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The Secret Life of Canada. Season 6, Episode 13. Crash Course: Momma Beaver, a Canadian Burlesque Legend

Hosts: Leah-Simone Bowen and Falen Johnson

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: This is the Secret Life of Canada - Crash Course. Just a little bit of history.

FALEN JOHNSON: Hey, Leah.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hey, Falen.

FALEN JOHNSON: Today, I want to take you to the strip club.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, great. Do you have one of those little guns that shoots out money? I would like one of those.

FALEN JOHNSON: I do. No, I don't, actually. I don't--

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay.

FALEN JOHNSON: I'm not that frivolous with my money. I really...

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, I feel like there's a judgment there. But okay, fine. I'll buy one myself.

FALEN JOHNSON: [laughs] Sounds good. Okay, so I'm not actually taking you to the strip club.

SOUNDCLIP

[needle drop, provocative saxophone tune plays]

FALEN JOHNSON: But I want to take a look back at the history of burlesque in Canada, how it's changed over the years and what it is now. So to help us out with that, I talked to someone who's been working in the biz for over 50 years.

[provocative tune continues]

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: Hello, my name is Judith Stein, and I am the first Canadian legend inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada. And I have been a burlesque performer and stripper since 1972, and I'm still going strong.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Wait, so she's still going strong.

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, she did take a break in her 40s, but she did eventually return to the stage. And Judith has really lived life on her own terms. Today, we're going to hear first-hand her perspective on what it was like to work in the industry and witness how it has changed over the last 50 years.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Great.

[provocative sax-led tune continues then fades]

FALEN JOHNSON: But first, we have to learn about the origins of burlesque. And I have to admit, that's kind of hard to do. How long were people taking their clothes off to entertain other people? You know, I even came across some cave paintings that date back 20,000 years that depict nude dancers.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. Well, I mean, that makes sense. I feel like people getting naked in front of other people and dancing, performing, has probably been going on for a very long time. I mean, as soon as we put leather over our private parts, somebody was probably like, take it off, you know what I mean? So. Put it on, take it--

[laughter]

FALEN JOHNSON: Leather over our private parts is--

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Or fur. I don't know.

FALEN JOHNSON: --burned in my mind.

[laughter]

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay. Let's, let's talk about burlesque specifically.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay.

[jazzy tune]

FALEN JOHNSON: Leah, when I say burlesque, what do you think of?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Um, I think of... To be honest, I think of, like, the '50s or the '40s and women in fancy clothing taking off their clothing. Like, you know, a glove and… very slowly and beautifully.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. That's kind of what I think of, too. And that's kind of what it's become. But when burlesque started, you know, that label was a label for a whole show. In the theatrical sense, burlesque is: theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous, often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and sometimes striptease acts.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. So that's like a whole show that just features some striptease along with some other stuff.

FALEN JOHNSON: Exactly. Burlesque is said to have started in the 16th century in Italy. The first half of that word -- burla -- means mockery or joke in Italian.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, interesting. I do feel like it's kind of connected to the vaudeville world as well.

FALEN JOHNSON: Mm-hmm. Yes.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Like, in that time period. [FALEN: For sure.] That makes sense.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. I asked Judith about comedy, and she leans on it in her act as well.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: Comedy was my forte. First of all, I'm like, five foot two. And I wasn't well-endowed, one might say. But I could be funny and I like to entertain. So I had quirky acts.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, she sounds pretty fun. From a-- also a five-foot-two gal, like, solidarity there, you know?

FALEN JOHNSON: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I love it.

FALEN JOHNSON: You two can put leather over your bits.

[laughter]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, I have. All right, moving on.

FALEN JOHNSON: [laughing] Oh, boy. Okay. Okay, but humour does seem to be something that is really at the heart of burlesque.

SOUNDCLIP

[song: "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" by Bette Midler from Gypsy musical]

PERFORMER: [singing] You can sacrifice your sacro, working in the back row, bump in a dump till your dead. Kid, you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get a-head... You can uh, you can uh, you can uh-uh-uh. That's how burlesque was born. So I uh, and I uh, and I uh-uh-uh -- but I do it with a horn.

[horn solo]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, the choice of song there is... interesting. And I have questions about that horn she's playing. Like, what...

FALEN JOHNSON: Um, yeah. I know. But it's only audio, so you'll [LEAH-SIMONE: Okay.] just have to use your imagination.

[laughter]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. Okay, I got it.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay. So what I find interesting about burlesque is how it morphs and changes. I think in some ways, even the name changes depending on the time and place. If we were to look at the timeline of people taking their clothes off on stage, it might look something like this: we have burlesque becoming popular in North America in the '20s to about the '50s, but then it starts to fall out of favour. And then this is when we start to see go-go dancers and strippers like we would think of now. Burlesque kind of went quiet for a while, but in the late '90s into the 2000s, we see a re-emergence of burlesque. So we're going to kind of bounce around all of these forms today. And, you know, there is a lot of differences between burlesque and stripping. The reality is, is that they can be distinct, but they can't fully be untangled.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hm. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it's an art form, right? And a lot of times art forms are very fluid and they kind of intersect and then go their own way. So that makes sense.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. And like, you know, and it's tied to so many different other forms -- like you mentioned vaudeville. Also circus. Fun fact, many strippers, you know, the poles that they use today? [LEAH-SIMONE: Mm-hmm.] That came from the '20s and circus tents, where performers would use the [LEAH-SIMONE: Ohhh.] pole of a circus tent. I know, I thought that was kind of interesting.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, it is interesting.

FALEN JOHNSON: So it really does cross a bunch of sort of genres of dance and performance.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. And I imagine burlesque is also really informed or impacted by the time it's taking place in. Like, as societal values change, so did the rules or laws around burlesque.

FALEN JOHNSON: Exactly, 100%. Political climate and even location could impact a performance.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. So if you were in a bigger city, you could probably count on being a little more risqué as opposed to if you were in a more conservative climate. That would impact the rules and laws around what you could get away with on stage.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, it-- Totally. It could totally depend on where you were and what the values were of the place that you were in. Judith had some stories about almost getting busted on stage in northern B.C.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: I'd done that act for, like, six days. And Saturday night as I was closing out, I was packing up, and two RCMP people opened my door, [indistinct] got the [indistinct] open my door. And came in and tried to charge me with lewd and lascivious behaviour. And I looked at them, I said, you guys have been in the front row for six days, and you want to charge me? Really?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So did she get charged?

FALEN JOHNSON: She got off with a warning.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. But I want to know how burlesque got to places like northern B.C. I mean, how did burlesque make it to Canada in the first place?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Okay, so burlesque, it was popular in British theatre in the 1800s. This time period of the form is often called Victorian burlesque. And it's around this time that the form was really working class, and it was seen as entertainment for the masses. It utilized parody and satire in performances, often taking jabs at popular forms of entertainment at the time. You know, think of Shakespeare. Sometimes people would sing or tell popular stories. It sometimes poked fun at the aristocracy or the upper class, and the costumes were super fantastical and, like, super fun at this time. I saw one woman who was dressed as a horse, and I particularly enjoyed that.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, did you? That's interesting. Well, we can talk about that later, why that is.

FALEN JOHNSON: I know. Am I, am I a brony?

[laughter]

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay. This-- [laughing] I should have known this would go this way.

[laughter]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: What did you expect? Okay.

FALEN JOHNSON: I know.

FALEN JOHNSON: In the mid-1800s, burlesque started making its way over to North America. And it wasn't really about showcasing nudity -- it was more about women showcasing their sexuality on stage, about subversion. They sometimes dressed in drag. And again, it was often funny. Burlesque really hit its stride in Canada in the '20s, but it was seen as a lower form of entertainment.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Interesting. Well, I mean, so many good things happened in the '20s, actually. Like, so much art, so much, like, forms were changing, so that also make sense.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. The main stops for burlesque shows in Canada were Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. But again, as times and governments changed, what was allowed changed, too. I found this article from a 1934 Globe and Mail, and the headline reads: "Three are bailed in $500 apiece." Leah, could you read some of this article for me?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Sure. [reading] "Three arrests were made last night by police on complaint of alleged indecent shows being staged in the Empire Burlesque Theatre, Temperance Street. Evelyn Cushway, age 26, titian-haired fan dancer with the company, was arrested, charged with assisting and presenting an indecent performance."

FALEN JOHNSON: This article also mentions a morality officer, something that I don't think I had ever heard of before. So, morality officers, they patrolled gambling houses and, you know, watched for public drunkenness, prostitution. They made sure people were observing Sunday laws.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, so they were a fun bunch then. And this obviously was a Toronto thing. I mean, Toronto didn't let anyone have fun on Sundays.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, you could get in trouble in Toronto for tobogganing on a Sunday. These morality officers would patrol dance houses, theatres and parks. In the '20s in Toronto, things like drinking or being drunk in public, gambling, or being in an interracial relationship could all get you in trouble with morality officers.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh my God, that seems like a terrible job. Here comes the fun police -- everyone scatter! [Falen laughs] And if you want to hear more about how boring Toronto was on a Sunday, you can check out our episode Toronto Vs. Everyone. It's from season two. It's lots of fun.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. And to be fair, these officers weren't, like, police-police. They were a part of a morality department. [laughs]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: They were, they were the twenties' version of the Karen. Doesn't it sound like Karen?

FALEN JOHNSON: Oh, totally. The Karen department.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Like, with a cell phone in a public park saying, you can't have a barbecue. Yeah.

FALEN JOHNSON: [laughing] You can't do that here. No birdwatching here.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, exactly.

FALEN JOHNSON: So they would give fines to women who are out walking at night by themselves. Also, if you let a man-- If you're a woman and you let a man buy you a drink in a dance hall, you could get fined for potentially being a prostitute.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Well, I must be a ho then, because, like... [Falen laughs] hm. That would--

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, you said it. [laughs]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I would've been in jail. That's the whole point of going to a bar is get some free drinks out of dudes that you're not going to go home with. That's the whole point. So. Damn, what, what a time. I'm glad I was born now.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Totally. Okay, so, what we have to remember is what these times were like for women. You know, you couldn't just get free drinks. You also--

[laughter]

FALEN JOHNSON: You know, it was really hard to get a job so that you could get money to get your own drinks.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right.

FALEN JOHNSON: You know, women could work in factories. They could become nurses. You could be a clerk, or you could do domestic work. But the pay, you know, wasn't always great.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. And I also imagine most of those positions would probably only be open to white women.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. But black women were on stage dancing. You know, this was an interesting time for women of colour on stage. Sometimes, you know, they would use this idea, you know, of their skin colour as exoticism. You know, they would play it up. They would use it to their advantage.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. It actually makes me think of performers like Josephine Baker. She was a very famous burlesque dancer who kind of rose to fame in Paris. Not so much in America, because hashtag racism. But there's this quote about her meeting European royalty, but also not being allowed to buy a cup of coffee in America. Like, that was that kind of climate at that time.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. Yeah, and it's interesting, it's an interesting friction to explore playing into the exoticism of this form. I know many other women did this on stage. Molly Spotted Elk was a Penobscot dancer who was really popular on stage in a full plains-style headdress, even though that's not what her people wore.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right, right. But I imagine there was a lot of appropriation going on as well.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, totally. Molly wasn't the only one wearing a headdress. It, you know... Sometimes it was like Coachella up on those stages, I'm sure. [Leah-Simone silent-laughs]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [laughing] Yeah. Totally.

FALEN JOHNSON: I was like--

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: The '20s and '30s was just Coachella everywhere.

FALEN JOHNSON: Oh my God, did I just make Leah silent-laugh? [laughs] I was like, she got real quiet there.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: It was a good one. It was a really good one.

FALEN JOHNSON: Thank you, thank you.

FALEN JOHNSON: The money a woman could make on stage was often better than being in a factory or being in a domestic line of work. But, you know, it could also give a woman a chance to travel, which was, you know, something really hard to do at the time as an independent woman. You can see the world. By the '60s, things had changed, but lots of things were still the same. Things were still really restrictive for women.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: Yeah, my generation was, you know, like... In the '60s and '70s, you could not get an abortion without your husband's permission. You could not get birth control without his permission. You could not get a bank account in your own name.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. And I also remember reading about women not even being able to get a hotel room if they weren't accompanied by a man. [FALEN: Yes. Yeah.] So then, Judith makes this decision to get into burlesque?

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, she takes the first step towards dancing. She's in college in the U.S. in Oregon, and she needs a job. So one day, someone tells her:

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: Someone said, well, they're hiring topless go-go girls at this club. And I was, like, an ardent feminist and said, well, I can't possibly do that. And they said, well, you can work at night and the money's good. So I went down and I applied and I got the job. And so I worked in a nightclub where there were-- there will be one feature stripper and two go-go girls that will work in between her acts. And I started watching the strippers, and it was like, huh. You know. And with their encouragement, they said, you know, you should become a stripper. You can make, back then -- okay, we're talking early '70s. You can make $500 a week. And they'll fly you to Hawaii, they'll fly you to Alaska. And I'm a farm girl from Woodbridge, Ontario, and I always wanted to travel. So that was definitely, you know, something to do. So I did. And I worked for a year, saving as a go-go girl in Alaska. And then I came home and went to the costume makers in San Francisco and got a couple costumes professionally made and cobbled together a few other things. And got my 8x10 glossy photos. Got an agent, and away I went.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, I love that. And I love that she says she's a feminist because I think that can sometimes trip people up. Or maybe it used to be that people thought, oh, you can't be a feminist and take your clothes off for a living. But of course, that's...

FALEN JOHNSON: Mm-hmm.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: ...insane.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. I asked Judith about this, too.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: I've always been an ardent feminist. I burnt my bra and I did inhale. And I was always very active in the feminist community. People would say, well, how can you be a feminist and be a stripper? And I remember my reply was... Well, the feminist document was "own your own body." And I said, so I'm owning my own body and supporting myself with it.

FALEN JOHNSON: Judith's career took her all over the world and gave her the freedom to live her life on her own terms. She took a step back from dancing in the '80s, but she eventually settled in Nelson, B.C., in the southern part of the interior. She has a company now, and she makes and sells vintage style nightgowns. Her company is called Kootenay Kate Designs and, you can [LEAH-SIMONE: Oh, nice.] find them on Etsy. Yeah, yeah.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: That's great.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. So, I asked Judith what she thought about the burlesque scene now.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: As we know, the neo burlesque scene. Back in my day, if you were a stripper, a striptease artist, a burlesquer, it was a job. It paid well. And you, as a performer, were working for basically a male audience, and they didn't want anything terribly sophisticated. Basically, they just wanted a beer and a pretty girl on stage who was acting in a provocative, teasing manner. Now, it's all about the art.

FALEN JOHNSON: In 2010, many years after hanging up her heels, Judith was asked to return to the stage, and in 2012 she was inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame. She's the only Canadian to be inducted.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: That's very, very cool.

FALEN JOHNSON: She's in her 70s now and occasionally still performs. She teaches as well and speaks about burlesque. Most days she's hanging out in her garden. One of the jobs Judith did when she wasn't on stage was working in palliative care. I, and I just love this story. So let's give Judith the last word.

SOUNDCLIP

JUDITH STEIN: I did a lot of palliative care, and a cute-- I think it was a cute side note. I was helping this old gentleman -- he was like 96 or something. And it was time for him to have a shower. And so the protocol was you say-- you helped him into the shower. And he wanted to wash himself, which was understood. So when he came out, you wrapped your towel around his nether regions and sat him in a chair. And I'm on my knees and I'm drying his feet, and he looked at me with a twinkle. And he said, I know who you are. And I said, oh, really? You were a stripper. I said, sure, yeah, I was. I said, how do you feel about that? He said, I wish my friends were still alive so that I could tell them I was gonna die in the arms of a beautiful stripper.

[jazzy tune]

TRANSCRIPT: The Secret Life of Canada, S6: Crash Course on Momma Beaver, a Canadian Burlesque Legend

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