Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

The Corpse Wore Pasties by Jonny Porkpie (2009).

Jonny Porkpie is in big trouble. A much hated burlesque dancer has just died on stage — no, not flopped, really died, murdered — and the self-proclaimed Burlesque Mayor of New York is the likeliest suspect, since he was the one who handed her the bottle of poison she drank on stage. Attempting to find the real murderer and clear his name, against the advice of his long-suffering wife, Nasty Canasta, Jonny finds himself in a number of peculiar predicaments: chased by a heavy metal band across the Brooklyn Bridge, drugged in a dominatrix’s dungeon, hiding the the Hindenberg… Will he uncover the killer before it’s too late?

Despite being published by Hard Case Crime and having a noir title and pulp-worthy cover painting, The Corpse Wore Pasties is a pretty light and fluffy murder mystery. If you’re a burlesque fan, you’ll enjoy the peek backstage. If you’re into NYC burlesque, you’ll have fun deciphering the thinly disguised performers and venues. If you’re a lover of hardboiled detective stories, you’ll be disappointed.

It’s hard for me tell if this book will fly outside the burlesque community. I recognize the cast of characters and (sadly) know all about the incident that sparked the writing. I found the whole thing rather cute, but I don’t know how it wil be received by someone without any knowledge of the burlesque scene.

Jonny Porkpie the author is not much different from Jonny Porkpie the character. You can decided for yourself if that’s a good thing. The book is amusing, firmly tongue in cheek (there’s an obvious joke there that I’m going ignore), and clearly a first novel. Airplane or beach reading.

And with this, I have 6 books left on the to-be-reviewed shelf (5 if I bat my lashes really hard and Scratch writes a guest review of Baggy Pants Comedy: Burlesque and the Oral Tradition).

Dear Constant Reader,

Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture by Robert C. Allen (1991).

There was burlesque before striptease! In 1868 Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes brought burlesque to America. Professor Allen examines its effect on theatre and on society. Early burlesque was a form of musical satire. Popular tunes and themes were rewritten to spoof current social norms. Women were the stars and frequently played men, in abbreviated classical costumes, showing off their legs. “Thompsonian” burlesque was considered a threat to the cultural norms, giving women power and sexuality on stage.

By the 1890’s burlesque had changed so much that Lydia Thompson said she did not recognize the art form she had brought to America and it was going to change even further. For one thing, women lost their voices on stage and became merely objects of desire, showing their legs and even more and more. By the 1920’s striptease had become an indelible part of burlesque.

If you are interested in early burlesque, this is the book. It’s an academic work, thoroughly annotated, with a large bibliography.

Dear Constant Reader,

I know Wednesdays are my book review day, but I know you’ll forgive me this lapse. Things have been a little higgledy-piggledy lately, what with the tour and me being sick *again*. I swear I’ve had this rotten cough 4 times this year. It usually knocks me flat for about 2 weeks. But the show must go on… Enough complaining, here’s your review.

The American Burlesque Show by Irving Zeidman (1967).

Mr. Zeidman is a self-proclaimed expert on burlesque. According to his bio he has “read almost everything written on this historically obscure phase of show business” and that “no burlesque theatre has opened on closed in the New York metropolitan area since 1930 without being subject to his personal scrutiny.” The result is a history of burlesque in America, from The Black Crook to the fading out of burlesque in his present day.

Each chapter takes on a single topic, such as the wheels, impressarios (including the Minskys, of course), strippers, comedy, candy butchers, and censorship. They’re roughly in a chronological order, showing the different facets of burlesque, but little linkage between chapters, creating almost individual essays rather than a narrative history. Not surprisingly, a lot of the focus is burlesque in New York. The author assumes his reader is familiar with burlesque already, so this isn’t the best introduction to the topic. He’s frequently snide about his subject, but occasionally affectionate, making the reader wonder where his sympathies lie. His closing remarks about sum it up: “American burlesque has given a livelihood to thousands upon thousand of performer, musicians, stagehands, ushers, producers, candy butchers and censors. It has provided countless hours of unmitigated boredom, and many other hours of genuine pleasure. It has served as a proving ground for talent. It may have given some surcease to the lonely, the derelict, the sexually driven. Beyond that, one cannot and should not hope for more, or expect less.”

There are some photographs throughout and a very limited bibliography.