The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-09-20
N. Y. BURLESQUE
SHOWS WIPED
OUT BY M'KEE
CarniVaIS of Sex Through
Is EdiCt of Mayor;
Gotham Shocked.
BY OTIS PEABODY SWIFT
United Press stan Correspondent


NEW YORK, Sept. 20.-New
Yorks famous burlesque shows
delight Of the out-of-town buyer
and the small-town cut-up-were
ordered closed Monday night by
Mayor Joseph Mckee, who charged
that they were "a dissertation to
Forty-second street and to Broad
way"
But over at Minskys Republic
Burlesque, where "Etta Maple, the
Girl from Eden" was playing, the
audience had not yet heard the news
and the MacCabre carnival Of sex
went on.
Clouds of cigaret and cigar
smoke rose in a haze against the
plush and velvet glories of the once
proud house. Packed row on row,
orchestra, balcony and galleries sat
in tense and watchful silence.
There were young men and old
men, sad-faced fat men and caday-
erous lean men, sailors, statesmen, a
portly fellow with a piped vest and
pince-nez a hunchback who leaned
on his crutches, his eyes fixed on
the girl who sang.
"St. Louis Blues"
A flaming red head, vivid in
spangled black evening dress, she
swayed to the jungle beat of the
music, sinuous hips curving, point
ed toes tapping.
White arms flashed as she turned,
her voice throaty and raucous in
the tempo Of "St. Louis Blues"
"Aincha Gotta Little Love for Me?"
1t wasn't bad. But somehow, as
Mayor Mckee suggests, there was
an element of sex about it. There
was more later when the real bust
ness of the show began. Slowly,
sensuously, swinging, singing and
swaying, she began to undresS, slip
ping off a bodice first with flash
Of teeth.
A turn, and the dress was
dropped, a whirl, and she stood re-
vealed, save for a saving gee string,
alabaster, statuesque and nude to
point where nakedness seemed but
a legal bubble. Five hundred men
applauded vigorously.
Theme Is All Same
But spend an hour at Minsky's,
and the novelty wears off. For the
plot of THE Girl from Eden"
. seemed, alas, to be but and unin-
spired harping on one theme.
A girl came out and sang,
danced, and then undressed. The
singing was received in silence, the
dancing in hope, and the undressing
with loud applause.
Sometimes the girl was blonde,
sometimes red haired, sometimes
platinum. But the theme and
technique was the same.
New Workers, who for the most
part live ten miles uptown or tWen-
ty out in the country, and seldom
get to Broadway anyway, we're
shocked today to learn that this
was going on.
For the true New Yorker has no
more thought of going to bur-
League show than he would think of
going to Sc the Statue of Liberty.
Mystery to New Workers
The show always may be the same,
but the audience is always transient.
The true New Yorker knows little
of such lusty joys.
1t was, in fact, the prosaic real
estate business, rather than public
indignation. that precipitated the
debacle Of Minsky's and its ilk. Adj
joining owners of haberdashery and
novelty shops in the Times Square
arena complained that the congre-
cations outside the burlesque shows
to look at pictures of naked women
blocked traffic.
Burlesque shows drove real estate
down, they claimed. Mayor Mckee
took cognizance Of their complaint
with:
New York has no place for the
filth these theaters are purveying,"
ne said. "They create imomrality.
And they lessen property values in
the section, a matter which is of less
Importance that the issue of moral
ity."