Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

I’ve just acquired some new books, so I have to step up the reviewing. At the moment I have more than a dozen books to review — and some of them are the ones that have been in the library the longest!

“Woman to Woman: Ann Corio and the Rehabilitation of American Burlesque.” by Julie N. Vogt, PhD (2010).

I met Julie Uberblonde at the Great Burlesque Exposition of 2010 and we chatted about her doctoral dissertation about Ann Corio. She had some strong opinions about some popularly held beliefs of burlesque history. I was hopeful that she would eventually publish her dissertation as a book for more general audiences. It was a shock to learn that she died this past December. So, it was a little bittersweet to read her dissertation, knowing that there are so few academically researched books on burlesque.

Her main topic is on the creation of Ann Corio’s style of burlesque as a brand and marketing it to women. However, she also uses Ann Corio as a focus to delve into a critical study of burlesque, as a performance art and as a business. Along the way, she provides a review of the existing literature and she dispels some burlesque myths, a number of which Ann Corio appears to have created.

There’s a lot of information and some excellent research, but I’ll be honest — despite the topic, it’s still a doctoral dissertation and parts of it get a bit thick with academese. I’m pretty fluent in academese, so I was able to mine the gold. And there’s a lot of it.

Dr. Vogt’s death was a terrible loss for her family, friends, and students, and also for the study of burlesque.

Dear Constant Reader,

The highlight of the costume exhibit I’m curating at the West End Museum is several costumes worn by Ann Corio in her show This Was Burlesque, courtesy of her niece. In preparation for creating wall text, I’ve been rereading the book that accompanied the show. It seemed like high time to review it. A special thanks to my friends Teresa & Jeff who gave us this autographed copy one New Year’s Eve.

This Was Burlesque by Ann Corio (1968).

Ann Corio was one of the biggest burlesque stars in the Golden Age of Burlesque, especially in Boston. She played the Old Howard frequently and was much beloved of Harvard students. She claimed other colleges referred to her as “Harvard’s baby”, but she was definitely known as “Her Majesty, The Queen”. After her career in burlesque she turned to acting on stage and in B-movies, but just couldn’t forget about burlesque.

In 1962 she and her partner Michael Iannucci opened This Was Burlesque in New York City. A retrospective of comedy, striptease, and chorus girls, it ultimately played all over the country for almost 30 years. It was filmed by HBO in the 70’s, but the VHS tapes are hard to find.

Fortunately, we have Miss Corio’s book. She writes a light history of burlesque as one who was there through most of it. She perpetuates some burlesque myths and creates some new ones, but this is hardly an academic tome. She presented burlesque as cleanly and gently as possible to an audience who wanted something a little naughty, but not too threatening.

The book is illustrated with photographs from her show and as well as historical burlesque performances. There’s a strong emphasis on comics, especially ones who started in burlesque and went on to fame in film and television. She includes a number of scripts for comic sketches.

The book is out of print, but can be found at used book dealers without too much difficulty.