My choice for the assignment to socialize with older adults
is a bit uncouth, but I’m sure will prove very interesting. Before I do my big reveal, I’ll set the stage
for how I came to this project concept.
Bettie Page
I am a burlesque performer in Los
Angeles and within the burlesque community, there is a high reverence for the
performers who came before us (referred to as Legends). Most of these women were performing burlesque
in its golden era, the 1930’s-1960’s.
Needless to say, there is a lot of untold history to be explored
there. This is an entire community of
performers that were essentially left behind and swept under the rug when
vaudeville died, and then again when porn hit the scene. Burlesque, essentially, was the modern day
stripping of the time, except that many of the stars became huge stars with
household names (ie: Gypsy Rose Lee, Lili St. Cyr, Bettie Page, etc). Unfortunately and without cause, this chunk
of American history is quickly swept under the rug and forgotten about. Our predecessors went through hell to pave
the way to a performance art so many of us love today. What the modern burlesque community
understands is that without our Legends, there would be no revival. We also realize that there is an enormous
oral history that should be kept alive and keeps us humble. Who better to teach a craft than a
master? There is a Burlesque Hall of Fame Museum in Las Vegas, where we keep and pay respect to artifacts related to
the golden age. As a community steeped
in such amazing and secret history, we spend a lot of time listening to and
helping out our Legends. Which is how I
came to my project idea, I am going to be spending 32 hours (hopefully more)
with as many Legends as I can get ahold of.
Lili St Cyr
Gypsy Rose Lee
Spending time with Legends is
something I have wanted to do for some time, but didn’t have the time or the
access to anyone to really make it happen.
This assignment provides me the perfect opportunity to get myself out
there and it gives me an excuse to approach women I have only admired from afar
until now. I also figure it is much more
interesting than spending time with well behaved people (as I assume most of my
classmates will do.) It is my experience
that strippers have the best stories and most eclectic life experiences. I want to walk away from this learning more
about my art, where it comes from and having a better understanding of what its
like to grow up when you choose this kind of lifestyle. Incidentally, the same lifestyle I am
choosing for myself as well.
My first, and primary Legend will
be Kitten Natividad. Kitten is famous
for her enormous breasts and her appearances in many Russ Meyer cult
films. She also happened to be
romantically involved with Russ for 15 years.
Kitten is also famed to be one of the strippers at Sean Penn’s bachelor
party. Kitten, now in her 60’s still
performs burlesque and does appearances all over the place. Trying to pin her down to meet with me is
proving to be an arduous task, to say the least. We decided to spend a day together September
30th. We plan on getting
lunch and shopping at the Bettie Page store in Hollywood before and after my
weekly chair dance class. Down the line
she has invited me to spend time with her at Glamuorcon (http://www.glamourcon.com/) In mid
November. So it looks like I will be
able to complete my hours with Kitten in a few long days rather than a series
of short visits.
Kitten and Russ Meyer
The thing I am most looking forward
to in regards to this project is getting to know what it’s like to age and
continue doing something widely regarded as a young woman’s thing. It will be as if I am looking into a possible
future for myself. That and I can’t wait
to hear what she thinks about burlesque and about her time with Russ Meyer,
etc. I am delighted to take part in such
a rich history and get a first hand account of things I have only read about.
The only thing I am nervous about is
the possibility that she gets bored of me.
Which, I don’t see happening, but anyone who assumes everyone will like
them is kidding themselves. So I always
think about that. I think I’m going to
do some research and prepare some things I want to know about her early life,
what I want to know about her life now.
A woman in her 60’s who still runs an adult site must have an
interesting perspective on life.
Present Day Kitten
All in all I am excited and eager
to start this project and learn all that I can about the life of a showgirl. I also plan to seek out other legends to
supplement my hours. Perhaps I can even
expand the project to include bad girls in general. My grandmother has proven to be quite the bad
girl, based on stories I have heard. I love
any opportunity to ask her strange and probing questions (on my birthday I discovered
she has breast implants).
