mention of her having pets or donating money to charities that deal with animals or anything like that). If she worked with comedians for 20 years with no major rifts, shouldn't we assume that she got along well with comedians? Don't most people like animals? Why would that be worth mentioning? It just seemed like a lot of filler content. More elaboration and fun anecdotes could've jazzed things up a bit. I liked that it covered so many different performers and places, and there were a few unusual performers included (the part about the siamese twins was my favorite), but overall I found it to be lacking.

[Centauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, for certain; took many pages before it got really interesting. The in-depth look into the lives of the people in old-time burlesque was far more interesting than the speedy cliff note bio-versions found at the beginning of the book.

It left me with more questions than answers too. I want to know what was the act that almost got 1 of the ladies arrested in Mexico? What do they mean by 'talking woman' & 'straight man' and how did the revival of burlesque (now known as Neo-Burlesque) come about?

decent enough history book of something many (including myself) have no clue about and use prejudices or stereotypes to explain

[Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic book! It was great to read about all of the performers and historic locations. I also loved all of the vintage pictures. I just wish it included a more extensive history of burlesque, like how it started, spread to the USA and progressed. There were only slight hints at history prior to the 1960s, working conditions, daily life, trends, downturn of audience expectations, and the modern resurgence and reinterpretations, which left me wanting to learn more. This is fine and all, but I was also left rather unsatisfied.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! I had gotten four books on Burlesque and this was the last one I wanted to read. Amazing stories and women! they still get together and meet every year and discuss the good ol days of performing. I was surprised to learn that these women were truly into the art form of provocative dancing and they were not into drugs or prostitution! if I were of that time I would have been one of these pioneers!! loved the costumes and personal stories!