From Show Girl to Burlesque Queen

SUMMARY
Opens on a dressing room set with a mirror, dressing table, and chair center stage and a folded dressing screen on the left. A smiling, dark-haired woman enters through the door on stage right, unbuttoning a full-length polka-dot costume. As she undresses, she frequently looks directly at the camera and smiles. She removes her sash or cummerbund, the top with its trailing sleeves, and her skirt, leaving her clothed only in a sleeveless chemise. Smiling directly at the camera, she mischievously slips a strap of the garment off one shoulder, then ducks behind the screen. After the chemise is thrown over the top of the screen, her arm furtively reaches out from behind the screen and grabs a slight garment from the back of the chair and some items from the dressing table. She then emerges wearing a risqué, decorated costume with cap sleeves and a very short skirt, gathered at the waist. Her legs appear to be bare. The woman brandishes a sword, grabbed from under the discarded dress, and strikes a seductive pose as the viewer glimpses a costumed man entering the room.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903.

NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 12Sept1903; H35629.

Camera, A.E. Weed.

Filmed August 25, 1903 in the Biograph New York City studio.

SUBJECTS
Burlesque (Theater)--United States--Drama.
Striptease--United States--Drama.
Stripteasers--United States--Drama.
Women entertainers--Costume--United States--Drama.
Women entertainers--United States--Sexual behavior--Drama.
Dressing rooms (Performing arts)--United States--Drama.
Silent films.
Vaudeville.
Erotica.
Shorts.

RELATED NAMES
Weed, A. E., camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

DIGITAL ID
(m) varsmp http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/varstg:@field(NUMBER+@band(varsmp...))

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• library
• congress
• silent
• Burlesque
• Striptease
• Costume
• Vaudeville