Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

 

humansofnewyork:

(22/32) “Burlesque is a fancy sounding word, but it basically means stripping. You can wear a $3000 costume and strut across the stage like the Queen of England.  But during the last number, you better be taking off your clothes. Every burlesque theater in Times Square had two types of dancers: house girls and features. The house girls work the same place every week, and they always come out first.  They’re just part of the crew.  They don’t have it, and nobody knows their name.  It’s the feature who fills the seats.  She travels from venue to venue, and always closes the show.  It’s her name on the marquee.  And she’s the one getting paid. Now whenever I get into any kind of whatever, I want to be the best.  And Burlesque was no different. So naturally I wanted to be a feature. Only problem was there weren’t no black features. But I was determined to cross the color line, because features were making $1000 a week, at least. The easiest way to become a feature was to work strong.  Strong meant nasty.  Dildos and stuff.  And the stronger you worked, the more money you made. There was a girl named Monica Kennedy at The Melody Theater making $10,000 a week.  You know how much ten grand a week was in the seventies, cash?  That’s because Monica worked strong.  She let it be known on the street that she douched with Listerine.  And at the end of her act, the audience would form a single file line.  Each guy would be given a hot dog bun, and Monica would shoot hot dogs out of her vajayjay, right into those buns.  She had mustard, relish, everything. Nobody left her show hungry.  That’s how you made $10,000. Cash. But I could never do it. So I had to figure out another way.”