Pink Saturday - Naked Ladies

Beverly at the blog How Sweet the Sound has a great idea! It's Pink Saturday. Post about something pink, on Saturday. Here are the rules if you want to Get Pink!

When we arrived home from our southern vacation, the Naked Ladies were still blooming on our hillside, although blossoms were beginning to fade in the harsh California heat. These tender bulbs show their leaves in the late spring, which fade to nothing, and then in late August the flowers' bare stems shoot up and these huge, delicate pink lily-like blossoms appear.

These flowers were here when we bought the house - we moved into the house in late September, and so we didn't learn of the Naked Ladies until the following August. Imagine our surprise when they suddenly popped up and bloomed.

"Naked Lady" is the common name for the tender South African bulb Amaryllis belladonna.

Seeing this flower, and thinking about its common name reminded me of a book I'd read recently. And it's the same pale pink as the flower.

The book is called "Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens" and it's by author Liz Goldwyn. I heard her interviewed on NPR, and had to buy it. Goldwyn, granddaughter of famed Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, became interested in Burlesque after finding some second-hand costumes. Fascinated, and eager to learn more, she began interviewing former dancers, costumers, and others involved in Burlesque entertainment.

Photo of performer Titian Dal from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Burlesque was far more than just a bunch of strippers taking off their clothes onstage. Goldwyn provides an overview about the beginnings of this form of entertainment, which included comedy acts as well as dance acts; its evolution to racier and racier material, and its eventual decline due to combined forces of changing technology and changing social morals. Goldwyn profiles some of the Burlesque Queens, or superstars of the art form, including Gypsy Rose Lee and Lili St. Cyr.

Photo from Los Angeles Public Library Digital Image Archives, also appears in the book

She also introduces us to performers that she actually met and became friends with, giving us a look backstage. She reveals how girls created their routines; the gimmicks each was known for, and trade secrets - such as how performers knew when it was safe to "flash" a little more skin without getting arrested.

The book is wonderfully illustrated, with photos of the era from the collections of the former dancers, and with shots of some of the garments in Goldwyn's collection. She also has a treasure trove of sketches, notes, and scrapbook ephemera and costume accessories from the archives of designers and costumers that created the costumes, New York's Rex Huntington and Los Angeles' Gussie Gross.

Look at this fantastic set of sketches! In the heyday of burlesque, costumes were so glamorous that women attended shows along with men, just to check out the latest glittering fashions.

Goldwyn discusses the intricate and complex construction of stripper outfits. All the costumes were custom-fit, and composed of multiple pieces. The fastenings, in the years before velcro, needed to be well-placed and functional so that items could be easily removed, yet sturdy enough to withstand several performances per day. Performers spent several hundred dollars on a single costume - in those days, one costume often cost an entire month's wage. The book includes letters between performers and costumers as they discuss costumes on order - or how well a new outfit worked out.

The costumes included netting, hand-beading, feathers, sequins. Horsehair was used to increase the stiffness in skirts, and applique work was sewn over fishnets and net body-suits. Goldwyn also reveals one costumer's solution to making it easier for strippers to twirl tassels on their pasties - swivel fishing hardware sewn into the base of the tassels!

Another inside look into this fascinating world is from photographer Robert Adler, whose show "Burlesque" appeared in a San Francisco gallery this spring. As a young man in Philadelphia during the '70s, Adler went backstage at the Troc burlesque theatre, at first for an assignment, but then returned to photograph dancers and the world backstage. His photographs show burlesque at the point of its decline, after Goldwyn's fabled queens had retired. Mr. Adler has kindly allowed me to post one of his photos here.

Photo Copyright Robert Adler

I love the poignancy of his images, the everyday quality of life backstage contrasting with the tawdry beauty of the spotlight onstage. In his photos, the dancers are at once alluring and beautiful, and relaxed and casual, putting their hair in curlers, waiting to go onstage, doing what people do every day at work. Visit his website and view the entire slide show - it's terrific!

All those naked ladies!! There they are, carrying their silken pink petals so proudly held on those slim and unadorned stems.

Hmmm....Amaryllis Belladonna sounds like a great name for a stripper - don't you think?