Thread: Would you still do burlesque if you might be thrown in prison?

Just been reading a fab article about Lilly Ann Rose who's just about to be honoured as part of the Boston Burlesque Expo.

You can read it here: Banned in Boston, burlesque dancer honored in Cambridge - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle & Cambridge TAB

She's 79 now and learnt burlesque from the likes of Sally Keith, Ann Corio and Sally Rand. And let alone coming out with the inspirational "burlesque is the answer to today’s lousy economy.Look at what burlesque did to the [Great] Depression. They could laugh, see beautiful girls, have a wonderful time, and forget their troubles�.....she also tells of how burlesque landed her in jail for three days:

“When I was in burlesque you couldn’t move anything, show anything or say anything,� Rose said.... “That first night I made a mistake and dropped my bra,� she said. “I was so anxious to go out there and boom boom boom – do it all and show it all. But the secret was the strip tease. That’s all it was.�

Rose quickly joined the ranks of many burlesque dancers who were “banned in Boston,� now the title of her memoir.

“I was in jail for three days for shaking my butt,� she said. “I swore that I would never break the law again. I didn’t even get a parking ticket until I was 57 years old.�

Makes you realise how good we've got it now. I know all the gloom mongers keep going on about 'the government' stifling our rights......but at least we can get up on a stage and shake our bits without the fear of going to prison for it.

But say you did live back in the era Lilly Ann Rose worked, or if the laws/culture were turned back, would you still do burlesque? I'd like to think that I would, but I don't know really if I'd have the guts....

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Would I risk prison to put on a Burlesque show if I look at it from my own perspective?

Why not - don't let the establishment get you down!

Damn - I used to be so right wing in the past - what's happened to me?

Originally Posted by tempest devyne

But say you did live back in the era Lilly Ann Rose worked, or if the laws/culture were turned back, would you still do burlesque? I'd like to think that I would, but I don't know really if I'd have the guts....

And strictly flout the law? probably not. However I'd probably have an enormous amount of fun trying to work out the loopholes, and the ways round it, and watch exasperated pen-pushers trying to work out exactly what it is you're doing wrong...