Miss Exotic World Pageant Winners!

Did I really think I was going to have time to blog on this wild trip???
I just have to make this post happen, though. Thanks to all the performers, the producers, volunteers, and audience of the show, and congratulations to the winners!
Best Debut

Perle Noire
Image from Perle’s myspace
Best Duo

Jewel of Denial and Kat Bardot
Image from Jewel’s […]

Happy Birthday Lili

We’re going to take a short break from our special edition series of The Miss Exotic World Candy Gram interviews to wish a happy birthday to Lili St. Cyr, who was born Marie Frances Van Schaack. To celebrate what would have been her 91st birthday, here’s a short excerpt from Gilded Lili on her birth:
On […]

Inspiration and Execution: Tribute Numbers in Burlesque

Every year at The Burlesque Hall of Fame Striptease Reunion, several performers bring numbers constructed to tribute their favorite superstars of classic burlesque. Sometimes they are recreations, sometimes they are simply inspired by and include elements of movement, costuming, and/or lore associated with those performers. This year I’m tributing Sherry Britton, for which I have […]

Re-Release of ‘The Night They Raided Minsky’s’

Click on the image above to buy this poster!
‘Minsky’s features an all-star cast, and the first signs of a budding nostalgia for the vanished world of the ‘20s and burlesque theatre in particular; the casting of Burt Lahr – the Cowardly Lion - in a small but poignant role is a tribute to that vanished […]

Forget Britney

In this month’s Smithsonian magazine, Sam Wineburg, a history and education professor at Stanford University, survey 2,000 11th and 12th graders to see who they considered to be the most famous Americans – excluding presidents and their wives. Marilyn Monroe landed in the number eight slot. Now, before anyone gets their tassels knotted up about […]