Lili St. Cyr "tosses her perfumed unmentionables to the gaping and sometimes frenzied yokels" in a dump in Vegas. How could this NOT be a Greatest Moment in Vintage Sleaze?
Wives watch patiently from the side as 6-time married Willis Marie Schaack AKA Lili St. Cyr perches in her less than guilded cage and drops trou...literally...to the paying customers below. Thankfully, only the fans are "gaping" according to the inflated prose of Walter Hale, publisher of SCANDOLL, one of the earliest skin mags. More about Walter Hale in another post. He is funny, but not nearly as funny as Lili.
I'll save Hale for a later post.
Let's get back to the Dove in a Cage. Miss Van Schaack was from Minneapolis and born way back in 1918. When she wasn't getting married or attempting suicide, both which happened plenty, she was taking it off.
Lili is the ONLY burlesque dancer to pen an autobiography titled "Ma Vie de Stripteaseuse" but probably not the only one to have a stagehand yank her g-string away from her crotch with a fishing pole! Now THAT is entertainment and an act I would pay for. I don't see any wavering fishpoles in this photo, so I don't have to worry about his technique...he could put out a yokel's eye!
In Quebec, her act pissed off the Catholics...saying "the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of sexual frenzy" which may have been when she started soaking her dainties in scent. When she was too old to attract gapers she opened her own underwear company. Mail Order.
The WAY, WAY too detailed Wiki article provides all this and more...but look here!
Somehow they have omitted what I believe is the most important historical material! The wiki article does allude to a rumored love affair with Marilyn Monroe (or at least a "brief" encounter) but FAILS to reveal the US Government investigated Lili for her for selling the Vibra-Finger (yes, it is exactly what you think it might be) but also that noted Huge Boob artist and favorite of the blog here Bill Ward Illustrated her catalog! C'mon man! If you are going to obsess about a dead stripper, at least get all the facts. You MISS the Government investigating Lili's VIBRA-FINGER?
Maybe some enterprising young college student familiar with the magic of hyperlink will add these two facts to the wiki for me? Spell my name right.
Maybe some enterprising young college student familiar with the magic of hyperlink will add these two facts to the wiki for me? Spell my name right.
Dull Tool Dim Bulb books and ebook downloads by Jim Linderman are available HERE
