Vintage Burlesque Photos

Princess DoMay - The Cherokee Half Breed: vintage 8x10 photo by photographer Leonard ‘Lenny’ Burtman. Many of the images from this photo shoot would be used in the Exclusively Yours, Princess DoMay: Personality Digest. One of the many risque or fetish inspired publications of Burtman’s publishing company.

Mae Murray - The Girl with the Bee Stung Lips: vintage 5x7 photo

Mae was born Marie Adrienne Koenig on 10 May 1885 to French and German parents, in New York city.   In 1908 she joined the Ziegfelf Follies as a chorus girl, and was a headlining dancer by 1915.  Soon after, she made her motion picture debut and went on to become a silent film star appearing in her very first two films with Rudolph Valentino.  Later, she  form her own production company with producer John M. Stahl, and sat on the board of trustees for the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a charity which provided aid to those in the industry with housing or health needs.  Due to contract disputes, Mae quit films in the late 1920s.  Ironically, she would eventually end up poor and living in a retirement home sponsored by the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

Roberta Jonay: vintage 8x1o photo

Roberta was a specialty dancer in burlesque, not a stripper.  Her real name was Roberta Jones, but she used ‘Jonay’ as a stage name to stand out.  She was a popular dancer of her time and even visited the White House at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt.  The two became friends and Eleanor always took an interest in Roberta’s dancing career.

Anne LaVelle: vintage 8x10 photo dated 4 October 1941

Anne was a tap dancer that appeared in variety and revue shows.

June Pressier: vintage 8x10 MGM studios promotional photo from MGM.

June, and her sister Cherry, had been a popular vaudeville dancing team. They were both accomplished dancers and acrobatics, and even appeared in the 1934 and 1936 Ziegfeld Follies. In 1938 Cherry married and retired from dancing, and June went on to join MGM Studios. 

Louise Stewart: vintage 8x10 photo probably from the mid 1940s

Sherry Lavalle: vintage 8x10 photo

Charles “Tubby” Boots - Tons of Fun: vintage 8x10 photo

The son of the vaudeville dancing team Boots and Barton, Charles had show business in his blood.  Reportedly, at the age of 7 he already weighed in at 200 lbs earning him the nickname “Tubby”.  He grew up backstage at burlesque theaters and became enamored of the comics. So he embarked on a career as a comic and burlesque emcee, using his nickname ‘Tubby’ and being billed as 375 lbs of Fun or Tons of Fun. His signature gimmick was that he not only wore tassels that matched those of some of the dancers, but he could twirl them simultaneously and in opposite directions.  Tubby would go on to record at least 2 comedy records: Tubby Boots Goes Topless and Thin May be In - But Fat’s Where It’s AT. 

Sally Lane (Majestic): vintage 7x9 news service photo dated 27 February 1949.

Sally Lane (also danced under Sally Majestic) had been arrested for performing an ‘immoral dance’, and is shown here being taken to the police station.  The police originally sent a police woman backstage to arrest her in Sally’s dressing room.

Norma Noel: vintage 8x10 photo dated 29 September 1929.

This photo was used to promote the show “Girls of the USA”, in which Norma was the featured dancer.