NYPL Talk: Who Wrecked Burlesque? w/ Jonny Porkpie
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Travel back to the early decades of the 20th century to uncover the truth behind the many legends of the first burlesque striptease.
Striptease, some say, was burlesque’s ultimate downfall; the insidious element which inspired a mayoral crusade that brought the art form to its stockinged knees.
The end began right here on the Lower East Side, according to a man whose family name was so synonymous with burlesque it was banned alongside it in the fateful year of 1937. The first striptease, Herbert Minsky claims, happened on the stage of his own National Winter Garden Theater on E. Houston Street. Or did it? Minsky’s account is one of several conflicting striptease genesis tales, originating in sources ranging from histories to newspapers to court records, from adult magazines to the memories of the burlesque stars who lived it.
Jonny Porkpie has been investigating this tantalizing mystery for months, and is excited to share his attempts to peel away fact from fiction, self-promotion from history, evidence from ballyhoo. After the talk, Jo Weldon, author of The Burlesque Handbook, leads a Q&A session.
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