The rules of burlesque. An original backstage snapshot which provides some guidelines for the girls. Kansas City, 1953, and from the collection of one Happy Ray, a former burlesque comic and emcee turned manager of Connie Ray (which if the photograph I find of Mrs. Ray is true, Happy got lucky...REAL lucky.
Digging around lets you follow Hap's career a bit, with things like "Happy Ray after 12 weeks on the Empire Burly circuit...joined Boob Brasfields company in stock."
The photo, which I purchased from photograph dealer Stonewarezilla on eBay shows a theater manager in Kansas City. Clown feet at left...but I was most interested in the sign of rules.
Kansas City is hardly a place one would think rules mattered too much (being the place where they "got some crazy little women there and I'm going to get me one" after all) but I guess even in somewhat "open" towns the nipple is no no.
In fact, this very sign is mentioned in the book "Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show" by Rachel Shteir on page 248. Ms. Shteir is my kind of writer...in addition to Striptease she's just published a history of shoplifting!
"Net Pants" were nylons which covered the g-string. Net Pants? Pfft. It certainly didn't say anything about net pants on the poster out front!
Original Snapshot, 1953 Kansas City Backstage at the Folly (Burlesque) Theatre, ex-collection Happy Ray Collection Victor Minx
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