Newspaper Page Text
Americana
Dancing queen I
Lili St Cyr shimmied her way to fame and fortune. But once her star \
faded, she fell into obscurity. Now, the author of Gilded Lili: Lili St. Cyr
and the Striptease Mystique dishes on the burlesque dancer's
surprisingly wide influence on pop culture over the last 50 years.
BY KELLY DiNARDO
IN THE BROADWAY musical Pal
Joey, reporter Melba Snyder sings
about meeting a Gypsy Rose Lee
esque character who skewers her
competition in song. “Zip! My artistic
taste is classic and dear,” she sings.
“Zip! Who the hell is Lili St Cyr?”
Who is she? Try the most influential
burlesque dancer in the second half of
Decade
ST. CYR COY GIAMBONC. MONROE ED CLARK. TIME IKE PICTURE VGE TTY, NVL MADONNA COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION. VON TEESE ETHAN MR If A. GETTY IMAGES TOR MGM
Icon
Claim
to fame
Link
to Lili
Marilyn Monroe
Movie star and 20th
century sex symbol
Monroe, right, Mj
studied St. Cyr, Jmi
attending
several of her
shows and
examining , jj/n
proof
sheets
from the JB
dancer's SBf Tjj
sessions
with their shared
photographer, Bruno Bernard.
"Her curiosity was strictly of
a professional nature, as she
apparently wanted to refine
the waddling walk," Bernard
has noted. "Marilyn was an
expert mimic ... [and] her
study of Lili St. Cyr put her
in good stead."
Lili's
impact
26
USA WEEKEND • Nov. 2-4,2007
the 20th century. And, as I reveal in my
just-out biography, Gilded Lili: Lili St
Cyr and the Striptease Mystique, her hip
swiveling ways swayed pop-culture si
rens for decades to come.
St Cyr shimmied across the country
with inventive routines well-suited for
the posh nightclubs in w-hich she per
formed. She amassed legions of famous
fans, including Humphrey Bogart and
'sos
'6os
Anais Nin
Writer known for her
sensual works
Nin, right, saw St Cyr
perform several
times and
j once
VI brought
jjjf Forbidden 'CiJf •
I Planet W 4
I composers
I Louis Ss3§s||, .vjHj
B and Bebe 4i§Bspy|||||S
Barron
to a show, r, jOTllC^litr^
"She uses her body with
enormous grace and skill, to
invite, to expose, to suggest,
to respond, but it is always a
gift, an offering,” Nin once
wrote. "She is a great artist.
She is never vulgar."
Wjt' T A new biography
V* ' profiles Lili St. Cyr,
a burlesque dancer
..■■L ' -4« who inspired the
likes of Madonna
kjlf 4 * KVf; s /).\ r and Marilyn Monroe. I
Ronald Reagan. Her notoriety and fame
brought financial and commercial suc
cesses, with roles in movies like Howard
Hughes’ Son of Sinbad and Norman
Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead.
“I had never seen a more beautiful
woman,” says journalist Mike Wallace,
who interviewed her in 1957 after watch
ing her perform. “She was absolutely
glorious to look at.” Fifty years later, he
'7os
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Madonna
Cult classic 1975 film
_ 1
is i \
n\ wM JH.
is. > ■ Wmi
V Nfc ’ iMt
5 fjß
m* t *
I w.. M
Janet, played
by actress
Susan Sarandon,
splashes around a
pool singing Don't
Dream It, which a
ends with "God
jobless Lili (
l&St. Cyr." I
"The element of playfulness
that Lili had the scenes she
would create really speak
to the play people find in
Rocky Horror ," says Jo Weldon,
who runs a burlesque school.
says the interview remains one of the
more interesting ones he has conducted.
St Cyr died in 1999. A recluse during
the two decades before her death, she has
become largely unknown. Yet, her el
egant dance moves and va-va-voom ap
peal influenced pop culture and its icons
for half a century. Read on:
Frequent USA WEEKEND cont ributor
Kelly DiNardo urites our annual babies report
'Bos
Singer, actress
\ and author
Madonna, left,
donned a black
l bustier from
I St. Cyr's lingerie
I store for the
\ promotional
I materials for
] her 1989
’ album, Like A
k Prayer, and
her shelved
A Pepsi ad.
"Madonna is part of what
sparked the new burlesque
movement," says Michelle
Baldwin, author of Burlesque
and the New Bump-n-Grind.
"She was doing things that
were shocking, revealing and
high glamour."
'9os and today
Dita Von Teese
burlesque^^^^^^^^
queen
HHF
Von Teese, above, credits
St. Cyr as one of her
inspirations and pays homage
to her in a re-creation
of St. Cyr's famous
bubble bath routine.
"Lili St. Cyr was one of the
most glamorous and most
revered striptease artists of
all time," says Von Teese,
who kick-started the
neo-burlesque movement
in the'9os. C 3