Our past in burlesque performance
When one thinks of Black performers and burlesque, Josephine Baker is the first, and possibly only, person that people think of, and the bananas and Parisian livestyle. It should be noted here that the Black Burlesque "tradition" in the United States can be traced back to both the traveling shows and to the Harlem Renaissance with venues at the Apollo, the Cotton Club, and the Savoy Ballroom. In Canada, we can look to the jazz scene in Montreal - for more on that see the NFB documentary Showgirls- and Toronto venues such as the Victory Theatre and the Gladstone Hotel.
For some Black performers, burlesque was the stepping stone to other genres. Before Margot Webb became part of the ballroom duo "Norton and Margot" (1933 to 1947), she was doing the fan-dance en pointe à la Sally Rand. As Ms Webb reported to dance historian Brenda Dixon Gottschild, white performers:
...weren't always copying us; we were copying them too. Whatever, was acceptable in the white world was carried over into Black show business.
The observation of this webmistress is that Black burlesque performers of today also copy from white performers of yesteryear- mainly because all the documentaries on burlesque only feature those performers. [The only exception to this Forbidden City, USA, which looks at Asian Burlesque performers in San Francisco.]
Part of the issue, as well, is that some of later burlesque performers - strippers of the 1970s - have chosen to leave that life behind and do not want to come into the public eye (aside: I known of one such performer in Toronto - I have photos of her in her heyday but have be loathe to release them). And others, disappeared into obscurity. One performer, Lottie the Body, I had the opportunity to speak to personally, only because I found her in the phone book. She is the reason why this website exists.
But there are other Black performers to emulate: Eartha Kitt and Grace Jones for example, both of whom still perform in a burlesque/vaudeville style. Other influences include Diana Ross, Tina Turner, and Janet Jackson - all whom having performed on television in the 1970s when vaudeville had morphed into the"variety show". Names that are not as well known are "Black Velvet", "Jet", "Satin Doll"... How many there were I have yet to determine. But I'm working on it.
But like the ladies of our past, Black performers of burlesque do not have it easy. Simone De la Ghetto, founder of Harlem Shake, has noted that "she was always told she was people's favourite when she performed with mixed troupes. But when the stage is full of brown chicks, today's audience - still mostly white - doesn't know how to react." (Isa Tousignant, Hour.ca June 30, 2005)