Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in Postwar Vancouver

402 Pages·2009·2.669 MB·English

by  Becki Ross

BURLESQUE WEST
Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in Postwar Vancouver
After the Second World War, Vancouver emerged as a hotbed of strip-
tease talent. In Burlesque West, the fi rst critical history of the city’s
notorious striptease scene, Becki Ross delves into the erotic entertain-
ment industry at the northern end of the dancers’ west coast tour – the
North−South route from Los Angeles to Vancouver – which provided
rotating work for dancers and variety for club clientele.
Drawing on extensive archival materials and interviews with fi fty
former dancers, strip-club owners, booking agents, choreographers, and
musicians, Ross reveals stories that are deeply fascinating and evoke,
in the words of ex-dancer Lindalee Tracey, an era before ‘striptease fell
from grace because the world stopped dreaming.’ Ross demonstrates
that Vancouver’s glitzy nightclub scene, often condemned as a quasi-
legal strain of urban blight, in fact greased the economic engine of the
city. Though jobs in the industry are often perceived as having little in
common with conventional types of labour, retired dancers’ accounts
resonate with those of contemporary service workers, particularly in
regard to such matters as unionization and workplace benefi ts and haz-
ards. Incorporating fi rst-hand narrative with feminist, anti-racist, and
queer analysis, Ross traces the evolution of the industry over several
decades, examining its roots and effl orescence, as well as its subsequent
devaluation and sanitization with the integration of striptease style and
neo-burlesque trends into mass culture.
Lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented, Burlesque West is
an ambitious and engaging social history that looks at the convergence
of the personal and the political in a phenomenon that combines sex,
art and entertainment, and commerce. Like its subject, the book will
stimulate, delight, and offend.
becki l. ross is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology
and the Chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the Uni-
versity of British Columbia.
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BECKI L. ROSS
BURLESQUE WEST
Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in
Postwar Vancouver
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2009
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9698-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8020-9646-3 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Ross, Becki, 1959–
Burlesque West : showgirls, sex and sin in postwar Vancouver / Becki L.
Ross.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9698-2 (bound). ISBN 978-0-8020-9646-3 (pbk.)
1. Burlesque (Theater) – British Columbia – Vancouver – History.
2. Stripteasers – British Columbia – Vancouver – History. 3. Showgirls. –
British Columbia – Vancouver – History. 4. Nightlife – British Columbia –
Vancouver – History. 5. Vancouver (B.C.) – History. I. Title.
PN1949.S7R68 2009 792.7 C2009-901219-7
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
For Tracy, my one, for always
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface: Beginnings, Backlash, and Brazenness xiii
1 Uncloaking the Striptease Past 3
2 ‘I Ain’t Rebecca, and This Ain’t Sunnybrook Farm’:
Men behind the Marquee 29
3 ‘We Were Like Snowfl akes – No Two Were Alike’: Dancers
and Their Gimmicks 86
4 ‘Peelers Sell Beer, and the Money Was Huge’:
The Shifting Conditions of Selling Fantasy 141
5 ‘Everyone Wanted to Date a Dancer, Nobody Wanted
to Marry One’: Occupational Hazards in the Industry 185
6 ‘You Started to Feel Like a Dinosaur’: Exiting and Aging
in the Business 222
Notes 247
Bibliography 297
List of Interview Narrators 335
Photo Credits 339
Index 343
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Acknowledgments
As a contributor to feminist, anti-racist debates and activism for thirty
years, in my journey to complete this book project I benefi ted, on many
levels, from rich collaborations. I want to commend my stellar research
assistants at the University of British Columbia: initially, Kim Green-
well and Michelle Swann; at later stages, Erin Bentley, Maureen Doug-
las, Christine Harris, Geneviève Lapointe, and Rachael Sullivan. Each
woman’s commitment to the project extended well beyond the scope of
my hopes and expectations.
Eminent historians and friends Michael Fellman and Angus Mc-
Claren read an early draft of the manuscript. I am grateful to them, as
well as to other comrades in the academy, including Santa Aloi, Eileen
Boris, Deborah Brock, Elise Chenier, Gillian Creese, Dawn Currie,
Wendy Frisby, Franca Iacovetta, Tom Kemple, Eva Mackey, Renisa Ma-
wani, Steven Maynard, Patti Moore, Dianne Newell, Bryan Palmer, Joy
Parr, Leila Rupp, Joy Sangster, Rima Wilkes, Cynthia Wright, and Patri-
cia Vertinsky. Additional friends provided sustenance on myriad fronts:
I thank Nancy Archbould, Stuart Blackley, Anita Braha, Jane Coombe,
Bill Coombe, Aaron Devor, Jamie Lee Hamilton, Arlene McLaren, Mary
Millen, Heather Mitton, Marina Morrow, Judy Parrack, Judy Sewell,
Gill Thomas, Cynthia Wright, and the ‘Sudbury girls’ – Karen Beange,
Liz Dow, Peg Evans, Marg Ghent, Penny Gingell, and Alison Strong.
Each person, at various points, offered me uncommon insights, loving
support, and much-appreciated humour.
I would like to honour my parents, Carol Ross, Sheila Ross, and
Chucker Ross, and my siblings, Brenda, Larry, Karey, and Julie;
every family member graciously indulged my passion for this work.
My in-laws, Carol and Terry Porteous, wrapped me in prairie hospital-