Burlesque

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Patti Waggin
(Patricia Brownell)

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Irma the Body

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Jerry Paige, Cowgirl

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A century ago, before they became moguls of highbrow Broadway theater, the Shuberts produced all kinds of racy material, traveling shows like "Artists and Models of 1923: the sensational revue!", these revues were some combination of vaudeville and burlesque, a mix of nude and nearly nude girls and suggestive jokes, Benny Hill would have enjoyed.

Artists and Models was based, nominally, on an amateur revue staged in Greenwich Village by the Illustrators Society. A story about J. J. Shubert's "rehearsal technique" shows how he envisioned the production. The revue had been staged by his staff, and when he saw a dress rehearsal, he was furious. "When I say 'Artists and Models' what the hell do you think of?" he asked J. C. Huffman, his director. Huffman kept quiet.

"Now you're talking," said Jake [J.J.] to the silent Huffman. He scrambled down the aisle and up on the stage. Purposefully, the creative Shubert walked up to the first show girl, grabbed her dress by the bodice, and ripped it down to her waist. The girl screamed and covered her bared breasts with her hands. "That's what an artist does," roared Jake. The girl screamed again and ran offstage. "No broad who won't show her tits can work this show," yelled the Continental Shubert. "And that's final!"
(Jerry Stagg: The Brothers Shubert)

Artists and Models was no more explicit than other revues of its time. It had only two nude scenes, at the beginning and end of the show. (Several critics claimed this was the Shuberts' new device for making audiences arrive on time.) It had its share of suggestive jokes and sketches, but also was full of entertaining-and clean-material. However, some of the newspaper critics were taken aback by the show, and said so in reviews like "Shuberts Startle Audiences with Undraped Beauty" (New York Herald) and "Artists and Models a Diverting Revue, but Makes Havoc of Blushes" (New York Tribune). Even Variety called the show vulgar

This was nothing compared to the out-of-town reaction. One example can be found
in a little magazine called Jim Jam Jems. Published in Bismarck, North Dak0ta, this
monthly contained an article entitled "Shubert's Smut and Slime" in its November 1923
issue. The piece virulantly castigated the show and denounced the Shuberts in insulting
and anti-Semitic terms. However, it also gave a good description of the revue.
Using this article and the reviews in the New York papers, it is possible to reconstruct
the production.
The show opened in an artist's studio where Arthur Poor and Frank Famous were
teaching class. A scrim separated the performers from the audience. According to Jim
JamJems:

There was a teacher in sloppy art costume with a "class" of flapper
chorusines with paper and drawing materials-all but a foil for a dais
in the center of the stage on which was posed a nude model in the absolute
"altogether!" She did not wear even the cannibal island full
dress of a postage stamp over the left eye. A sop was thrown to those
in the audience who might have a scintilla of a sense of decency by
having her stand edgewise with a shred of diaphanous drapery over
one arm. A "supe" shuffled forward and draped the "model" before
she withdrew her cuticular scenery. A girl appeared seeking work as a
model, the "teacher" asked her terms and on being told that her
charge was five dollars for a semi-nude pose handed her ten in stage
money and told her to get ready! But she didn't reappear and the
satyriastic squads in the audience registered disappointment. One
teacher told another to fall in love with his girl as he could always get
more. Another wanted a "cold pure girl" as a model and was told there
was no such in New York. One flapper wanted to be an artist and
asked what she should do in that life? She was told to keep it secret.
Another flapper said she was willing to pose and was told they would
see more of her !

from Broadway Revues in the Teens and Twenties: Smut and Slime?

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