Carnival Strippers

30 comments

• motorhead

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  10 years ago

  Going to the county fair was always the highlight of the summer. At the back of the fairgrounds there was sideshow row. Maybe a half-dozen or more tents with paired signs advertising such attractions as the two-headed baby, lizard man, the fat lady and her midget husband, and the bearded lady. There was always tent with a picture of a scantily clad women with large breasts.
  
  I always imagined what I might see inside but I was too young to go inside. So I never knew how many clothes she actually took off. The only show I remember going into was a "killer" gorilla that escaped from his cage and terrorized the audience before being "shot" by the trainer.
• shadowcat

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  10 years ago

  I don't remember any of those things from where I grew up. There was a Los Angeles County Fair but I only have scant memories of even going to them.
  
  What I do remember was seeing real burlesque on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in 1963.
• tobala

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  10 years ago

  i remember seeing these maybe 2 times, mid to late 70s, but I was too young to go in. they had their own walk thru converted transfer trailer. what I do remember is when one came out that other than a huge rack they weren't very pretty
• ATACdawg

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  10 years ago

  Shadow: Was Sandra Sexton dancing in Nawlins when you were there? Serious question!
• shadowcat

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  10 years ago

  ATACdawg - I don't know. My fondest recollection of that day was a fat old stripper taking it off to a recording of the "Colonel Bogey March".
• ATACdawg

  •

  10 years ago

  Yeah, Ms Sexton was the featured dancer at one of the clubs when I was there in 1971. My impression (It was in my pre-SC days) was that she had been dancing forever.
• AnonymousJim

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  10 years ago

  As an aside, I can only imagine what you get when you put together some elements of carneys with some elements of strippers. [shudder]
• sharkhunter

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  10 years ago

  I just do not remember very many carnivals.
• anthonyu

  •

  10 years ago

  I remember my first burlesque show in Chicago in about 1958 - I was in high school and it was quite an adventure.
  
  But the humor was a little over my young head, and it took sooo long for the girls to take anything off.
  
  Modern strip clubs are a whole lot better.
• jackslash

  •

  10 years ago

  "As an aside, I can only imagine what you get when you put together some elements of carneys with some elements of strippers. [shudder]"
  
  Their kids would be too lazy to steal.
  
• crazyjoe

  •

  10 years ago

  I never saw that before
• sharkhunter

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  10 years ago

  I remember a frat party with a stripper in the basement. That was fun. I like strip clubs better.
• whodey

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  10 years ago

  I remember freak shows at the fair but never any dancers
• rbn1956

  •

  10 years ago

  First stripper I saw was at the state fair in 1955. Think it cist $1. After the main show for an additional $.50 we could stay for another strip totally nude. Was the first pussy I ever saw other than in pics.
• san_jose_guy

  •

  10 years ago

  A lot of what goes on in strip clubs today is not that much different from what went on in carnivals. Anytime they are selling more fantasy than delivery it is like a carnival.
  
  Of course this was the old style VIP Rooms. You could have a drink with the dancer in the front room. Or for $200 more you could have a drink with her in the VIP Room. Nothing more will happen in the VIP Room than in the front room, but hey, it is in the VIP Room.
  
  Today, I feel that these places which try to limit front room touching and force it all into booths and backrooms, the modern clip joints, are still running on the same psychodynamics of more fantasy than delivery.
  
  And even with FS in the VIP Room, if it is not a girl letting her emotional barriers down and letting it be GFE, I would still say that it is a clip joint and more fantasy than delivery, and hence still working like a carnival does.
  
  Jim and Artie Mitchell were very much like carnival barkers. Their father had been a professional card player, who kept his marks engaged by telling stories to them during the games.
  
  SJG
• Clackport

  •

  10 years ago

  That shit looked like it happened in the 50's. I ain't that old!
• gawker

  •

  10 years ago

  Sharkhunter's recollection of a stripper at a Frat party rang a bell for me. As an undergrad I worked at the college as a custodian and was the president of my frat. We had a member who bragged about his virginity ( this was 1967), so I went looking for a stripper/hooker. One of the other janitors brought me to meet two women who he knew to be "frisky". The frat paid them $100 each to strip at a party and then rape the virgin. I haven't laughed that hard since.
  I did go to some fairs in the 50's & 60's but like most, I was too young to go in the "girlie" show.
• PhantomGeek

  •

  10 years ago

  I seem to remember one such show at the local county fair back in the late '60s. I also seem to remember my mom almost yanking my arm out of its socket when I saw that sign; it was time to get some cotton candy, after all.
• Clubber

  •

  10 years ago

  Back in the 50's I recall a place near my Grandparents named "Follies". I had heard or thought of it being a burlesque show. Was gone before I was old enough to find out.
• dallas702

  •

  10 years ago

  As a teen in the late 60s, I did see the, "EXOTIC, EXCITING, NATURAL BEAUTY REVIEW" at a carne side show. Notably, two of the sideshow "muscle men" stood in front of the high stage holding 3' long sticks - there was a strict "no touch" policy! The dancers were old and very tired looking to my teenage eyes. The lights clearly showed unshaven legs and pits plus dark curls showed around the thick "V" of material at their crotch - which did NOT come off.
  
  Since it was a real carne side show, after a few minutes the barker hustled everyone for more $ to see more of the "beauties" on stage. I was one of the many who left without paying more - or seeing more. It certainly did not scar me for life, but it did fit into my small but growing list of, "beware of rip-off" experiences,
  
  Very, very different from the modern strip clib - or not.
• sclvr5005

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  10 years ago

  If they were anything like the freaks in the last American Horror Story saga, I'll pass.
• fgarvin

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  7 years ago

  Tri-State Fair, Superior Wisconsin, the summer of 1978. I was a camp counselor at a place about 50 miles away and you got one day off a week and you hoped that the two or three other counselors who got the same day off, one of them had a car. Because then, you could sleep in, drive up to Duluth, fuck around all day and maybe get some good food before tavern hopping back to camp at night.
  
  So, they had a girly show. So, we had fake ID's since we were 16 or 17. So, the dancers name was Heather, her bush was shaved into a heart, she had reddish hair and she danced to "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day and "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner. I'm not able to hear any of those songs, 39 years later without instantly being there in the front row thinking "So that's what it looks like!"
• WetWilly

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  7 years ago

  I grew up in Arizona, with 8 kids in our Roman Catholic family, so even if strippers had been in the Carnival, I'm sure our parents would have somehow prevented the 3 boys from ever seeing the signs for strippers.
  
  I was deprived!
• Papi_Chulo

  •

  7 years ago

  I grew up in Miami in the 80s and the only fair I ever went to was one called The Youth Fair and didn't have anything like freak shows nor burlesque, being a youth fair it actually had educational stuff in addition to rides and and food (although there were plenty of sexy fair goers dressed in skimpy clothes)
• san_jose_guy

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  7 years ago

  This is the work of Coop, Anton LaVey's principle artist:
  https://images.bigcartel.com/product_ima…
  
  LaVey learned his trade working in carnivals. Seeing guys drooling over half naked girls, and then on Sunday seeing them with their families in the church service tent at the opposite end, is what shaped his view of our society and of religion.
  
  SJG
  
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• Papi_Chulo

  •

  7 years ago

  As a kid I recall a Miami strip called Pink Pussycat which had paintings of nude female figures (kinda like silhouette paintings) on the outside walls so it was kinda obvious it was a titty bar - I recall as a kid when I would drive by there with my parents and I would daydream how it may be inside
• flagooner

  •

  7 years ago

  ^ next door to the jail alai fronton, right?
• Book Guy

  •

  7 years ago

  The HBO mini-series "Carnivale," which I FUGGIN' LOVED, had lots of plot-lines about this sort of dance-review-prostitution-thing that you're describing. The series didn't ever finish, IIRC, got canceled mid-plot. Might have to Netflix-ify or torrent-DL, now that I've come to think about it.
  
  On a similar subject ...
  
  There's a growing fascination for "burlesque" shows among the hipster demographic. I have to admit to really REALLY enjoying the one or two that I've been to. I wrote a TUSCL review a while back about one that shows regularly in New Orleans, here's a link to my review ...
  
  https://www.tuscl.net/?page=club-reviews…
  
  It's a performance of several short (five to ten minute) self-contained "acts," each one on its own theme. The revue I saw had, for example, (1) a five-girl "Brazilian" choreographed zumba-exotic-dance routine, about five minutes, one rather long samba-type song, in which they reduced their clothing levels throughout and in unison; (2) a one-girl "Library" skit which was choreographed to open and close a book right in front of the hot girl's crotch whenever you thought you were going to get a peek at the coochie, and meanwhile the hot librarian was taking off her glasses, letting down her hair-bun, etc.; (3) about five other skits ranging from one to six girls each; (4) an aerialist who didn't really strip, all she did was dance pretty loops and spins in the air hanging from pastel-colored silk fabric in pastel-colored spotlights, but she had a hot body because she was an accomplished gymnast; etc.. It's not exactly the same as the old carnie-style "exotic dancer" who was also a prostitute and/or stripper and/or what-not. But it has some of the same allure.
  
  (BTW, an aside -- the club-page for that linked review above indicates that this venue is "permanently closed" and I don't disagree. The statement is kind-of true, since the VENUE where the performance took place is actually a theater that usually hosts rock-bands and only does a burlesque show twice a year, roughly. But it's also kind-of NOT true, since the venue is likely to host another burlesque show some time in the future, and the performers from the burlesque that I saw are possibly going to be in it, or are possibly already performing somewhere else in town at a different venue.)
  
  
• Papi_Chulo

  •

  7 years ago

  @flag:
  
  Yeah, Pink Pussycat was on NW 36st by Jai Alai and about 5-mins from MIA airport - I think Jai Alai is now a casino - Pink Pussycat I assume had been around since the 70s and it closed around 2010 and no other club has reopened in that location - I started SCing in 2000 and around that time I eventually visited Pink Pussycat and visited a total of 6 to 8 times in the 2000s while I lived in Dallas and visited back home 2x/yr
• Rick999

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  7 years ago

  I never saw anything at a carnival. I was too young.