All Hallows' Eve

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Hallowe'en this past weekend.

This being the first year since I got too old to go trick or treating (or rather I didn't get too old, my brother got too tall) that I didn't have a paper to write, I thought that I simply must do something.

So, on Friday, I went out to the Halloween Special of the Taboo Revue, which is Vancouver's longest running burlesque show. It was beyond brilliant! So many great performances, a lot of them featuring zombies and voodoo, because zombies are just so much awesomer than sparkly vampires. Can't wait for next year's show.

As for Hallowe'en itself, I went to work and I did wear a costume. And by costume, I mean I went for a Land Girl look and wore my snood and new wool trousers from Heyday. And by costume, I mean I wore my normal clothes.

I then changed into my fabulous record skirt and biggest petticoat, which is the only day of the year where I don't get strange looks while wearing it, actually a lot of people wanted to have their picture taken with me as I was waiting in the train station downtown. I only wore it because it was warm enough to not wear a coat over top and I was refusing to spend any money on a costume this year. Why buy a costume when I can wear my normal clothes? I went with my friend Courtney on the Haunted Trolley Tour, which is a tour on a trolley that goes around downtown, through Stanley Park, then up to this cemetery and then back to downtown, finishing off at the Police Museum (which used to be the morgue and the coroner's court) and pointing out houses were hauntings and gruesome murders have taken place. Because hanging out in a graveyard and an old morgue on Hallowe'en night is what cool people do.

Apart from a couple of snaps for the Facebook, I don't have any pictures to share on the old blog. But I should probably go back during the day sometime and take some photos of the Police Museum with my proper camera, since it is my favourite museum in Vancouver.

What did you do for Hallowe'en?

The theme for this month's Cinema Tuesdays shall be An Affair to Remember. Expect the first movie pick shortly.

Cinema Tuesdays {Lady of Burlesque}

In an old house on Broadway that was covered in lights, lived fifty little girls in two chorus lines.

For my burlesque month, I wanted to do one of the movies that Gypsy Rose Lee starred in for Michael Todd, but I haven't been able to find a copy and I can find a copy of almost any movie. Why hasn't Dita been doing her job and pushing for them to be released?

So instead, I'm doing Lady of Burlesque, which is the 1943 adaptation of Miss Lee's novel The G-String Murders. Although a bit watered down, thanks to the Code, it's still quite daring and a mostly accurate portrayal of backstage burlesque, or at least according to Miss Lee it is, and who are we to question her.

Barbara Stanwyck plays Dixie Daisy, the headliner who spends her spare time fending off the advances of the cute comic Biff Brannigan with her quick wit. But then someone starts murdering her fellow strippers with their own g-strings, which is a horrible way to go and the cops suspect her! But despite cat fights, booze, comics, sabotage, broken sinks, police raids and general backstage bitchiness, Dixie still manages to solve the murders and get the guy by the end of the picture.

Also, Barbara Stanwyck is totally bad-ass!

This is the G-String song, which is quite daring for a Code film, if you use your imagination for when they cut away from her bumps. And yes, she is really singing. Sorry for the water mark, I couldn't find an alternative video.

You may have noticed that the quality of the screen caps is really crappy. That's because Lady of Burlesque is in public domain. Although this means that it is unlikely that it'll ever be restored, is does mean that you can download it completely legally here from the internet archive.

Cinema Tuesdays {Gypsy}

1962's musical biography Gypsy is loosely based on Gypsy Rose Lee's memoirs, which was in turn, loosely based on her own early life first in vaudeville and then in burlesque.

It stars Natalie Wood, who was coached by Miss Lee herself.

It tells the story of Gypsy and her younger sister, the actress June Havoc back when she was Baby June.

Gypsy was famous for Madame Rose, the determine monster of a stage mother. Rose wanted to be a star herself, but a teenage marriage and early motherhood forced her to focus her ambitions on her two young daughters, whether they liked it or not.

Rosalind Russell plays Madame Rose, who's more like Auntie Mame as stage mother rather than the monster that we've heard that Gypsy's mother actually was. Having read Gypsy's memoirs, I think that even she glossed over how terrible her mother actually was. As much as I love Miss Russell, I think that had Ethel Merman reprised her role from the Broadway version, Rose would have been shown as a monster, rather than a likeable character we feel sorry for.

Madame Rose is determined to turn Baby June into the star of vaudeville, regardless of how lousy the act is. And Baby June must always be Baby June, at least in the eyes of her mother.

And poor Louise must always be a forgotten tomboy and ten years old for years, since Louise has no talent, or at least Madame Rose hasn't figured out what her talent is yet.

And then Baby June, now being billed as Dainty June elopes with one of the boys from the act and leaves her family in the lurch, but that was how June Havoc was able to escape.

So, the act becomes Rose Louise and her Hollywood Blondes, only the act is still lousy and Louise doesn't have any talent, but Madame Rose isn't going to let that stop her career. I mean, Madame Rose isn't going to let that stop Louise's career.

The act is then accidentally booked into a second rate burlesque theatre as the act that's supposed to keep the cops out. This isn't exactly how Louise transformed herself into Gypsy, since they had to move into burlesque after vaudeville died.

And in real life, Madame Rose wasn't so vehemently against burlesque and Louise was the one who pushed herself into stripping since she wasn't going to be a child performer forever.

"Momma, I'm a pretty girl"

I absolutely love this dress!

Much to Madame Rose's chagrin, Louise does actually have a talent after all: the striptease and she is able to become a star all by herself and she no longer needs her mother.

Even though this is a Code movie, I would have liked to see Natalie Wood recreate some of Miss Lee's acts that show her as a classy and witty strip teaser, which the emphasis on the tease, since Miss Lee became famous for her humour and her gimmick was that she talked when she was stripping. But I suppose we should be grateful that the censors allowed bumps and grinds in the movie at all.

Poor Rose! What's she going to do now that she isn't wanted as a stage mother.

As terrible as Rose actually was, Lousie would never have become Gypsy Rose Lee in real life had it not been for her mother's drive and determination and inheriting her mother's talent for self promotion, which is what her memoirs are all about.