Awards

• Winner of George Freedley Memorial Award 2004.
• Winner of Winner of the 2004 George Freedley Memorial Award of the Theatre Library Association.

Overview

"Striptease recreates the combustible mixture of license, independence, and sexual curiosity that allowed strippers to thrive for nearly a century. Rachel Shteir brings to life striptease's Golden Age, the years between the Jazz Age and the Sexual Revolution, when strippers performed around the country, in burlesque theatres, nightclubs, vaudeville houses, carnivals, fairs, and even in glorious palaces on the Great White Way. Taking us behind the scenes, Shteir introduces us to a diverse cast of characters that collided on the burlesque stage, from tight-laced political reformers and flamboyant impresarios, to drag queens, shimmy girls, cootch dancers, tit serenaders, and even girls next door, lured into the profession by big-city aspirations. Throughout the book, readers will find essential profiles of famed performers, including Gypsy Rose Lee, ""the Literary Stripper""; Lili St. Cyr, the 1950s mistress of exotic striptease; and Blaze Starr, the ""human heat wave,"" who literally set the stage on fire. Striptease is an insightful and entertaining portrait of an art form at once reviled and embraced by the American public. Blending careful research and vivid narration, Rachel Shteir captures striptease's combination of sham and seduction while illuminating its surprisingly persistent hold on the American imagination."

Full Product Details

9780195300765

Table of Contents

Reviews

Even though Shteir is a fully-fledged academic her writing style is elegant, vivid and mercifully free of jargon... There is a wealth of marvellous biographical detail here. Christopher Hart, Sunday Times gloriously seedy Marybeth Hamilton, The Independent 'excellent story...that is lively, sympathetic and spangled with detail.' 'The cast of characters uncovered by Shteir is a full and entertaining one' 'Shteir has produced the definitive history' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Daily Telegraph

"""Packed with historical detail and contemporary feminist insights.... Happily, Shteir's book provides a record of the golden age of American striptease, and she gives a persuasive account of its democratic verve and feminist appeal. Striptease, Shteir argues, 'gave women a chance to realize the American dream' and a way to 'overcome their working-class origins and make it.' Both flaunting sexuality and making fun of it, the girlie show found an irreverent way to educate Americans about sex. Shteir's scholarly and very entertaining book is part of that great tradition.""--Elaine Showalter, Washington Post Book World ""The first serious history of the form...could prove to be a landmark work.... Meticulous.""-- Francine Du Plessix Gray, The New Yorker ""Fascinating and well-researched.... Rachel Shteir's accomplished book leaves one longing for the mystery of a white mink merkin from Harry Bosen's New York Costume Shop in Chicago, or the charm of Lili St. Cyr's roaming radium gadget.... Striptease is a genuine contribution to the history of American culture.""--Toni Bentley, The New Republic ""Offers fascinating details about stripper subculture, past and present, and includes numerous photographs of and quotes from stripping's famous practitioners, such as Gypsy Rose Lee.... Shteir's discussions of the ways that striptease informed American culture and her careful descriptions of the women and their milieu are bright moments.""--Publishers Weekly"

Author Information

Rachel Shteir is Associate Professor and Head of the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program at the Theatre School of DePaul University.

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