Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies Burlesque Style - Part 6 of 10

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies

Burlesque Style - Part 6 of 10

In recent years, there has been a huge upsurge of interest in burlesque, creating a whole new generation of performers which have added sparkling new dashes of diversity and imagination to the brew.

This is the sixth post of a ten-part series where Hollywood shows us how it burlesques! 

Keeping 1987 as our cut-off point, we'll take a look at a few of the artifacts capturing the classic era of this art form. Along the way, we'll also stumble on some delicious dish - as in some first rate dirt!

So, tits up, ladies. Get your feather fans and tasseled pasties out. Let's all go to the movies and take another trip down mammary lane.  

--- ---

A Burlesque on Carmen

(1915)

(Burlesque in name only, this is a parody of two sources: Bizet's opera Carmen and  Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 movie titled Carmen starring Geraldine Farrar. When smugglers come ashore, their leader sends a seductive gypsy woman to distract a goofy officer of the law so they can sneak their contraband into town. There are grand swordfights, deaths, and resurrections.)

(Charlie Chaplin's thirteenth film for Essanay Studios was originally released as Carmen on December 18, 1915. Directed by Chaplin and subsequently reimagined by Leo White in 1916, this version of the film stars Chaplin, Edna Purviance, John Rand, with additional scenes by Ben Turpin and Wesley Ruggles.)

(Chaplin's original version, released in December of 1915, was a tight-paced two-reeler. After he left Essanay Studios, the powers that be scooped up what had been left on the editing floor and spliced it back in, with the addition of scenes featuring Turbin and Ruggles as a pair of bumbling gypsies. In order to expand the film to a four-reeler, the studio even went so far as to repeat scenes. This version was released in April of 1916 under the title A Burlesque On Carmen. Chaplin was understandably furious and sued the studio - and lost!)

(To add insult to injury, in 1928, yet another version was released. This time with a  newly shot introduction written by newspaper columnist Duke Bakrak. This version featured rewritten title cards, poor sequencing, and what was termed a 'fuzzy' focus print of the 1916 expanded version.)

(Prints of Essanay's version circulated for decades. It wasn't until the 1990's that an attempt was made to approximate Chaplin's original version, which was  reconstructed by Kino Video.)

(Peter Sellers narrates a version of the film released in 1951.)

--- ---

Doll Face

(1945)

AKA: Come Back To Me

(A burlesque queen is dismissed from an audition for a legitimate Broadway show because she's deemed too unrefined. Miffed, she appeals to her manager who decides that she indeed needs a bit of polish. In order to guarantee plenty of publicity, he hires a ghostwriter to write his star's biography. What he doesn't count on is that the book isn't the only thing the two wish to collaborate on!)

"The musical that's all dolled up, going places and doing wonderful things!"

(Based on the 1943 play The Naked Genius by Gypsy Rose Lee, this romantic/comedy musical was directed by Lewis Seiler and stars Vivian Blaine, Dennis O'Keefe, Carmen Miranda, and Perry Como. To avoid the association, Lee receives screen credit under her birth name, Louise Hovick. Released as Come Back to Me in the United Kingdom.)

(Working titles included The Naked Genius and Here's a Kiss. However, The Motion Picture Production Code refused to allow the studio to use The Naked Genius as the title of the film or as title of the title character's fictional autobiography.)

(The Production Code Administration also took issue with the depiction of the lead character as a stripper and several screenplays submitted by the studio were not approved. In late July 1945, Production Code Administration head Joseph I. Breen cautioned studio: "Please have in mind that any time you undertake to identify a character as a 'strip tease' artist, you run the risk of giving enormous offense everywhere. People, pretty generally, look up the business of the burlesque shows and - more importantly, the strip tease - as, possibly, the very lowest form of public entertainment, and this same viewpoint is reflected in the reaction of the Censor Boards.")

 (Twentieth Century-Fox reportedly paid Gypsy Rose Lee  a large sum of money for the rights to her play, The Naked Genius. At one time it was reported that Lee, herself, would appear in the film, but that did not come to pass. Initially Carole Landis was set to star, with Jackie Gleason handling the comic lead, while William Eythe took on the romantic lead. Hazel Dawn was also tied to the picture at one point. In the end, none of panned out.)

Viviane Blaine

(Vivian Blaine is best known for originating the role of Miss Adelaide in the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls, a role she'd reprise for the film version which co-starred Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra.)

(In 1983, Blaine became the first celebrity to make public service announcements on behalf of AIDS-related causes. She made numerous appearances in support of the then-fledgling AIDS Project Los Angeles and in 1983 recorded her cabaret act for AEI Records, which donated all royalties to the cause.)

--- ---

Hollywood Revels

(1946)

(A filmed performance of a burlesque show at the Follies Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. This is the first filmed burlesque show in an actual theatre. By 1947, the shows would be restaged and filmed on studio soundstages.)

(This revue was directed by Duke Goldstone and stars Aileene - billed as 'Aleene' who also went by the name Kalantan.)

(Aleene/Aileen/Kalantan/Mary Tillotson was an actress, known for 1955's Son of Sinbad and 1949's Midnight Frolics. She was once married to actor John Bromfield.)

(Mary Tillotson Bromfield wrote a biography. Kalantan-Behind The Curtain is available as a kindle download on Amazon. She also wrote Gull's Haven, an action/suspense novel.)

Aleene/Aileen/Kalantan/Mary Tillotson 

Aileen in the 1946 motion picture Hollywood Revels

--- ---

Queen Of Burlesque

(1946)

"Backstage thrills... dressing room secrets..."

"All to the rhythm of gay music!"

(When a headlining striptease artiste is found strangled in a trunk backstage at a burlesque theater, a rival dancer falls under suspicion. When police order that no one will be allowed to leave the theatre until the crime is solved, a reporter, smitten with the accused begins a thorough investigation, revealing that plenty of people had both motive and opportunity. Will he be able to prove the woman's innocence? And will the show go on?)

(This murder mystery was directed by Sam Newfield and stars Evelyn Ankers, Alice Fleming, Jacqueline Dalya, Carleton Young, Craig Reynolds, and Rose La Rose, an actual stripper who has one feature dance, a faux 'Arabian Fantasy' number during which she does not remove any clothing.)

Jacqueline Dalya, Carleton Young, and Evelyn Ankers

(Known as 'the Queen of the Bs', Evelyn Ankers was a staple of Universal's horror films in the 1940's. When still a school girl, she began appearing in small roles in English movies during the 1930's, such as 1937's Fire Over England with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and in 1937's Bells of St. Mary's.)

Evelyn Ankers

(With war clouds threatening, Ankers' family emigrated to the US, where she was signed to a contract by Universal in 1940. She made her US debut in the 1941 Abbott and Costello comedy-horror picture Hold That Ghost. That same year she appeared in the horror film classic The Wolf Man, opposite Lon Chaney Jr. From that point, she was cast in a slew of horror films along with several Sherlock Holmes vehicles.) 

(When horror movies fell out of favor during the war years, Ankers fortunes reversed. Reading the writing on the wall, she quit Universal, choosing to freelance for studios such as Columbia, Republic and Poverty Row. At the age of 32, she left Hollywood behind, wising to concentrate on her family, though she did come out of retirement for a film in 1950 and one in 1960. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 67.)

--- ---

International Burlesque

(1950)

(An inside look at what goes on behind the scenes at a burlesque show with strippers, comics and other performers showing you how they prepare for the big show.)

(This revue was directed by W. Merle Connell and stars Betty Rowland, Vince Barnett, Inez Claire and Thelma Bennett.)

--- ---

And that's all for now...

Tune in next week.

Same time, same channel.

--- ---

Bet Your Bottom Dollar - Vivian Blaine and Carmen Miranda

from the 1946 motion picture If I'm Lucky