Gloria's Oversexed Mind

Things to do this summer

2009-07-13T18:00:00-04:00

Climb new heights.

Walk new paths.

Stop by tranquil waters.

Navy's first gay bondage club?

2009-07-13T17:24:32-04:00

Maybe someone can explain this curious bit of 1920s military memorabilia to me. Or at least come up with a good caption for it.

Stare at the spankos

2009-07-13T16:52:08-04:00

Two spanking references on one magazine cover from 1958. Gee, that's swell.

UK report: 1/3 get unnecessary breast cancer treatment

2009-07-13T16:33:00-04:00

A troubling medical report out of UK, showing that a full third of women in public screening programs who are diagnosed with breast cancer get unnecessary or excessive treatment. It's a fatal flaw in the British health care system if diagnoses don't yield appropriate treatment plans.

A third of women diagnosed with breast cancer in public screening programmes are treated needlessly because their tumour will not be life-threatening, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported Friday.
A study by Scandinavian experts highlighted the dilemma facing doctors when it comes to detecting and treating breast cancer -- the notorious "silent killer" of women, thus named for the way it can stealthily claim lives.
Not all breast cancers kill, though.
In some cases, the cancer will grow so slowly that the patient will die of other causes before it produces symptoms, or it may remain dormant over the years or even shrink.
Many women 'treated needlessly for breast cancer'

Berlin opens sex academy with Spank-O-Meter

2009-07-13T16:24:00-04:00

Read this and thought...O.M.G., I NEED one.

The "Amora sex academy" that opened in Berlin on Thursday welcomes visitors with the wry slogan, "Finally -- an exhibition for those who always have to touch everything."
More than 50 interactive displays guide visitors through the intimate areas of the male and female bodies, offering helpful tips on everything from striptease to oral sex and how to achieve a perfect orgasm.
" The show features several life-sized plastic models, naked and in various positions. One female mannequin light ups when touched in the right spot. A voice shrieks "That's it!" when the visitor manages to put his finger on the elusive G-spot.
Next to it is what the museum called its "Spank-o-meter." It measures the level of pleasure a mannequin receives when spanked with a leather whip.
Berlin 'sex academy' offers tips for visitors

But wait: if it's only using a mannequin, does this mean the machine is just a dopey toy? *sob*

Of more import, sexologically speaking, it's fantastic that those clever curators include an exhibit on erotic masochism, clearly signaling that it is a normal aspect of human sensuality.

Vintage ad: Torture by Max Factor

2009-07-13T12:40:00-04:00

The only thing eerier than this device to "perfect" female beauty, is knowing that his great-grandson is a convicted serial rapist. Her smile is disturbing too -- as if he tightened the screws to force an involuntary grin.

I wonder if any of these brank-like contraptions are still around. The sadomasochistic imagination reels.

The Show Must Colorfully Go On!

2009-07-10T21:10:00-04:00

ENCORE! Bringing out two true black burlesque queens I missed before.

First, the incredible Lottie "the Body" Graves,

and second, the stunning Toni Elling

Ms. Graves and Ms. Elling today

Learn more in this great piece of writing published by Metro Times:

They called her The Body.
She was built like a double order of pancakes — sweet and stacked. The only light in the room bathed her as she emerged from a thick velvet curtain, incandescent, platinum hair piled high on her head. As the band struck up a slow, seductive wail, her intricately beaded gown glimmered with each step. By the end of the tune, the dress was gone, and she wore little more than heels, a few strategically placed rhinestones, and a smile.
Her playground was Paradise Valley, the now long-demolished entertainment district on Detroit’s old Lower East Side, and her signature shimmy held sway in that earthy realm. She rubbed elbows with Louis Armstrong and Aretha Franklin, she dined with Dinah Washington and strutted alongside Billie Holiday. When she and her Harlem Globetrotter husband Goose Tatum lived in a villa in Cuba, she was chummy with Fidel Castro. And one notorious racketeer in Indianapolis was so was taken with her legendary proportions that he built an entire club just for her, naming it the Pink Poodle.
Paradise Regained.

Grateful thanks to my friend Holiday O'Hara for sending me the info on these performers. Here's Holiday in her burlesque goddess days.

_{If you have any special requests, or have more articles or images to share related to today's show, write me and I'll follow up.}

_{pssst....Next Friday, it's going to be men, men, men: strippers, drag queens, and (if I can find it) boylesque!}

Women of Color in Adult Entertainment

2009-07-10T18:39:49-04:00

They had to exist: clubs where African-American women were performing. But since so much of Burlesque happened before desegregation, and even though there were always the exceptions which allowed a brilliant chanteuse to cross the color line (at least on stage), for the most part women of color are the most undocumented, and hardest-to-find, segment of the world of vintage adult entertainment. I viewed literally a thousand images, but was able to locate only one performer I am sure is both black AND a genuine burlesque performer. She went by the stage name "Miss Topsy."

Here is her publicity card, a typical souvenir that strippers sold to fans.

Miss Topsy on stage.

I'm sure there are many more black burlesque stars because I found this old matchbook cover from a Chicago nightclub.

But where are the photos? I just had no luck finding any. Obviously, Europe, and particularly France, was much friendlier to black performers. Josephine Baker was the perfect example of an African-American woman too hot for white America to handle.

Like her, many a caberet singer, jazz musician, and sexy lady fled overseas in search of artistic freedom. This perpetual calendar is an intriguing part of that period in black history.

Although I have no idea of any of the beauties below appeared on Burlesque or strip stage, they all seem to be professional models, and I will guess they didn't limit their lingerie work to photo studios only. All of these photos date from the 1940s to 1960s. I'd like to think they are representative of the women of color who helped shape America's sexual aesthetic, on stage and in magazines. If you know of any black Burlesque performers, or if you know the names of any of these lovely ladies, please drop me a line. I wouldn't mind doing another feature on this seldom-mentioned niche of America's adult entertainment history.

Post-War Burlesque

2009-07-10T18:01:45-04:00

In the 1940s, Vaudeville theatres were dying, unable to compete with the new-fangled invention, TV. The lure of the ladies, though, still drew audiences, particularly since Hollywood censorship laws meant your only chance of seeing a scantily-clad girl would be at the local Burlesque. Soon the musty fusty ladies in corsets and tights were replaced by free-spirited women willing to disrobe for a steady paycheck. The WWII veterans who'd visited the brothels of France, Italy, and Japan, were home now and needed more than a flip of a slip to satisfy their voyeuristic lusts. Lucky for them, a tough new breed of post-war women were happy to exceed their expectations. And so, burlesque gave birth to a new subgenre: the strip show.

Here is a very small collection of bright lights of the burlesque/strip biz, from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

Sherry Britton

Noel Toy

Kandy Kane

Irma "The Body"

Bonnie Bell

Tempest Storm

Evelyn West

Finally, these two rare images of Sintana, who in later life became "Lady Sintana," "Queen Witch" and founder of the Wiccan seminary, Ravenwood Church, in Atlanta.

The World of Burlesque, 1920 - 1940

2009-07-10T16:42:18-04:00

An original arcade card, ca. 1920. You'd put a coin in a machine to view this.

The Kay Sisters, stage and screen dancers of the 1920s.

Burlesque hall dressing room, ca. 1920s.

Unknown, ca. 1920s.

Unknown, ca. 1930s.

Unknown, ca. 1933.

Lithograph of Burlesque Hall, dated 1939.

Unknown, ca. 1940s.