A convent girl & her burlesque mom in APPLAUSE! (1929) & THE OLD STRIPPER documentary on burlesque!
“The kid deserves a better break. Why, this burlesque racket is no place for her!”. THE OLD STRIPPER is a documentary film about a burlesque legend visiting her dancing cities from yesterday.
“Rouben Mamoulian’s directorial debut remains one of the most creatively conceived early talkies; as noted in Stuart Galbraith IV’s review for DVD Talk, “Compared with the stage-bound, bolt-the-camera-to-the-floor look of nearly all the earliest sound films, Applause is downright astounding.” A glimpse at the stills below provides evidence of Mamoulian’s (and cinematographer George J. Folsey’s) visual brilliance and effective use of on-location shooting. The film is also notable for providing torch singer Helen Morgan with one of a handful of leading cinematic roles as a Stella Dallas-like mother sacrificing all for her daughter.” - Via FILM FANATIC
Being one of the first sound films to move the camera, we get the first true cinematic images of the sound era.
(above) The first on-location shooting for a sound film
APPLAUSE! is a much seedier and grittier behind the scenes look at burlyq than GYPSY or LADIES OF THE CHORUS. A burlesque performer struggles to protect her convent-raised daughter from the harsh realities of her world. As backstage life grows increasingly toxic, with an abusive stage manager and mounting pressures, the mother must make difficult choices to shield her daughter from a life she knows too well.
Photo: Opal Dockery
THE OLD STRIPPER is an epic feature documentary film about a burlesque legend visiting her dancing cities from yesterday. Burlesque legend Opal Dockery travels the country with her real-life son, award-winning filmmaker Jack Truman on a cross country road trip. Visiting all 48 states coast to coast, Dockery and Truman visit her dancing cities from yesterday, landmarks nationwide, and interview over 50 burlesque dancers across the country, young and old, to show how burlesque is today compared to yesterday. An epic underground unforgettable journey, THE OLD STRIPPER opens the audience's eyes to a lost era.
Director Statement:
My Mother Opal was a burlesque dancer for over 20 years in the 1970's and '80's. I grew up in that environment. I remember well being raised backstage in the burlesque theaters with the dancers, surrounded by nudity while playing board games like monopoly and checkers, while Mother was dancing on stage off in the distance. I grew up around nudity and pornography. Those were really special memories for me. This is a movie that only we can make. This is our story.
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The Chicago Psychotronic Film Society is quite a party. From its earliest days with guests JOHN CLEESE, ROBERT De NIRO, BILL MURRAY (our first dues paid member), DAN AYKROYD, SYDNEY POLLACK, RUSS MEYER, CLIVE BARKER, JOHN DUGAN, PENN AND TELLER, KENNETH ANGER, DARIO ARGENTO and many more there was nothing like it on earth. People travelled from all over the world to attend our parties or host them and none of the celebrities were paid to be at the events. Keep in mind celebrities avoided conventions like the plague and there were no ComicCons. From cosplay contests to shows hosted by Bill Murray and Robert DeNiro, no one was doing what we were.
We did shows at bars and clubs LIMELIGHT, KABOOM, THE LYRIC OPERA (!), THE BIOGRAPH THEATER, THE LIAR’S CLUB and many more places. This meant you had to be 21 to attend and there were no dealer tables.
We were the only fandom that had an equal number of women in the group!
Del Close, my comedy partner for almost a decade (though it has been written out of books on him, including our work with THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS) came up with the idea, Supervixen Pamela Boom Boom Smith was the head of the Women’s Auxiliary which was how we got women to attend the shows when fandom was almost all males.
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