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Jack is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in history. His career in the life and health insurance industry involved medical risk selection and brokerage management. Retired in Florida for over two decades after many years in NJ and NY, he occasionally writes, paints, plays poker, participates in play readings and is catching up on Shakespeare, Melville and Joyce, etc.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

1-23-14: Wendy Davis, Burlesque Memories and Sid Battles Comcast



I recently got into a discussion about the old Burlesque theatres (there were two) in Newark, NJ, my hometown, and had occasion to do a Google search on “Stinky and Shorty,” two burlesque comedians whom I remember seeing at the old Empire Theatre there.  Once in a while, we cut the last class from high school so we could catch the four o’clock show at the “burl” and see the comedians and the strippers. 

  (no caption)
Some advertising posters from the old Empire Theater on Washington Street in Newark (In those days, running a burlesque theater did not require you to know how to spell).

While on the internet looking for Stinky and Shorty, I came across this piece which is something I think you would not normally be reading, so I’m including it in this posting of the blog. Perhaps some of you might recognize some of the names of the burlesque headliners I have highlighted.  Most teen age boys were warned not to go to the “burlesque show” because they might see something there that they shouldn’t be seeing!  That, as the joke goes, was of course “their fathers.”  That, I never did.
Jack Lippman


The History of Burlesque



Actress, Writer

"For too long these burlesque girls have been held down on the low rung of the entertainment ladder . . . but no more" declared Dixie Evans, the former Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque. Dixie and I have set out to change the perception of how old-time burlesque is viewed. "It has been left out of the history books." Dixie had been the quintessential beauty that "fell" into a career taking it off. I was privileged enough to interview the octogenarian. She wasn't the oldest. There was 97 year-old Mimi Reed - I should have been a stripper. I would have made a hell of a lot of money; 90 year-old Betty Rowland aka the Ball of Fire who sued Samuel Goldwyn Studios, and 88 year-old Sherry Britton, a stripper who was made an Honorary Brigadier General by FDR. 

These were just three former burly girls who knew all too well the slights leveled at them because they shook their pasties for a living. "We'd get humiliated at Saks," Dixie said. "They meant to put you down." 

The Golden Age of burlesque was the '30s and '40s. It was a big, gaudy, humorous show, a cousin to vaudeville "with a little more spice," which meant stripping.

I shot a documentary on the subject; sponsored a reunion of former performers; wrote a book, and collected mounds of memorabilia. I've become an "expert" on a field I assumed was a strip show with second rate performers grinding in seedy theatres for men with popcorn buckets over their laps (well, that was true).

It was a huge industry in America. Picture this: thousands of artists laboring 4 times a day, 6 days a week, month after month for years - to packed houses. Performers enjoyed long careers on the circuit, earned a decent living, raised families and were content to be someone in burlesque.

While Broadway shows became too expensive to produce during the Great Depression burlesque thrived, for pennies one could fall into a burlesque show and forget one's troubles and laugh. 

Most names are forgotten today, like Stinky & Shorty, Peanut Bohn and Kitty West. And it was more than just strippers.  There were the straight men, like Robert Alda, who supported the comics. Alda was known officially as the "tit singer" presumably because he sang while the girls wore very little. There were the famous comedy teams like Weber and Fields, Abbott and Costello.

Abbot and Costello started in Burlesque


There was "Cheese n' Crackers" Hagan who got his name because instead of swearing he said '"cheese and crackers." There were the novelty acts such as harmonica players and hand-balancers like Renny von Muchow, one-half of a team of hunks that worked steadily for 25 years. 

There were the chorus girls and talking women, who performed with the comedians. And of course there were the strippers, many who peeled creatively such as Blaze Starr who rigged smoke to come out of the chaise she disrobed from. Some ecdysiasts worked with animals, oyster shells, swings, or like Lili St. Cyr a see-through bathtub (pictured below). Many had accidents including falling off the stage.

    Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr
 
The removing of just how many clothes depended on venue and performer, but was still tame by today's standards. Some of the "bad" girls of burlesque like Rose La Rose tried to get away with flashing pubic hair or - more hilariously - fake pubic hair. Beverly Arlynne sewed a piece of fox fur on a g-string and flashed for the farmers in the audience.

Few planned a career in burlesque. Showgirl Helen "Bingo" Bingler got into burlesque to escape a wicked stepmother who knocked her front teeth out with a broom handle. Sherry Britton lived for a year on the streets of New York before seeking refuge in burlesque. Her mostly absent father showed up and complained. "My daughter in burlesque?" She could only stare. "Where were you? What was I supposed to do?" Sunny Dare was stiffed on a show and "had to strip to earn enough money to get home." Candy Barr escaped white slavery to get into burlesque, only to end up enmeshed with Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby.

Most, but not all of the women, came from tough backgrounds. They were escaping poverty and abuse. With scant opportunities to improve their circumstances burlesque gave these women a chance to transform their lives.

What started out as a "family entertainment" became a rite of passage for high school boys sneaking into theatres. Soldiers filled the seats and wrote fan mail from the battlefield. Women attended and were served tea by the strippers. 

Most of the strippers I interviewed said it was a time they looked back on with fondness not regret. Tee Tee Red claimed "that was the good days." Tempest Storm was still shaking her "booty" in her 80s.

There was great camaraderie backstage. Blaze Starr remembered how Val Valentine brought her soup when she was ill. Beverly Arlynne's hands were crippled by rheumatoid arthritis. She never removed her gloves, except one performance, running late she failed to get them on. A man in the audience complained and she was fired without pay. Don Rickles, on the bill that night, bought her a plane ticket home.
Long before Vegas, TV and movies, Rickles was in Burlesque

Comedians tended to marry the talking women. Lou Costello met his wife who was a pony (the short one in the chorus) in a show. There were high jinks and fun. "We used to get little bottles of 7-Up and fill them up with gin." (Maria Bradley) Comedian Rags Ragland was in a bar-fight defending a stripper. He knocked a guy on the head then returned to finish the show.

The biggest grind of a show wasn't what the strippers were doing, it was the relentless amount of travel, multiple shows in a different city every week, catching trains, throwing wardrobe, sleeping in g-strings. 

Not that the performers were all saints, but as former stripper Vicki O'Day noted "there were fewer stripper prostitutes than secretary prostitutes."

Burlesque as it was is no longer. Neo-burlesque troops have exploded around the world keeping alive a tradition of entertainment that has informed everything from The Carol Burnett Show to Saturday Night Live, Katy Perry to Lady Gaga. Burlesque was a wonderful, important part of our American entertainment culture, a heritage that we - and those who toiled in its ranks - can finally be proud of.

Leslie Zemeckis is the author of the new book Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America.

                                                          




 What's Behind Attacks on Wendy Davis

Democratic Texas State Senator Wendy Davis is running for governor of the Lone Star State, a position the G.O.P. has had a lock on for twenty years.  You may recall her recent filibuster in the Texas State Senate opposing abortion legislation which would reduce a woman’s right to choose what she felt would be best for her.  Consequently, the right wing is out to get her.

 Davis campaigning

Davis’ biographical material tells a dramatic story of a single mom, raising her baby in a trailer park, before going on to complete her education at a community college, at Texas Christian University and finally, at Harvard Law School.  As is unfortunately occasionally the case with politicians, Davis embellished her story a bit, omitting a few details and confusing whether she was 19 or 21 when her marital problems first arose.  Wendy and her first husband were divorced when she was 21, and her stay in the trailer (her parents’ domicile) was relatively brief, once the settlement was finalized.  A second marriage, which enabled her to go on to Harvard Law and introduced her to politics, also ended in divorce. The point is, to quote Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi riposte, “What does it really matter?”  It wouldn’t if she were a man.

If Wendy were a man, would thrice-divorced Rush Limbaugh and his ilk be tearing into her as if the inaccuracies in her biography were indicative of a deep character flaw which inexplicably didn’t prevent her from being elected to the Fort Worth City Council and ultimately, to the Texas State Senate.  Of course not!  For the right wing to attack Senator Davis about glossing over this troublesome part of her life, when she was barely out of her teens, is sexist and ignores a noteworthy career in the legal profession and in elected offices.

Davis’ opponent, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, seized on the report to question Davis' credibility calling her story a “fanciful narrative.”  A spokesman for him added that "It's disappointing that a candidate would so cavalierly deceive voters about the most basic aspects of their life, while providing inaccurate testimony in the process.  If voters can't trust what Sen. Davis says, how can they trust her to lead?  Texans deserve candidates who are open and honest with the truth."   Senator Davis, of course, quickly admitted the errors and recognized that from now on, her “language should be tighter.”
    
If all the weaponry the Republicans can draw upon with which to attack her is her second  ex-husband’s correction of her age at the time of her first divorce, a part of a Dallas Morning News feature this past weekend, perhaps Ms. Davis has a chance after all!  Realistically though, in a state where the voters actually elected Ted Cruz to the United States Senate, it is highly unlikely that Ms. Davis will defeat her opponent.  Texans, Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn notwithstanding, are peculiar people. Nevertheless, she is an excellent candidate and you never really know how an election will turn out until the votes are counted.

Jack Lippman

                                                       
Sid's Corner


         
                         
    This is not Sid, but these are Philippine workers in a call center such as Comcast has there.

INTERACTING WITH COMCAST     


Sid Bolotin



Each time I’m forced to contact Comcast because I’m having trouble with my service, I cringe with dreaded anticipation of the frustration lying ahead based on prior encounters with their phone reps. I know there could be a wait time of up to thirty minutes which many times can be assuaged by their call-back feature so I don’t lose my place in the queue. I also shiver at the thought of the upcoming tour that will put me in touch with reps around the world…Colombia, the Philippines, India, Mississippi, or the Carolinas…never to a local rep here in southeast Florida. Furthermore, I know that it will be a crapshoot as to the rep’s English-speaking capabilities, his/her technical expertise, and a willingness to trouble-shoot versus just scheduling a tech to come to my house.



And, of course I’ll have to endure the syrupy, sweet, robot voice that assures me that Comcast wants me to have a great experience and asks me to participate in a short survey when I finish with their rep… along with the seemingly endless assurances that my call is important and will be answered as soon as the busy reps finish helping other customers.



One recent Saturday morning my initial phone call was answered by a robot announcing that there was an area outage that would be fixed in about three hours, and that I’d be contacted when done. Two hours later, when I discovered that my phone was now working but not my TV or my Internet, I called in and began my tiptoe thru the tulips. I was bounced betwixt Jake in Colombia, Jared in the Philippines, William in Mississippi, and finally Michelle in the Philippines over a 4-hour world tour before my service…phone, internet, and TV were up and running. The journey was peppered with my repeated pleas for the rep to speak slower so that I could cope with their struggles with ESL (English as a second language).



On Sunday morning the drama began anew when I awoke to discover that I had lost service once again. While John in the Philippines was talking to me, our connection was lost. Redialing got me Jim in Colombia who told me that the repair on Saturday must have been faulty because my neighbors on either side of me had service, while my neighbors across the street had my same problem. And, as he said he was informing the service department, we lost contact.



Calling back I got Sheila in the Philippines who told me that she could see that Jim had indeed reported the problem and assured me that I would receive a callback when the trouble was corrected.



After an hour, or so, I called again to check on the progress and wound up with Nick in Colombia who told me that Jim had scheduled an appointment for a service-call for the following week. When I went ballistic at this un-asked-for appointment, Nick turned out to be one of the nice guys. He kindly volunteered to try to fix things and began to “tickle the ivories” from his end.  In short order he was able to get my devices up and running…except for the DVR box connected to one TV. Because he does Internet only, he transferred me to the TV department where I was queued up for twenty more minutes until Kim in the Philippines came on and announced that she’d schedule a tech to visit.



Once more I went ballistic and insisted that she try sending a refresh signal as was successfully done the day before. Voila!! After an hour of rebooting activity, the DVR was a-ok.



At this point my wife got into her own unsuccessful marathon as she tried to reach a supervisor or a billing rep to negotiate a credit for the lost service…sometimes on hold for as long as ninety minutes before giving up.



The bright side is that the next morning my service was still functioning correctly, and my wife did reach a billing rep who sympathetically credited $37.00 to our account.



As a final aside…my Google search for experiences by other Comcast clients produced a plethora of similar situations.


                                                   



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