That's a Story for my Therapist: The Dudley Circuit & Princess Lahoma

This week we have Silky The Body giving us the ins on The Dudley Circuit and Iona Fortune is back to talk about Princess Lahoma

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Welcome, darlings and deviants, to Let's Burlesque, where we
bring you the art, the heart, and the unapologetic sparkle of
the stage. I may December your guide
through the glitz. And I'm Creme de Violence, here
to peel back the layers of burlesque, the history, the
hustle, and the secret sauce that makes it sizzle.
Whether you're a seasoned performer or a curious kitten,

(00:34):
there's always room in our bouture.
So grab a drink, settle in and let's talk sequins, sass and the
stories behind the feathers. Are you ready to bear it all,
Creme? Oh, always me.
Let's start the show and. Let's burlesque.

(01:03):
Hello and welcome to Let's Burlesque.
I am May December. And I'm Iona Fortune back again.
And today I'm Silky the body. Yes, we have Silky the body.
Her tagline is she ain't just anybody, she's silky the body

(01:25):
and I am here for that. Hell yeah, good to have you.
Thank you. That's what I thank you.
I'm so happy to be here. I'm also so happy for that
tagline because I picked it up in at Philly Burlesque and
Beyond Festival last year. One of the hosts said it before
I came on and I was like trying to write PayPal.
I got to write. See, this is we, we weren't just

(01:48):
talking about this about tag lines, because I told her I was
like, you know, when I went through my first Academy
learning how to burlesque as a little baby burlesque.
And they told me, don't stress your, your tagline like it'll,
you'll have like a generic whatever you want it to be.

(02:08):
But they were like, you're goingto do a show and some MC is
going to say this epiphany and you're going to look at, at the
person next to you and be like, that's my tagline.
And that's, that's what happenedwith me.
So I love it. Yeah, absolutely.
I went and thanked her one time,I forgot her name.
I went and thanked her one time and she was like, thanks, 'cause

(02:30):
I was drunk. I'm so glad that turned out to
be something good. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I'm. Like that's how it goes.
That is how it goes. The best ones usually.
Come, yeah, I mean mine came. We had a wrestler MC one of our
shows and then he had a one night stand with me and my best

(02:51):
friend Tori and then I never talked to him again.
So I'm like, I can't really thank him for the tagline, but
thank you for the tagline. Nice, nice.
We're very happy to be here. You're so excited because I love
talking burlesque history. Absolutely.
So you're from Ohio, correct? I'm from Cleveland, OH but I
currently live in Columbus, OH, so only two hours South of

(03:14):
Cleveland. You know, how long have you been
performing? Performing, Performing my whole
life really. But I think I've been doing
burlesque for about 3 1/2 years now.
What other performing have you done?
Yeah, I've been like on the stage since I was a baby.

(03:36):
Very, very much so. Like one of my most formative
memories is doing plays that I wrote myself for my parents in
my room or in their room. I even did previews and then
they would ask me to skip them. I used to do something.
My dad would be like, get to thestore.
I used to do something like thatwith my my grandparents had they

(03:58):
had a den. So it was like a step down and
the step was just like this one big step.
And I was like, that is the perfect stage.
Hello. And I would come in with my
stereo be like, can you turn theTV down?
Thank you. And then I'd put on like Janie's
got a gun or something. I'm showing my age, but I just

(04:19):
start singing for them. Yeah, it had to be super
annoying, but I loved. It Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like we all we've all hadus in there.
I think when in fact I've been interviewing a bunch of
different black burlesque performers this year, one of the
questions that me and my producer came up with is like,
what part of like your performance so that can you say

(04:41):
it's like always been a part of you, like something from when
you were a kid and everyone always has something like, Oh
yeah, I've always been this dramatic actually since the day
one. That's why I think it's really
true. It's really funny because my
husband, he does burlesque too, and he's done stage stuff since
he was a kid. His dad's in a barbershop

(05:03):
quartet. Like it's just the thing, right?
So, but he is the most introverted human being.
And I'm like, how can you be this introverted?
And do these things like, and he's like, I don't know, I just
do them. It's fine.
But it's so funny. You know, so many of us, I know
so many of us are like that, like so many people stage

(05:24):
persona that has so much more gravitas than they're like their
everyday persona and they're like, well, that's not me, it's
a different person, so. That's that's Danny.
Don't ask me ask. Them.
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know.
I'm May and I'm just. I'm May.
Even if I'm Megan, I'm still MayI just Sam?

(05:45):
Yeah, I'm usually still filthy for the most part.
You know, you gotta keep it on here.
Gotta keep it. Used to Iona.
I usually, Yep, stick to Iona. I call her like my goddess form
and then I have like my mortal form.
But you don't really need to know the mortal name to like

(06:06):
it's always Iona. So yeah.
I feel that. I usually tell people just don't
call me late for dinner. You know, there's my whatever
words. Especially lately people have
been calling me both of my names.
So what are you working on rightnow?

(06:28):
Burlesque history wise. Let's see, Let me see, what am I
working on burlesque history wise?
I'm actually working on coming up with a like a little timeline
on like how we got here from a black perspective of burlesque.
That's very inspired from takingPhoebe Bardot right now, who's

(06:48):
doing a really wonderful class with the Chocolate City
Burlesque Academy. Yes, I've seen her post about
it. And it's so funny because I
actually got to, yeah, it's a really great class.
I actually missed the one yesterday, but it's so funny
because we actually ended up talking about the deadly circuit
because she skipped, she startedpast it on accident because she
didn't know about it either. And so I was like, wait, wait,

(07:09):
you've missed something very important.
But yeah, I I've been trying to work on like, because what I
always love since I've been likelooking into burlesque and
everything like that. It's just like how broad
burlesque is. And like, especially on my
performance scene where like we share the stage with our drag
cousins so often what what interested me the most was like

(07:30):
finding out that like everythingused to be burlesque for.
The most part. Before the distinction between
striptease and impersonation gotcreated.
And so I just kept going. I wanted to go back and like
barely as far back as I am. It's 250 BC.
And I was like, oh, this is really cool.
Just looking at like, how like the history of like the, what,

(07:54):
you know, like the West burlesque of a Western concept,
as well as like how much of the stage goes into it and
everything like that. And because every time I think
about burlesque, I think about vaudeville in general, I think
about all my sideshow cousins and everything like that, and
like all the different kinds of fun big shows we used to put on

(08:15):
together. And then we had our striptease
and we had our chorus line that we got time.
But, you know, that's what I'm looking into right now.
Oh. That's awesome.
And trying to work on doing someclasses.
OK, cool. You're.
Going to be teaching some classes.
Pretty much so yeah, I'm trying to work on just like a history
of, like I said before, like thehistory of how we got here and

(08:38):
then like some other like Midwestern stuff and then like
broader burlesque. I wanted to start a so I started
yeah, yeah, I started the troop animatical.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I started magazine for
because like when I once I started doing my local burlesque
history stuff, I was like, what is what is historical work?

(09:00):
But current it's just like news.I started figuring that out and
like what I was like, I want to be able to, I think I distinctly
remember saying I want to be able to catalog stuff so that 20
something autistic burlesque performer doesn't have to figure
it out from scratch like I and so I really wanted to get into

(09:21):
that. So I started that and then like
gaining traction from that. I was like, well, let me try to
do something first, specificallyburlesque in my city and like
black performers. So I started my own troupe for
black performers in the city. And then I like, I was like,
well, a bunch of people were like, we want to learn burlesque
from you. And I was like, I just found a
nice face. And so everything just kind of
snowballed in a good direction for me.

(09:43):
And so I'm very excited to hopefully be starting those
classes that like trying to introduce a bunch of other
performers in the city because like, I don't know everything.
So my favorite thing is bringingin guest speakers.
Absolutely level guest speaker. Yeah, that's always fun.
Cookie's excited. I like doing stuff like that.
So if I have people come from out of town for shows, like I

(10:09):
really like to have hey, if any of y'all do classes, let's do a
class the day before or the afternoon of the show or
something like that. So I got to have.
Very much so. Salome the Herald from Colorado,
and she did a head a headpiece class, like a crafting class.
And then we had Coco Rose. She came in, she headlined my

(10:34):
last graduation class for our Academy, and he did a class on
travelling burlesque performers.So that was fun too.
Yeah, love it. He was here last month and did a
show. Not a show, I mean did a show
too, but did a class on. Like taking your time, slowing

(10:56):
down with something. Many of us struggle with me and
it was really, really good. She was such a riot.
Wonderful person to be around. As soon as I started walking,
for my part she told me to breathe and I was like, I don't
do that. Thanks for.
Reminding me to actually breathe.
Yeah, sometimes you just need anextra brain.

(11:16):
She's wonderful, I adore her so much.
She's been here a couple times. I'm just forever grateful for
her. She's amazing so.
Certainly I'm very, very involved in the Burley community
and everything like that. Yeah.
Yeah, that's good stuff. So what we want to know

(11:39):
definitely more about the circuit.
And I'm excited because I get tojust sit back and listen to you
gorgeous people telling me really fun stories.
So I I love the circuits. I did not really know anything
about that until one of the episodes when we were talking

(12:00):
about circuits and I was like, that's really kind of cool.
I want to know more about all ofthe circuits.
Just tell us about the deadly circuit.
Yeah, absolutely. The Deadly Circuit became one of
my pet projects to study really hard when I first started
getting a lot more into burlesque history.
That I come from a family of like teachers, love history and

(12:22):
everything in general. So I've always kind of been a
historian in that way. But when I wanted to start
zeroing in on burlesque history,it was like the first thing that
popped up because of, and I shityou that, a racist political
cartoon. I went and looking in books and
the I used to work at the Columbus Library, used to be a

(12:44):
librarian. It was a fun time.
And I went to the history department that we have.
We have a really big, really wonderful local history and
genealogy department. And I was digging through books
because I wanted to specificallylook for burlesque at first.
And I found so many wonderful performers and everything, but I
didn't find, I found one set of black performers in the book and

(13:07):
I found one reference to historically black theatre and
it was called the Dunbar Theatre, which I have ended up,
I ended up doing some art for Columbus about it, which I
really love. And it was like a bunch of the
white, historically white theaters with like they're all
like looked very pompous and everything had had little
powdered wig and everything. And it had like the different

(13:29):
name, but the Colonial Theatre, the Ohio Theatre, the Cameo and
all these other. And then they got to the Dunbar.
It was just like a little tiny racist looking black like it.
I don't know if you're familiar with the Sambo character, but
big lips. And it was mispronouncing the
name of the theatre. And I was like, I am making it
my personal mission to learn everything.

(13:49):
It was. It was really fascinating
because I was like, it was like,it wasn't in that book.
And even those black performers I told you about, their names
were misspelled. So it took me forever to find
them. And then those were the Spence
twins. I don't know the ones I messaged
you about originally and that I had found.

(14:11):
What was that? I ended up finding like a big
book of black history or black theaters in Columbus.
And I found the Dunbar and started reading more about it.
And one of the first things I saw was a was on the Dudley
circuit. And I was like, I've never heard
of this before because the most prominent performance circuit I
knew of was the Chitlin circuit,which ran for a long time.

(14:34):
It was like one of the another one of the only ones that went
through like the Mason Dixon line all throughout the South
and all the way snaking through the country.
And it was like very affordable,all that type on the chitlin
circuit. And I was like, OK, let me look
more into this. And then I found out that the
Dudley circuit was the black performance circuit that

(14:56):
predated the Chitlin circuit andpredated the Toba circuit.
I don't know if you know about those ones either.
I I don't. Yep, I'll get there.
I will get there then. But it was started at a time
where like the man who started, his name was Sherman Dudley.
He was the black man that lives in Texas, and he was always

(15:17):
another person, has always been on the stage.
I think I remember reading this somewhere.
But you know, if somebody else looks us up and it seems wrong,
let me know. But if I remember correctly, I
think he grew up around like strippers and burlesque
entertainers, if I'm not mistaken.
And then he grew up himself to be an actor and a comedian.
And he did that for a while. He was really, really good at

(15:39):
what he did. One of his famous acts was like
him with a mule, and apparently you weren't allowed to bring a
mule on a stage in a lot of places so he would get fined for
it every so often. But he made enough money back
they they didn't matter. It's like a it's.
It's fine. And he was just really, no, it's
fine. Was there somebody?

(16:00):
It was funny enough that it didn't matter.
Did he have like a showgirl behind him?
Like sweeping up. Had to be like, it had to be
somebody's job to sleep with themule shit.
I think I was just looking at mymy book that I have here, it's
called Blacks and Blackface where I have like got most of my
information about the deadly circuit.
Albert said he had four mules inhis performance lifetime.

(16:23):
Four different mules that were that same that played the same
role. So what was this?
Role. What were they doing?
But. What was their job?
Does it was it was just some famous, I think it was some
famous act he had about selling a mule or something like that.
Like it was like when they firststarted performing menstrual sea
shows were still extremely popular and it was only, I want

(16:44):
to say 15 to 20 years before Sherman Dudley came on the scene
that like black vaudeville true or black menstrual sea troops
were starting to take off because they I think I'm trying
to think Sam TJ, is it Sam T Jackson's rail company?
That was the mostly yeah, though.

(17:06):
So there was one after that. I can't remember the name, but
I'm remembering it specifically because there's an Ohio fact in
here and it's that I'd one of the I think the first all Black
burlesque or like he had the 1stall black burlesque troupe or
like vaudeville troupe that likedid a tour throughout the
country, started their tour in Cincinnati, OH.
And allegedly, I'm claiming thisbecause I'm from Ohio, but

(17:30):
allegedly that's where the firstthe first time ever why the
chicken cross the road was told.That's the first time that joke
was told Cincinnati on that tour.
But I always thought that was really funny.
But like, you know, so with black performances taking off
like that, Sherman Dudley, I think has some experience in
organizing performers. He started like a black

(17:51):
performers Guild, I think in NewYork at one point when he had
moved to the East. And then he was like, well, I
really want to see people do funshows.
That's all I really care about. So he bought up a bunch of
theaters throughout the like theEast Coast and like the Midwest,
like all all around, like the Rust Belt area.

(18:13):
So the the places that hug the, the Great Lakes and a little bit
beyond. And he was like, I don't care if
we make the money back. I really don't care.
All I want is for us to put on good shows and that's what I'll
do. And so he just funded a bunch of
these theaters. So there's like a bunch of
different, if you look usually in your hometown, if you're in

(18:34):
the Midwest or like on East Coast states above the Mason
Dixon line, you'll have like a Dunbar or a Dudley Theatre or
something like that. And what is it?
I think the Dunbar theatres werenamed after Paul Laurence
Dunbar, who was a really famous poet and writer.
He I think, I don't know if he, I think he was like one of the
first black entertainers invitedto like the White House or

(18:58):
something, like something, something really cool for him.
But he was so prominent that, you know, all these different
places got named after him. I think my dad went to Dunbar
High School in Dayton, OH. Like I'm pretty sure he, he
would be there. Dunbar, I think Paul or Dunbar
was either from Kentucky or likeCincinnati, really close area to

(19:20):
like there's a lot of Dunbar theaters lived in that area or
like Dunbar stuff. And once he so back to Sherman,
when Sherman started buying up all these theaters, it kind of
opened up the rains for like people to be able to like
travel. Like this was the he essentially
organized the first black vaudeville circuit that ever

(19:42):
existed. And if you look in some books,
they call him like the godfatherof black entertainment because
of it. And like all these different
like finally people got to travel to different places and
you know, especially at these times, relying on each other to
like be able to like stay in different places and stuff like
that. It would be like a really great

(20:03):
time. One of my favorite artists.
One of my favorite old artists of Ma Rainey.
Was on the What would travel theDudley circuit as well and I
don't know if you've heard of her there.
You should watch my Rainy's Black Bottom on Netflix.
It's a pretty good movie. I'm trying to remember Broke
that The thing down the road. Fences wrote that one as well,

(20:25):
if you've ever heard of that play.
I don't remember. I was going somewhere with this,
I'd swear. Let me, let me take my drink so
I can enter myself. I'm big old book of facts.
Oh, my God. I have a picture.
This is Sherman. Nice.
Yeah. Sherman Dudley.

(20:47):
Looking sharp. Very dapper gentleman.
Definitely. Very much so.
So they ran they ran that circuit, I want to say from 1912
all the way until like the late 20s, I want to say.
And this this performance circuit went through.
I even have like a little list that I made to try to track some

(21:08):
of them. They went from DC to throughout
Virginia. They went to North Carolina,
they went through PA, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and then back
again, just looped back over. And like it was the first time
the people were at were that were black were able to like
travel like that. Like this predates the green

(21:30):
book. I don't know if you know what
that is, but the Green Book was like the the Guide for Black
Travel, I think it's called the Negro Motorist Guide was like
the subtitle for the Green Book and see what that was like.
You know also where I got a lot of my information when I do
research on like trying to find black man, that's the first.
Time I was going to ask you about.
That and this is like before that it.

(21:50):
Was around the same time as that.
Oh yeah, absolutely it was. So I think the Green Book, the
first Green Book, came out in the late 30s and actually by
then the Deadly Circuit was discontinued and had become the
Toba Circuit, which was far lessgood to people.
The Deadly Circuit I know was known for being able to treat

(22:11):
its performers and venues well. And even one of my favorite
anecdotes ever is our Dunbar Theatre here in Columbus, OH
when it was still around. There is a newspaper article
that I found that said that white patrons were so upset at
how nice it was that they said that they were waiting for the

(22:32):
black people to lose it. They were like, it's going to go
into better hands. They don't deserve that theatre.
And yeah. And I was like, I wish I could
see the inside of it. Like, I really went out to one
of the theatres. Like if, if you asked me if I
could go to anytime in burlesquehistory, for me it would be day.
I want to see 1914 Dunbar Theatre because it was just the

(22:53):
way they described it was so Immaculate and beautiful and I
think it had like 2 floors and everything like that.
Like it was very, very nice. But was it by the 30's the Great
Depression had hit and they had to sell of, of most of their
theaters and I think a lot of them ended up being procured by

(23:15):
the TOBA association, the Theater Owners Booking
Association. And that got built off of the
bones of the deadly circuit. A lot of people know the TOBA
circuit inadvertently, but they don't know the deadly circuit,
which is the bones of it. Because the deadly circuit made
it possible for them to be able to bridge into the South.

(23:37):
Because before then there wasn'treally an association or like
organization or even like a, youknow, like a track you could
follow as a black performer for like getting booked South of the
Mason Dixon Line. And because Sherman Dudley has
set that up prior, they were able to build off of it.
But unfortunately the total circuit got known as like tough

(23:58):
on black asses. That was with performers at the
time called it because they didn't pay fairly.
They didn't compensate your people like fairly and like or
like hold up the facilities well.
So it slowly started to fade away.
But I think to that point, like it was just such like a chain.

(24:19):
She was like a chain for people to be able to like come see
these performers that these amazing, these huge names in
performance for like pays on thedollar to them.
Like these are community theaters for like these black
communities. And they know that they weren't
a very affluent. So there was like affordable
tickets and everything. You could come see some of the

(24:39):
biggest names that were playing at that time.
And it was just, I really wish Icould be there.
I truly wish I could be there. I really wish I could talk to
Sherman because I, I get, I get,I get a lot of inspiration from
him. Honestly, as somebody that like
is a community minded person who's an organizer of like, you

(25:00):
know, like he like if you if youend up looking him up, do you
see in so many places that people are like the the face of
black performance would not be the same if it wasn't for
Sherman Dudley And people don't know who he is at all.
But he created the basis for like what is now like how black
people tend to do are like organizations when it comes to

(25:22):
stuff like this now, like connecting each other throughout
the country to be able to bridgeresources in places that we
don't have them. So like I've been reaching out
to burlesque, black, black, black burlesque performers all
year, trying to do something like similar, just by like being
in the good community, you know,And it's like, hey, how are you?

(25:42):
Nice to meet you. I've never been out to where
you're going, but I or where you're at.
But I would love to sometime youcould you tell me about the
place and I'd love to book you here and everything.
And just like I love the genuineinteractions like that get to
like build on top of each other.Yeah, and become something to
like looking at, you know, good book blacks and blackface.
Like that's kind of like what Sherman was doing.

(26:04):
Like he just wanted to see good performances, right.
He just wanted to see people putting on a good show.
And he was like, I don't care ifI make the money back.
And he did. That's a great part.
Like he did make the money back for a very long time.
But you know, the country's Academy crashed and that's
beyond him do. You know what happened to him.
He actually just got he got to retire and everything like he

(26:25):
sold his properties. So he retired.
I'd think that he would still act occasionally because that
that was his real passion. He even wrote, I think he even
wrote a few musicals. Let me see, I think I've seen
one of the names of them is Smart Set Company.
Yeah, that's which I've never seen or heard before, but I

(26:45):
would love to like he he never stopped doing what he wanted to
because I think he mainly did like stand up and even at music.
He's truly a Renaissance man. Right.
Sounds like a. He did music, he did acting, he
was a director, you know, he andbeyond that, like he was really
good at being the money man. If you'd go back and look at

(27:07):
like, I went and found the different managers for a bunch
of different for the bunch of the different theaters.
And sometimes it was it was justThurman, him being the manager
of the theatre also as though like he he was a busy guy.
He was a busy guy, I'm pretty sure.
And let me see, because lots of hats, which I respect the other
person that wears a bunch, but Ithink you know, even more so I

(27:30):
love knowing that like he reliedon other people because you
can't do any of this alone ever.It takes a village, right?
Let me see it. It really does take a village
and like, he was from Texas, buthe moved out of here.
And I always think it's very interesting, especially like
with Black people from the Southand the way that our communities

(27:52):
work and everything like that. I felt like he got out to the
East and was like, why are we sospread out?
Yeah, why are we so spread out? We should all be hanging out
together. Well, now I'm curious, where
Where in Texas are we? Let's see, Galveston.
Galveston. I think it's from.
Nope, He. Wow, I've been there.

(28:12):
Me too. He was born.
In no, he was born in Dallas, TX.
There we go. There you go.
He was born in Dallas, TX and helived in Galveston for a little
bit. Yeah, Galveston is a beautiful,
like, just like island, I believe off the coast of Texas.
Yeah, been there. OK, I can hear you.
Yeah, something happened with myphone.
I can, no worries. I can hear you, but we can't see

(28:35):
you. Well, all right.
I mean. I guess my my phone was my
camera and I think she. Died, but at least she can hear
me. Yeah.
I mean, we can always. Audio will work.
We can always put up a picture of you, I'm sure you got some
nice. I got plenty of cute ones, yeah.
So, OK, so Oh my God, he was. He was from Dallas, and then he

(28:59):
lived in Galveston. I've been in both of those
places because I'm from Texas too.
Yeah, and oh nice, we're in. Amarillo I always got to say
Amarillo say it as Hickey as I can.
Usually the number I. Think that because that's the
way it's supposed. To be, I mean the number one
response I get is Amarillo by morning A.

(29:22):
Little bit good. Let me see.
Oh, yeah, he, I'm trying to remember it was he went from, he
went from Dallas to Galveston toChicago for a while.
It reminds me of like that same company I think I was talking
about that went and told the first why did the chicken cross
the road joke. They were based out of Chicago.

(29:43):
I'm trying to see if they crossed over at any point
because it would make sense. I think they would have because
he was very prominent in the black vaudeville scene.
Like he kind of was the guy for the for the scene.
Go to. Like if you were doing anything
interesting, Sherman would show up, right?
That's cool, though. Yeah.
It sounds like a creative, you know, treasure trove, you know.

(30:06):
No, really. Like I really, I'm so glad I
found this book. And again, it's called Blacks
and Black Faces by Henry T Sampson.
We'll have. To put a.
Link on like treasure trove. We'll put a link on our
WordPress to that book we can. Absolutely.
It's it's amazing. We, I think I, I found a copy to
digitally through my library, soyou should be able to find it

(30:28):
there because I had to borrow this from a university, but
like, I don't think there are many copies circulating or
anything like that. But like, I'm so happy that I
happened to cross it. It's, it's just, I ended up
finding it because there's so much Ohio burlesque history in
here. Yeah.
And when I was looking for Ohio burlesque history, I kept seeing

(30:49):
Sherman Dudley, Sherman Dudley, Sherman Dudley.
And I was like, so who is this guy anyway?
And I was like, oh, he's the guy.
He's not just any guy. He's literally the guy.
Like, well, like, like, like exactly that.
That one article said, like he is the godfather of black
entertainment in this country. He truly changed the landscape

(31:10):
of it because it just wasn't theway that it was before.
There wasn't us. There weren't safe passages to
travel through. There weren't the kind of
networking opportunities. And I really love that.
I think he stated I can't, I don't know if it was like an
interview or anything like that,but he had stated before that he
had been jaded from working withso many like non white

(31:31):
minstrelsy companies. And it's Oh no, no, not non
white, but so many white minstrelsy companies.
And being pushed to the side when he has all these one
amazing ideas to minstrelsy is just copying black people.
So you should be listening to mein the first place.
And so he, he went from there and was like, oh, you know what?

(31:51):
I can just make my own thing. I'm going to focus on my own
people. I'm going to focus on trying to
create the change that I want tosee and just like being able to
get those people behind him. I mean, this is the same guy
that I said earlier started likea black performers association
for New York. Like he, that was a busy body.
He was doing everything. He was doing the thing.

(32:12):
He was like, I love him. Oh, this thing doesn't exist.
I guess I'm going to do it. I love that.
Yeah, and I feel him. I feel him very much so because
I I take a lot of that with me in my life.
I think one of the things I was writing for my class was just
like, I don't know if you all are familiar with AME Christians
at all, but it is the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

(32:36):
It's like the oldest black church in the country.
And I grew up in a dual religionhousehold.
So my mother was AME Christian and my father was Muslim.
OK, or is Muslim and I'm Muslim,but like it was, it would like I
said it, it was the first African American church in the
country. It's really, really old.

(32:57):
And the first thing that they did when they created their
church was look for other people.
They immediately like that cuz African, the Methodist
Episcopal, Episcopalian churchesare like a structure of church,
like a network of churches. And like, it's kind of like a,
they have like a vote on who's in charge and all that kind of
stuff, right? And like, they just like

(33:21):
Sherman, you know, like they sawa need.
They were like, we'll find like what?
Like the reason it started anyways, because 33, I think
enslaved African people went to go pray at an altar and they got
told to leave the church and they were like, well, let's go
start our own church. And then they, they, after that,

(33:42):
they just started creating a whole network of churches that
went throughout the country. And then like those became the
hubs of community for a lot of people.
So like a lot of the stuff in like the civil rights movement
and everything like that, those are, if it wasn't a Baptist
Church, it was an AME church. And a lot of times it was an AME
church because they were alreadyso connected.

(34:04):
And so it also makes me wonder if Sherman with AME in that way
too, because AME Christians justlove to do stuff like that very
much. Kind of reminds me of Quakers in
that way. Just like, very busy, gotta go
do something, gotta go make somechanges, right?
Yeah, that's amazing. It's just like, yeah, I think
I'll try to remember what I was going with that, but I think

(34:26):
that's enough. Well, he man, he sounds super
interesting. Absolutely.
I'm learning for learning more about.
Them, absolutely. I love learning about the
circuits and I was super curiousabout how an all African

(34:47):
American circuit worked so smoothly at that time like.
Yeah, like it was. Especially knowing.
He had to. He had to be so charismatic,
like, you know what I mean? Extremely.
That's, that's exactly what I was about to say.
Like he knew he knew exactly howto apply pressure in the right

(35:09):
places and who to talk to and who not to talk to.
That is always a very important thing to know.
And it's always great, you know,seeing like, it's, it very much
feels reading his story, like hecut his teeth for a very long
time trying to learn what the system was like so that he could
go do what he wanted to do, whether whether he knew there

(35:30):
was his trajectory or not, you know, because he's, he spent so
much time learning from all these other people he had been
in before he was in any black minstrel sea troops.
He was of course, in many other minstrelsy troops, which you
know, this white troops. And so just being able to take
from that and learn what he whathe wanted to wanted to actually

(35:52):
do and beyond what he did for himself, like teaching other
people and like family members. Because like, if it's not
Sherman's name as the manager for these different venues,
it'll be a different deadly. Like I see EB Deadly, which I
think is his brother. And like some other people who
are like cousins and stuff like that.

(36:13):
And like teaching them how to how to do the same thing that he
could do so that when he wasn't around, they could keep
everything running. Very, very good of that man.
Like that. That takes so much effort, so
much wherewithal. They're smart.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm, I'm like, and like
wisdom in that way too. Just like I always think that

(36:34):
it's like you have to be able toapply all that knowledge and not
everybody can do this. So like we, we all have so much
that we know everybody's really good at their specific thing.
I that's like one of my philosophies in life is that
like everybody is really, reallygood at something.
Everybody has wisdom on something, and finding somebody
that like has wisdom on a bunch of different subjects that knows

(36:57):
how to apply it and teach it to other people.
Super rare. Yeah, super rare.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for
telling us that. That was just amazing.
I loved it. Yeah, thank you for having me.
I love talking about it. I will always.
I'll be looking more so as soon as I get more stuff I'll always

(37:17):
let you guys know. Absolutely.
Yeah. Thank you for anytime, anytime,
anytime. You have any stories?
You just hit me up. I got you.
I'm sure I'm a find some more interesting ones.
I'm always looking into some good stuff.
OK, so and you're telling us about Iona?
OK, yes, so today I'm just clearing it.

(37:42):
Today we're diving into the lifeof a dancer who was also born in
Texas. So this is a good crossover.
Oh, there you go. But I'm going to be talking
about Princess Lahoma, if anyonehas heard of her.
Ah, that's. One of my faves.

(38:02):
OK, good. Yes.
So I'd like to take just one second to shout out my friend
John Paul, who is actually a relative of Princess Lahoma, and
he was the one who initially inspired me to start researching
her. So shout out.
Oh, nice. So she, yes, so good.
Born Oteka Lahoma Willing Willingham, this Chickasaw

(38:25):
performer blended tradition withshow business, captivating
audiences across the country her.
From her coronation as the Chickasaw Princess to her reign
on the burlesque stage, her story is 1 of resilience,
reinvention, and dazzling spectacle.
So let's take a step back in time and start with her early

(38:47):
life. She was born on October 5th,
1931 in Greg, Texas, but she spent most of her childhood in
Paul's. Greg, Texas.
Greg, Texas. I don't know where that is.
Never heard of it. Yeah, it's GREGGGREGG.

(39:08):
OK. Well, so she lived.
She grew up in Oklahoma City mostly, and then she was 116th
Chickasaw, but was deeply connected to her heritage.
And in fact, her entire family was very active within the
nation, the Chickasaw Nation. Her cousin, who was Floyd
Mitubby, he was the elected governor of the Chickasaw Nation

(39:31):
in 1939. So in 1942, at just 10 years
old. Oh, sorry.
I just had to look it up becauseI was like, I don't know where
that is. It's a county, so it's Greg
County. The big city there is Longview
which I have heard of Longview so.

(39:52):
OK, then it's probably Longview.Let me edit that.
It's near Marshall, which I think in Marshall.
She might have lived outside of the movie.
Interesting, I don't know I willsay as one of the my grandma's
from a small county in Georgia and like not a town like a the
entire county is where she's from.

(40:13):
So it it I do I do understand inthat way making.
County, Georgia, who knows how, how big or you know, if she was
really inside the, the Township or what, what it was at that
time so. Yeah, OK.
Anyways, sorry. No worries.
So in 1942, at just 10 years old, Lahoma was appointed the

(40:37):
Chickasaw Princess by her cousinMae Tubby at the Anadarko Indian
Exhibition. From that moment on, she became
a cultural ambassador for the tribe, appearing in parades and
gatherings, usually wearing traditional Chickasaw regalia.
At times, there's photos of her on top of a horse, so just

(40:59):
representing in different capacities.
So newspapers have reported on her coronation that there was
even AUS senator there that placed an eagle feather into her
headband. For the remainder of her life,
she really held this honorary title for Chickasaw Princess.
And even though she's, you know,rooted in her history, she had

(41:22):
her sights set on something muchbigger, which was the stage.
So Lahoma's love of performance began very early on.
She studied dance at the Molly ODay School of Dance in Oklahoma
City. She was performing on the stage
with them by 5. Age 5.

(41:42):
Wow, so very early as they start.
Young with dance. I know little, little baby
dancers. Yeah, So by her passions were
very full firm. So by 1947, she's 15 years old,
she quits school and she goes ontour with the Molly O'Day Dance

(42:05):
Troupe, which was a new dance troupe.
They traveled Oklahoma, Texas and other states in the South.
But despite their ambitions, thetroupe really struggled
financially, and they ended up disbanding.
But Lahoma, you know, at a crossroads, was really
determined to continue dancing. So it wasn't long before she

(42:25):
took that step into burlesque. By 1948, So the very next year,
she had fully embraced the burlesque world.
Performances started to blend authentic tribal dances with her
glamour and modern burlesque. She was setting herself apart

(42:45):
really from other dancers. Her first known advertisement
that I read quote says the beautiful Princess Lahoma
featured in the exotic dances ofher tribal ceremonies.
And then she swings into the modern dances and that she will
hold you spellbound. You know how they like to rant
in some of these old advertisements.

(43:07):
Yeah, but I love that. I love the flavorful language
yeah yeah, like they're the best.
I I I take my inspiration a lot from old headline like.
That I love that, yeah. That's why in some of the
articles that I write, I like tojust include every single
moniker that I saw, even if it'sjust slightly different.

(43:28):
So, you know, promoters really couldn't get away from her being
this Chickasaw Princess. And so she was constantly billed
as like, you know, racist monikers such as, like the
ravishing Indian, the six foot 3regal Chickasaw beauty, which
really I'm not. That's what they said.

(43:48):
I don't I don't have any proof. She's my high.
Yeah, she's tall. Yeah, we can't glaze over the
six foot 3 Princess. No, we, we will not.
So she started. You're going to love this.
She started appearing at a venuein called, sorry, called Club

(44:09):
Victoria in Amarillo, TX. Oh my gosh, very exciting.
Yay hometown. Yes, hometown.
I have no. Where she went.
To the Highway Club. They tore everything down in
Amarillo. Everything is like a 60s
wasteland in Amarillo, which makes me super sad so that it's

(44:30):
probably not standing anymore, but I'll have to look that up
sometime. Yes, you should look it up.
Yeah. So, yeah, Promoters also would
sometimes misleadingly say that she was like, a Sioux Indian or
say that she was from another tribe.
But despite these inaccuracies, the promotions helped cement her

(44:52):
as a headliner in this era. You know of quite a lot of
exoticism happening in the entertainment world, but
luckily, there are some good things that happened in the
newspapers. They compared her to Evelyn West
and Rose Lee. They thought she was on par in
terms of her stage presence and her theatricality.

(45:14):
She even started creating her own productions, her very own
productions in the 50s. So she kind of took creative
control. She produced shows like Frontier
Frolics, a gay roundup of rodeo beauties, which I love stealing
them. And then her, I know her more

(45:35):
famous one was Indian Models, which was kind of like the
tableau vivant's living models. Statues.
The statuesque like Silky and she that statue I know.
Get on Patreon to see what Silkyand you.
And you can watch Silky show us an example.

(45:59):
Everybody freeze. Beautiful.
If y'all are not so missing out,OK go on.
So these productions of hers actually ended up touring the
East Coast and parts of the Midwest.
They went to Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Kansas City, and she

(46:20):
even started performing alongside like other headliners.
So she went on tour with Serena,the underwater ballerina.
Very fun. Love that.
And her her biggest breakthroughactually came in 1951 when she
broke the attendance record at the Trock Theatre in

(46:40):
Philadelphia. Then she immediately was
propelled into Minsky's Burlesque in New York, which was
one of, you know, the most prestigious venues in the
burlesque world at this time. And then by 1953, she was
headlining a show at Minsky's called The Anatomy Award Review.

(47:03):
Oh, now I like that one too. So so far we have two out of
three that I would steal. OK, good.
But she also travelled to Chicago, Washington DC.
She had shows that she was headlining called Sneak a Peek
Review, Whirl of Girl Review, American Beauties, The Merry

(47:25):
Makers and The Lid Lifters. I don't know about the last one.
I really don't know what that one the lid lifters.
About they're all, they're all dressed like plumbers.
They're going out. Yes, that's what that is.
Yes, yes. They I was imagining like a like
a hat but I don't know what thatmeans.

(47:46):
That's probably a better idea than mine.
Like a top hat. All I could think.
Is like a top hat, like a picking your hat off,
deciphering old timey stuff likethat is fun.
Just all kinds of hats. Everybody's wearing hats.
I know these newspapers. They don't little.
Tiny hats. Yeah, little tiny hats.

(48:08):
They, they're really not descriptive.
Sometimes they just give the name of the of the review and
like you're supposed to know exactly what, what that would be
like. I'm not sure but.
You just come and then you'll. Find that That's the thing about
slang language changing so frequently, right?
Eventually you're like I. What does that even mean?

(48:31):
What the what the what? Yeah.
You want? You want me to what?
In the where? Yeah.
So she actually let Princess Lahoma became one of the highest
paid burlesque performers in the50s.
But behind the scenes, her life took an unexpected turn.

(48:55):
In November 1951, she was performing at the Folly Theatre
in Kansas City when she was rushed to the hospital with
severe stomach pains. According to the newspapers,
just 10 minutes after arriving to the hospital, she
unexpectedly gave birth to a premature baby.

(49:16):
The infant was weighing just just 2 lbs five oz and was
reportedly a girl. But after this, the details
become very murky. The newspapers didn't really
like report like what happened after that, but Lahoma continued
to perform like pretty much fulltime after that and the the

(49:37):
child's fate remains unknown. Oh.
My God. So she remained in in the
burlesque cannon until around 1959, when she eventually
stepped away from the stage. So.
I mean, if she was, if she really was like 6 feet tall,
right, then I could imagine if the baby was small, she could

(50:00):
probably hide, hide it a little bit.
But Dang, did she like not even.Know about it?
I don't know. Yeah, definitely not quite know
about it, especially if you don't change your lifestyle at
all, right? I mean, they had a whole TLC
show about I didn't know I was pregnant or whatever.
So OK. But I will side note that if if

(50:20):
it's the same Folly Theater, it's still open so.
That's amazing. I hope it is.
Yeah, it's. Gorgeous.
So cool. I assume it's the same one
because it's old as hell, but it's gorgeous, yeah.
I'll do some digging. I think that's where to me, I
think. That's where the Kansas City
Burlesque Festival usually is, Ithink.

(50:45):
Don't quote me. Don't quote me on that, people.
I don't know nothing about nothing.
So later in the year, so we're in 1951, she ends up marrying a
man called Jules Frit in Chicago.
I do like him. He I like that name.
They have two sons together and they survive and and grow up.

(51:07):
So that's exciting. So Princess Lahoma, sorry, don't
maybe cut that part. I don't know.
Oh. Lord.
I I sometimes I'm so I get so like anxious I feel like skip

(51:28):
over myself. Sorry, no.
We're good. OK, so I've her legacy in her
final years. So Princess Lahoma's story, like
many other burlesque legends, ends too soon.
She passed away on February 2nd,1966 at just 30-4 years old.
Oh my God. And I don't, I don't have any

(51:51):
information on how she died, butshe was buried in Pauls Valley,
OK, which is the town that was founded by her great, great
grandfather Smith. Paul.
Wow, that's a name. That's a name Lahoma's two sons
grew up to be successful. One went into business and the
other went into art. Love it.

(52:15):
And then through the limelight, you know, her legacy really
lives on. I mean, she defied a lot of
expectations that were put on her, especially being, you know,
becoming this cultural ambassador for her tribe at a
very young age and then going into burlesque.
So lastly, I'd like to just talka little bit about exoticism in

(52:37):
burlesque and the way that it really turned like really
talented performers into kind offantasy figures rather than
really celebrating who they were.
So like in the 40s and into the 50s, like BIPAC, women in
burlesque were often marketed aslike mysterious or untamed or
like dangerously seductive. And it wasn't like about

(53:01):
showcasing their skills and their style and their burlesque.
It was about, like, selling the spectacle on racial stereotypes
and racial bias. And so if we take Princess
Lahoma for an example, the Chickasaw burlesque dancer, she
was given all of these monikers that, like, framed her identity

(53:22):
through a colonial lens and really reduced that to not
really acknowledging her artistry at all.
And unfortunately, now we don't have a lot of accounts of, like,
what her performances were trulylike other than like, she did
this tribal dance. And it's like, well, what does
that mean? We want more.

(53:43):
We wanted more. So many performers of color were
frequently trapped in these, like, tropes.
So I think it's it's great that we are trying to, like, figure
out what was true and what was just part of the fantasy of
like, biases and prejudices. So.
Right. That's all I got.
That was just my little spiel atthe end because they were just

(54:05):
quite a few racist monikers thatshe had and I wish we could know
more. About her that's one of the
things that I I always whenever we talk about one of these
legends that was a legend of color, I'm always like cringing
a little bit 'cause I'm like whythey have to call them that or

(54:26):
why did they have to make them do that like and I mean.
They wanted to sell the spectacle.
I'm telling you, I mean, our history is ugly.
If you tell history, it's going to be ugly sometimes, and
hopefully we've moved forward and learned from it.
But that's how we learn from it,is by hearing the bad parts and
the good parts. Yeah.

(54:49):
Well, I was going to say too that like even at that time they
still weren't called or not at that time.
I'm thinking this is a little bit before too, but definitely
still anyway, black performers weren't called burlesque
performers until we look back inretrospect, a lot of times most
of us were called exotic dancersor shake dancers, which they
specified was, you know, like a different, a completely

(55:11):
different thing that wasn't burlesque.
But then when burlesque entertainers that were white
started copying shake dancers, they were like, well, that's
just different burlesque. That's burlesque because she's
doing it. Yeah.
And like, it is absolutely important to like look back on
these times because like even like outside of black
performers, a lot of people justended up getting the catch all

(55:32):
exotic dancer training. But we look in retrospect and
go, no, that was the burlesque entertainer.
But like I said earlier too though, so much more of life is
burlesque than people know. Right, right.
Yes, That's why sometimes when people ask me to define
burlesque, it's really hard. I know that the the typical

(55:55):
response that I hear from peopleis that it's fancy stripping.
And then I know people that are really irritated by that term.
We had a performer last year. I've never heard of her.
As far as I know. She did one show in Kansas City.
She may do more, but I don't know.
And she did a whole article about being a burlesque

(56:19):
performer and how there's nothing sexual about burlesque.
And I was like, I'm sorry, what?What are you?
And she's like, it didn't come. It didn't come from that.
And it has nothing to do with that.
But then she was also saying that playboy's not misogynist.
So I was like, OK honey, so. We're making a lot of points.

(56:41):
Here, yeah, we're saying a lot of words, a lot of.
A lot of words. It's one of those things where
you're just like, well, you're pretty.
I don't know. A week that reminds me of what I
was saying earlier about, like, tracking burlesque all the way
back when I was like, you know, 250 BCE Because, like, burlesque

(57:02):
at the end of the day, to me is just like, having a good time
and it's putting on a good show.And eventually, you know, like,
colloquialisms and like, slayinghappens.
Like it started to mean theater striptease at some point, but
you know, it's so much more thanthat.
Like when I think about like Sherman Dudley, like I'm not
that man was burlesque. That man knew how to he knew how

(57:23):
to incorporate theatre, striptease, chorus lines, music,
comedy and like boxing. Like I don't think people know
that boxing used to be part of burlesque.
The people would finish burlesque shows and then they
would clear the floor and bare knuckle box.
Yes, yes, bring the theater. Bring that back.

(57:43):
I think we should. Yes, in Omaha there was a a
theater in the early 1900s called the Krug and it had
burlesque in the bait on the ground floor and upstairs was a
boxing ring for boxing matches. I mean it.
Was very common to go to both. Yeah, in Colorado.
Springs like WWE is burlesque. Baby, we know that is, We

(58:05):
definitely know that's choreographed.
I have a friend, burlesque friend, Busty Beaker, so I'm
going to shout out to Busty. Her and her husband do wrestling
in Colorado Springs and they've really incorporated a lot of my
friend, like my friend Harlow von Fondle.
She did a whole wrestling. I know I love her so much.

(58:28):
Hi Harlow. She did a whole arc with them
and like the wrestling stuff andlike they really incorporated
into the burlesque community in Colorado Springs.
It was pretty fun. We should do that.
Let's I, I want any boxers who happen to be listening to me,
listening to the show. If you are like, let's get

(58:49):
together and let's do a boxing slash, vaudeville slash,
burlesque slash. You know, I what have they I.
Drag the first. I always loved saying like drag
was, you know, in the theater with old Shakespeare, 'cause
they didn't allow women on stage.

(59:11):
So who played the women dudes indrag?
Like. Shit's been around a lot longer
than the boomers thing. And yes, it's been around for a
long time. And it's been, you know, in the
past, like, not just like, oh, I, I, how do I explain this?
Like straight CIS men at one time did not think it was like

(59:35):
emasculating to do drag. Like there were times in the
past where it it wasn't always linked to like being queer, even
though it is now. And it's yeah, sexuality.
So it's, it's very fascinating because even in, I'm trying to
find more articles, but even in the 30s in Omaha, they would
have like what was called a den show and it would be these

(59:58):
straight men that would get together and put on like a
ballet together. But they were, it was like a
farce. It was very interesting.
I I'm trying to do more researchon den shows and like girly
shows but not like for less girly shows but like straight
men getting together with their like Legion and deciding to like

(01:00:19):
put on Mary Poppins. Together as straight men having
fun together and then buying tickets and you know, seeing it,
it's interesting. I smell a new episode of Let's
Burlesque. Yes.
There's a, there's a book that Ihave been trying to incorporate
into some of my research called Complex Inferiorities.

(01:00:40):
And it is, that's what got me back to the, the specific 250
BCE 'cause that's when, that's when I think it says in a book
like that is when like the firsttime we see written down or
something like that talking about minstrelsy and burlesque.
Like burlesque still goes back even further than 250 BC.
But that's like the first time they were talking about
minstrelsy. And in the book, they were

(01:01:01):
talking about like, why people that weren't like, why people
would pretend to be of a different class?
Like why they would pretend to be like, why would these men
pretend to be women to tell thisstory?
Why would somebody that is not enslaved pretend to be enslaved
for this play XYZ? And they were talking about like

(01:01:22):
how it so much of stuff that goes into that is also
reinforcing their own beliefs already.
Like trying to like go like thisis what you should be.
This is what you should be doing.
In that right Coco. It's very interesting.
Just right, Coco. Is that right, Coco?
This is Coco Chanel. Coco, understand.

(01:01:44):
Let me move the microphone. She's like, what are you doing?
Oh, well, I love. I love that you have some
pictures to put on our WordPress.
I do I could share my screen if you want to look at some.
Yeah, you like? That.

(01:02:07):
OK, that's a cool new feature I didn't know about until Iona
pointed it out to me. Oh, it's a little black Kitty,
Yeah. That's my cat.
That's Kiki. Kiki.
Kiki got a Kiki with us. Oh my goodness.
She's so OK. I'll let you go.
She is that disturbed her. She was sleeping peacefully.

(01:02:32):
That's OK. She disturbs me all the time.
Sorry, I'm getting it. There we go.
OK. She's so beautiful.
She's like leaning on her. Go ahead, I.
Was going to say she was one of the first performers I found in
that book I was talking about also.
I think when I when I found likethe Spence twins and everything,

(01:02:54):
I saw Princess Lahoma also and Iwas like wow, what a beautiful
person. Yeah.
And especially it makes me feel good to know that she actually
was Native American and engrossed in her culture because
like, we were talking about earlier with, you know, so much
of the fetishization of culture,especially at that time.

(01:03:16):
Yeah. I was like, I really hope that
this person is Native. Well, and you don't, I don't
feel like we get much Indigenousrepresentation, you know, and
not just burlesque, but in the entertainment world.
So it's always really exciting to me to come across Indigenous

(01:03:37):
peoples. Absolutely.
I mean, it's very funny that, you know, like I, I don't know,
I've, I've always grown up with native people around me, but my
wife is from West Virginia and sometimes we talk about how they
were basically taught in school that there weren't any more
Native American people. And like, they aren't the only
person that I know that has beentaught that.

(01:03:59):
And so like it's, it's just likethe representation is, is very
important and like equity and all that stuff because like
these are people that are still around and have been around for
so long and they're still important to our communities and
all that. And see, I'm, I'm a 16th Apache.
And so I was a little surprised to see that she was a 16th

(01:04:22):
because nowadays I have lots of people that tell me I'm not
indigenous enough to claim it, which I don't.
It's not like I run around everywhere claiming it like
that, but I'm, I am proud of it,you know?
Yeah, and I think it's also really great.
It's like she's engrossed, you feel.
Yes, I love that. I wish I had grown up with more

(01:04:44):
of that, but that's a story for my therapist.
I have a SO the picture above that picture that you showed the
one of her and her mom, I was like, OK, I I think I'm gonna
call bullshit on the 6 foot 3 because her mom is taller than
her. Like how tall was her mom?

(01:05:05):
But then you shared this picture.
Well. She's 15 here.
Right. Yeah, but then this next
picture, there's the other girl.Or wait, which one's her mom is
in the center. Yeah.
She's this one with the feather.She's very short.
She's shorter than a photographer, so that's why the
six three. I think they're.

(01:05:28):
Measuring she's only 15 here. I definitely call.
Her from 10. Yeah.
Oh, she's 10. She's 10 here.
What? Yeah, sorry, she's 10 there.
OK, never mind. Wow, she might have been sick 3.
Those those growth plates weren't done, OK.
Yeah, all have been done. Very tall 10 year old.

(01:05:51):
I love that one. That one's so pretty.
She had a gorgeous smile. Yes she did.
This is her earliest advertisement Audio day dancers
so. I love it.
And then this one, Princess Lahoma with the Morning Glory

(01:06:14):
review, just looking at some of her costumes, but this is when
she in the 40s, she really gets into like more elaborate.
I love how they put her name in exclamation.
Costumes. Like it's not real.

(01:06:34):
Yes, the Fort Worth or they, they spelled her name all, all
sorts of different ways. Yeah, yeah, she should be
spelled Lahoma with one more Lahoma as well.
So and then this is her big shot.
Her big publicity shot was her with her a giant feather

(01:06:55):
headdress and a bikini. Yeah, that's.
Gorgeous. Wonder if that was so heavy.
Stunning. It looks like it would be like.
Probably. I mean, you probably had a huge
case, probably a huge case to carry it.
Around, yeah. Can you imagine getting on an
airplane with a headpiece like that?

(01:07:16):
No. She really was beautiful.
Oh my goodness. This is another publicity shot
with the same head drap. Nice, so we'll put a link to
that on. Yeah, but I can, I can add
stuff, yeah. OK cool, cool.
And if you have any pictures from Dudley Circuit stuff, let

(01:07:42):
us know and we will, we will post some of that up.
So thank you guys, both of you. Yes, definitely I want to see
your art and I want links. I want links.
I got you. Yeah.
I got you. Bye Kiki.
Bye Kiki. Is not even amused.
No, she's not. She hates me, she does.

(01:08:04):
She does like kisses though. Well, thank you guys for coming
on and we will have you on anytime you want.
OK, Silky. I got you.
I'll have more stories. I'll.
Let you know definitely. Thanks.
Bye. Of course.
Bye bye. Bye.

(01:08:26):
All right, love lies. That's a wrap for today's show,
but don't just take our word forit.
Our sources are listed in the episode notes at
letsburlesquepodcast.wordpress.com,so dig a little deeper and check
them out for yourselves. There's so much more to discover
about this beautiful body world of burlesque.

(01:08:46):
And while you're at it, don't forget to follow the Let's for
Less podcast on your preferred podcast app, plus Instagram,
Facebook, Reds, Blue Spy, and you can e-mail us at
[e-mail]. But if you want to have access
to all of the glitter, glam, andbackstage moments that you truly
crave, you can support us on Patreon.

(01:09:08):
It's been a pleasure, as always,diving into the sparkle with
you. Until next time, Papa.
Pasting. The.