Dorothy Dorne: A Life in Pictures by Jo Weldon
Last winter I spent some time going through paper archives in the Burlesque Hall of Fame collection in Las Vegas, with the help of Laura Herbert and Brian Newman. I was particularly interested in the sheet music and the notations on it. I intend to share more about the sheet music project
Performance Archetypes: The Half-and-Half
While I’ve yet to find conclusive proof of its origin, the Half-and-Half—in which a solo performer utilizes clever, vertically divided costuming and skillful choreography to create the illusion of a duet—has long been a staple of classic burlesque performance. Most commonly associated with dichotomous male/female numbers (like Zorita’s racy “Bride & Groom,” top),
Celebrating Gypsy Rose Lee, 1911-2011
“I wanted to point out how you are different from all the other strippers I have ever seen. Seeing them is something like getting a peep at a girl on a picnic. Perfectly ordinary experience. But to feel that you are seeing a princess take off her pants: That’s something