“Behind the Burly Q”: Tassels And Fan Dances Across America

"Behind the Burly Q," a new documentary of burlesque's heyday from the 1930s to 1950s, paints a compelling picture of an art form and lifestyle, at turns wholesome and raunchy, that is lost.

Burlesque dancing has made a comeback in several cities, mostly featuring tattooed, sassy, and determined women who are clearly of their own time. But "Burly Q" reveals that today's revival only shines a light on a small part of that world.

Starting in 2006, producers Sheri Hellard and Leslie Zemeckis conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with the fascinating members of a literally dying breed of American artists. From musicians to comedians to aerialists to strippers, "Behind the Burly Q" tells a story that you just don't want to end.

"We were lucky to talk to a number of people just before they passed away," said Zemeckis at the Los Angeles screening. "People just don't know these stories."

Some of the stories seem timeless: the camaraderie among show folk, the discovery of America from the stages of its dives and palaces, dancer rivalries, swindles, tragedy, and an enduring sense of the show having to go on.

Burlesque, the film points out, was vaudeville plus strippers, and what is surprising about "Burly Q" is how family-oriented the art form could still be, with wives and children attending the shows. But that often depended on the city, and there were strippers that even other strippers thought were too scandalous.

The stripper interviews were the real treat of the movie, but it is a function of the fading of the form that their names are hard to recall. Blaze Starr, Lili St. Cyr, and Rose la Rose are names I had never heard before, but who captivated audiences (as well as Louisiana Governor Earl Long, in Starr's case) in their time.

Lou Costello's daughter recounts how her father took the stage the night his infant son died, and Alan Alda, whose father, Robert, was an accomplished "straight man," talks about growing up with naked ladies.

The women, as we can judge by the airplane nose art of the time, were all juicy and fun-loving, or so it seemed, and indeed some subjects recall the burlesque days as the best of their lives. Others say the sleaze factor got to them.

"The big misconception was that we were preoccupied with sex," one stripper recalls, "but we were really thinking about whether there was a good restaurant in this town."

The more things change...

"Behind the Burly Q" is currently traveling around the country.

· Behind the Burly Q (behindtheburlyq.com)

Behind the Burly Q (behindtheburlyq.com)
Behind the Burly Q (behindtheburlyq.com)
Behind the Burly Q (behindtheburlyq.com)
Behind the Burly Q (behindtheburlyq.com)