Badrabbit's Journal

Burlesque

Irving Klaw | Vintage
July 16, 2012

Burlesque in photos of the 1920s through the 1950s not only includes images of performers, but also photographs where costumes, stage sets, or a sense of performance are present. Burlesque photos don’t have the same sense of intimacy that is commonly found in pinup or nude photos.

Irving Klaw’s photos and movies from the late 1940s through most of the 1950s often have a burlesque quality. Two color Klaw films are available on DVD (Varietease and Teaserama) and the black and white fetish and bondage films often have performers as models. Bettie Page’s photos sometimes have a distinct burlesque quality. Hundreds, if not thousands, of photos were shot by Klaw of minor and major performers doing their acts in sequence.

I’m only showing two of Klaw’s photos here – Sara Don in her dressing room. Those after the cut will be from a 1930s/early 1940s vaudeville/burlesque performer’s scrapbook.

The following photos are from Sue’s scrapbook. Effie Sue and her younger sister Vonda Lou were circus kids. After their father injured his back in 1935 Sue, at about 10, and her sister went on the road doing song and dance comedy routines to support their family. By the late 1930s they were minor performers in the vaudeville and burlesque circuit. The first two photos were taken in Dayton, Ohio about 1940. Sue’s in the first photo, her sister Lou in the second. The rest of the photos date from about 1942 or a little later. The studio photos were taken in Atlanta. Included in the scrapbook were photos from other performers, often inscribed. Three are shown here. The last photo is of Lou and a comedian working on a routine on the roof of a theater in Florida in 1946.

Book Covers

Vintage
June 14, 2012

Every now and again I come across an old photograph that’s appealing for a variety of reasons. I think of these as book covers, photographs that could be used for a novel cover. Here are a few, most are from the 1920s. The second (dated 1925) and third were found in West Virginia (Huntington/Charleston area) and the others were from a New York City area dealer.

Studio Manasse

European Creators | Photography
April 20, 2012

This is a partial repost of one of the Feral Rabbit “Objectification of Women” posts.

Europe in the 1930s was in a headlong rush — the Nazis were closing down fetish and porn networks while the French churned out erotica intended for an international audience.

Erotica until the war in Europe took many forms — ethnic beauties on postcards or stereoviews, tasteful nudes by Mandel, more edgy photos by Wyndham, and fetish/bondage classics by Eva Richards, Beiderer Studio and Diana Slip.

Photographers in Europe between the wars were strongly influenced by, and sometimes were participants in, artistic movements such as surrealism or political cabaret. The output of Studio Manasse shows these influences — the work of other photographers, surrealism and performance. To me the quality of Studio Manasse is variable and while some photographs are in my opinion amongst the best of the 1930s, other photographs are downright hokey.

Photographers like the Wlassics, who operated Studio Manasse in Vienna, made their living by selling images to publications and collectors. Studio Manasse photos are reproduced in 1930s French and US magazines such as Beautes Volupté and the Spicy pulps.

These photographs are from Divas and Lovers: The Erotic Art of Studio Manasse; Story by D. H. Lawrence; Essay by Monika Faber (New York: Universe Publishing, 1998). The first photograph’s model has one of the many faces of Kelsey.

 

Look Alikes

Badrabbit
March 11, 2012

This has gone through several iterations. Kelsey’s the hardest and she’ll be last. The people mentioned are all from the Cast of Characters post.

Look alikes is a fun game. Since there are no photos of the people here you’ll just have to trust me.

Sometimes when I see photos of Angelina Jolie I see the Dancer. Change Angelina’s hair to red and add green eyes. A while back the Dancer sent photos of her kids and her daughter looks just like her, lucky girl.

The American Artist is close to Kate Moss in face and build. Like Kelsey, the American Artist hasn’t gained weight since high school. Kelsey has letters I wrote her in the 1970s in which I described the American Artist, using others’ words, as a long legged beauty.

Give Lily Donaldson dark hair and take away the cleft of her chin and she’s close to the Joker. The Joker modeled when she was in high school, was slender and narrow hipped with delightful small breasts. For Feral Rabbit I wrote a post titled Perfect Breasts. The Joker wasn’t mentioned. For years I thought her breasts were ideal and small breasted women held a fascination. This was, I think, because sex with the Joker was so energetic.

One night I wanted to drink wine from the Joker’s breasts. I’m a klutz and couldn’t pour from the bottle and drink at the same time without hitting myself in the head. I asked and the guy who was watching climbed up on the bed and poured for us. Red wine, dry, flowed over her and I couldn’t catch it all.

The actress in the movie In Bed (In la Cama), Blanca Lewin, actually looks a lot like the Beautiful Woman in face and body except the nose. In the way Lewin portrays her character, though, she’s pure Kelsey. That dance is Kelsey, not the Beautiful Woman, and a little of the story.

Perhaps the one who looked most like Kelsey was a model in a mid-1990s Guess advertisement. She captured both Kelsey’s appearance and style. I can remember that model in only one set of ad pages in Vogue; perhaps she appeared elsewhere too.

Kelsey is a chameleon. So of course, Michelle Dockery, playing Death’s daughter in Hogfather, comes close, too, in appearance and existential ambience. Kelsey’s face can change from long and slender to heart shaped in the blink of an eye. In its oval incarnation she’s Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferroniere in the Louvre. Another moment she’s da Vinci’s Madonna Litta. Perhaps it’s the lips.

Earl Carroll’s Vanities

Badrabbit
February 15, 2012

In the original Feral Rabbit blog I had a number of posts organized under the topic of the Objectification of Women. In these posts I organized vintage erotica (photographs mostly) under various themes. What I’ll do here is post some of the photos, again loosely organized by themes, but these posts won’t reproduce the original posts except in some of the illustrative content.

Earl Carroll’s Vanities was a nightclub show in the 1930s and 1940s. Supposedly some of the most beautiful women in the world appeared on stage in this show.

To illustrate the variety of costumes, I’m reproducing 5 printed Mutoscope-type cards. These cards were available at least into the 1950s. Kelsey remembers seeing them at carnivals.

As time permits I’ll be making more photo posts.