This week we’re down in sunny, and warm, Miami, Florida, and in addition to the increasingly hardcore fare on the silver screens, somewhat surprisingly vintage burlesque is still incredibly popular! We have the Place Pigalle on Collins at 22nd St, with “Sauci Comedienne” Pearl Williams (she performed for 18 years at the PP!) and Comedy Emcee Pauly Dash, who you may recognize from such South Florida lensed nudie cuties as IT’S HOT ON SIN ISLAND (1964), SEXTET (1964) (supposedly Linda Lovelace’s debut, although she would have only been 15 in 1964…), THE HOT PEARL SNATCH (1966), and I AM FOR SALE (1968) (he also made an appearance in Sinatra’s Miami venture LADY IN CEMENT), as well as “singing sensation” Lee Sohn, who arrived from Korea in 1960 to accompany his sister, Miss Korea, at the Miss Universe Pageant in Miami Beach, and never left. He actually recorded an album at the Place Pigalle, called “Lee Sohn at the Place Pigalle” (here’s the full album, you’re welcome).
Next up on the burly-q circuit is the cleverly named 183rd St Theatre, where we could go “Around the world with Margo Polo“. This is the only sighting of Ms Polo I’ve found. Moving on to the equally-cleverly named 21st Street Art in Miami Beach we can enjoy “The Incomparable” Bambi Jones (who had been a staple of South Florida stages since 1960, but it looks like this was her last [known] appearance) and “the Fabulous” Peggy Lloyd (a singer and commedienne who had been performing in Florida since 1956) and her Big Girlie Revue; I wonder if that means there were a lot of girls, or that the girls were big…
Finally we arrive at a burlesk joint with a proper burlesk joint name, The Gayety, where, in addition to seeing Valerie Craft, Miss Nude America 1971, along with Sin-Tana, Brandy Stevens, Cheri Chantel, Tamara, Shawna Moore, Scurvy Miller [my favorite name of the bunch, and a veteran burlesque and vaudeville commedian who had been tripping the light fantastic since, wait for it…1913!], and B. Harris, we would also have been treated to a Black Revue featuring Mustang Sally, Lady Ernestine, fresh off of their SEPIA ’72 New Years Special show at the Roxy.
I think we’ll circle back to a few of these folks in the (near?) future, especially Lee Sohn and Scurvy Miller, so keep an eye out for it!