TRUE BURLESQUE

Original Bettie Page Jungle Girl Photograph by Bunny Yeager Contact Sheet Never Published Collection Jim Linderman

Bettie Page wasn't much of a dancer, but she looked great climbing a tree in a jungle suit! While not a Burlesque performer per se, she did appear in the Varietease and the Striporama films in the early 1950s.

This is a unique, one of a kind, previously unpublished photograph taken by Bunny Yeager but rejected for publication (as the editing pen in orange indicates) It is a contact print of the famous "Jungle Girl" photo session which took place in 1954 at the Africa USA wildlife Park in Boca Raton Florida. Previously unseen picture of Bettie Page don't turn up much anymore...this small image is nice to see.

Original Bettie Page Contact print by Bunny Yeager, signed by the photographer on reverse. 1954.

Collection Jim Linderman

True Burlesque Where is Patti Waggin ?

Patti Waggin is everywhere!

Group of Patti "The Girl with the Educated Torso" clippings, circa 1953 Collection Jim Linderman

True Burlesque Brown Skin Exotics! Black Burlesque Queens

Black and Brown Burlesque Brown Skin Exotics and the Tinted Double Cover of Calvacade of Burlesque 1954

Actually, I have no idea if THIS Mary Mack was a woman of color, though she is exotic, the buzz word for anyone back then peeling it off who wasn't of European extraction. There WAS a brown skin Mary Mack working in a "colored review" around 1920, but this isn't her. Maybe this Mary named herself after the original Mary Mack?

The Savannah Club was operated by Joe Schiavone and located in Greenwich Village. 68 West Third Street. A block from Washington Square Park, just off Laguardia Place. It is currently an Indonesian Coffee Shop named Kopi-Kopi and it features a COFFEE AVOCADO MILKSHAKE, so they are still "mixing" things well.

Because no libraries had this magazine, it has never been indexed and there may be some relatives who would like to see these images of their beautiful ground-breaking ancestors, the names are added here.

Sandra
Stephanie
Venus La Doll
Betty Brisbane
La Bomme
Mary Alexander
China Doll
Mary Smith (Not Illustrated)

Enjoy this historical article on the Savannah Club. Calvacade of Burlesque September 1954.

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