Thread by @HeauxHistory

On exotic dance history in the U.S., performance spaces, the art of strip tease, and segue from early burlesque shows to strip clubs

exotic/erotic dance and strip tease acts challenged ideas regarding traditional theater and entertainment during the 1800s. Ballet performers survived ridicule and critique for their style of dress and dance (viewed too sexual at the time) and +

the requirements, expectations, and depictions of women and their bodies on stage were starting to shift.

“living picture” performances (imitations of paintings, statues, and portraits) changed as audiences developed more interest in women as subjects.

By 1861 theater and performance spaces across the country were introduced to the “Thompsonian era” of burlesque which relied heavily on humor, gossip, and banter.

Also affiliated and popularized during this time: “minstrel shows”, “the minstrel circuit”, and variety shows (later replaced with “vaudeville”)

It is in the 1890s that the “cooch dance” and other dance styles associated with BIPOC become more popular, fetishized, and ultimately appropriated gaining more attention from law enforcement, politicians, and anti-vice collectives interested in criminalizing burlesque +

dancers and performance spaces.

The theater wasn’t just a form of entertainment reserved mostly for white, “educated”, upper class people in control of the artistic taste placed on stage. Less wealthy, less “educated” BIPOC had their own AND were able to find success on either circuit (white or colored)

This of course does not mean without dealing with discrimination and heavy policing. Black burlesque establishments and performers were especially vulnerable to police surveillance and investigation, harassment, raids and searches...

Other factors contributing to further stigma, policing, and criminalization:

(1) Prohibition, liscensing and zoning laws
(2) The Great Depression and economic collapse
(3) WWII

With all these things in place, BIPOC still created entertainment and performance spaces that centered and catered to their communities.

For example: THE CREOLE PALACE located in San Diego, California was opened in 1924 at Hotel Douglas (and closed in 1946)

Though considered the “Cotton Club of the West”, they differed from the NY hotspot they were often compared to:

(1) The nightclub and cabaret was Black owned
(2) Black patrons were welcomed
(3) Black dancers of various skin tones were employed and encouraged to perform

There was also TOBA (Theater Owners Booking Association) an African American circuit for performers and response to Ziegfield Follies success.

Forbidden City, an Asian American establishment, was open from the 1930s-the late 1950s. Filipino, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese American dancers were employed but all presented to audiences as Chinese.

During WWII Japanese performers were removed and banned (Japanese American Internment/Internment camps)

A popular San Francisco night spot for soldiers passing through and more importantly Asian American community, Forbidden City would go on to close during the end of “the golden era” of burlesque like many other clubs and cabarets across the country.

Andrea Friedman discusses the end of this particular era in “Prurient Interests” while examining the closing of “the golden era of burlesque” in New York and surrounding areas...

“Burlesque theaters were seen by 42nd Street Property Owners’ Association as lower property values because they attracted undesirable customers to the Times Square area, despite the fact that customers of various class backgrounds attended burlesque performances.”

“Burlesque theaters were in jeopardy of losing their licenses if the performances were believed to be obscene. Thus, in order for burlesque to continue and to be approved by city officials, the sexual style and humor associated with it and with striptease was banned...

...especially during WWII, when it was viewed as undermining the virility of the men who had the responsibility of defending the country.”

In the 1950s strip clubs grow in popularity. Originally advertised to middle class and working class men, patrons were able to enjoy strip tease performances in “private” quarters, meals, alcoholic beverages, pornography, and an environment where “men could be men”

The introduction of Playboy clubs (later pushed out the market, revamped, and later named gentlemen’s clubs) took this busines model to another level. They catered to upper middle class to upper class men with “means and taste”

Serving as “higher tier” strip clubs disconnected from certain stigmas, Playboy clubs were symbols of upscale consumer status snd manhood.

And were ultimately less likely to undergo raids and investigations like their strip club counterparts.

During the 1970s more performers sought out employment in strip clubs to make ends meet. This was a direct result of the recession. Post WWII economic expansion had come to an end and newbies/ seasoned laborers of the industry (erotic) scrambled to find adequate compensation.

Strip clubs (already assiciated with “immoral behavior”) became even more stigmatized. Viewed as cesspools of drug use/dealing, prostitution, and other illegal activities by outsiders, civilians (civies), religious groups, and law enforcement...

this was esp. the case for BIPOC working in exotic dance spaces. Geography also played a huge part in this.

Clubs located in “bad parts of town” and metropolitan areas heavily populated with BIPOC were heavily policed, fined, and scrutinized

All of this served as justification for owners and managers to start charging stage/house fees 🙃

By the ‘80s stage/house fees were standard. Dancers were expected to pay performance fees out of their tips. This was enforced as a response to the strip club industry’s association with deviancy (more money=morality) but further created opportunities and spaces for certain +

activities to take place. House fees/stage fees added to the financial pressures of performers who were now also handed the responsibility of “tipping out” on top of earning a liveable income.

Siobhan Brooks discusses this in “Unequal Desires” as she connects zoning laws, racism (& colorism), misogynoir, and value systems stating:

“ The criminalization of desire industries, along with intersections of racism, classism, and geographic location, adds to isolation of +

people and the disruption of communities.” (p. 19)

She continues:

“This last point is critical to understanding how zoning laws, along with systemic disinvestment in low-income communities of color, affects workers in desire industries, and the larger community that surrounds them...

It also affects how customers view strip clubs and the value placed on the women who work in them regarding safety and wages.”

Automatically Black and Brown SWers (and in this particular case exotic dancers) are deemed less marketable and valuable creating a dynamic where they are expected to perform more emotional labor (coupled with erotic of course) than others.