11 Facts About American burlesque

American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows.

Victorian American burlesque, sometimes known as "travesty" or "extravaganza", was popular in London theatres between the 1830s and the 1890s.

The New York Times consistently expressed its disgust of American burlesque, even headlining an article with the plea “Exit British Burlesque”.

The influence of the minstrel show soon followed; one of the first American burlesque troupes was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, created in 1870 by Michael B Leavitt, who had earlier feminized the minstrel show with his group Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels.

American burlesque rapidly adopted the minstrel show's tripartite structure: part one was composed of songs and dances rendered by a female company, interspersed with low comedy from male comedians.

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The popular American burlesque show of this period eventually evolved into the striptease which became the dominant ingredient of American burlesque by the mid 1920s.

Stock American burlesque companies multiplied in other cities and snatched up former Mutual talent.

In New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia clamped down on American burlesque beginning in 1937 and effectively put it out of business by the early 1940s.

Counteracting this somatic ailment was a national distraction known as the American burlesque show, consisting of a coterie of rough-and-tumble comedians supported by twenty or more chorus girls.

Low-budget documentations of extant American burlesque shows began with Hollywood Revels, where a regular production was staged in a theater and photographed from a distance.

In 2008, The New York Times noted that American burlesque had made a comeback in the city's art performance scene.