Rekindling the old days of burlesque

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Back in the day, getting this group of women together in one room would probably lead to a whole lot of twisting, turning, shaking and grooving.

Today and Wednesday at the Stardust, Jane Briggeman, founder of the Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society, is hoping to re-ignite a little of that performance fire during the group's annual reunion for old-time burlesque dancers.

"The society is all about the history of burlesque," Briggeman said."The reunion is for old timers of burlesque -- those women who were performing burlesque in or before 1965."

One of those women is Sunrise resident Carmela Rickman, 76, who was once known as the Sophia Loren of Burlesk.

Now retired, Rickman grew up in Washington, D.C., and while working as a waitress in the area, met a woman who went by the name Lola Beaver and ran a dancing school. Beaver tried to teach Rickman to dance, but didn't get far.

"I was never a good student. I had to do my own thing my own way," Rickman said. "She couldn't teach me, and I ended up disappointed with myself because I couldn't learn."

Not long after that, Rickman started dancing burlesque in a Washington, D.C., club anyway, and taught herself to perform by watching other women. At the time, she was 20 years old and a divorced mother of two.

Rickman eventually got an agent, then landed a second, even better agent named Saul Goodman.

"He booked Blaze Starr, who was a leading girl at the time," Rickman said. "He had a number of great, wonderful girls, and I wanted to be one of those great, wonderful girls."

Over the next 20 years or so, Goodman booked Rickman for burlesque shows across the United States and in Europe, Colombia and Newfoundland.

When she started dancing, Rickman was known as Carmela the Torrid Twister, but her agent encouraged her to change her stage name to Carmela, the Sophia Loren of Burlesk.

"When I was young, I didn't know how pretty I was," she said. "All of the wives loved me because I never had a big ego."

Rickman learned to put together dance routines by watching other dancers, then combining the best aspects of what they did into her own show.

"I did a lot of muscle control, quivers, deep back bends and acrobatic stuff, like the splits and head spins," she said. "I had hair down to my butt, and I colored it bing cherry red, so when I spun the hair around, it looked like fire. I did a lot of comedy. I loved to talk to the audience."

She said members of the audience, especially the women, loved to talk back.

"A lot of the moves I did, if women from the audience saw me after the show, they'd follow me out and ask, 'How did you do that? Tell me how, I have to learn to do that,' " Rickman recalled.

During her time as a burlesque dancer, Rickman crossed paths with many entertainers and politicians, including Gina Lollobrigida and Gregory Peck, and she performed with entertainment legends, including Don Rickles and Louis Armstrong.

While working at a club in Syracuse, N.Y., the club owner asked Rickman if she'd perform at a bar mitzvah. Legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong also was tapped to perform at the event.

"He came to me afterword, and he said, 'Miss Carmela, you sure is a good shake dancer,' " Rickman said. "He was wonderful. I've always regretted that I didn't get his autograph at the time."

Rickman said while working, she stayed on the road most of the time, though she often returned home to stay with her children during the summers.

"Sometimes I'd pack the kids up and take them to California with me and I'd work there," she said. "When I was on the road, I'd call them long distance every night from wherever I was. They loved that I was a performer."

Between shows, Rickman used to sit in her dressing room and sew her own costumes.

"Every sequin, every bead and every jewel had to be individually put on," she said. "I used plastic bead because crystal beads would cut the thread."

She started making her own costumes because prices for pre-made costumes were "astronomical." At the time, just the bra and panties of a burlesque gown cost as much as $200.

Once she learned to do the bead work, making costumes was easy, she said. Rickman said the more elaborate gowns could take two weeks, though simpler designs took less time.

Rickman moved to the Las Vegas Valley from the East Coast in 1976 to be closer to her daughter.

She said she dislikes the idea of the valley's many topless clubs, but when it comes to the growing trend of clubs like 40 Deuces at Mandalay Bay and Tangerine at Treasure Island, "it's great, if they can do it with class."

"When I was working, men were not allowed to touch the dancers, and there were bouncers around who made sure no one got close enough to touch us," she said. "In many, many cases the audience was great. It was fun. It was exciting -- you met a lot of wonderful people."

Though Briggeman had hoped to see about 60 former burlesque dancers at the reunion, she thinks attendance might be a little lower.

"Due to health reasons, we lost about 10 for this year," Briggeman said. "This will probably be the last big reunion, because they are getting older. We're losing them."

This will be the third Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society reunion held in Las Vegas, and past events, like this year's, have not been open to the public.

Briggeman said she created the Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society in 1995 at the behest of a dancer formerly known as Tanayo the Costa Rican Dream Girl, and the reunions started the same year as a means of reconnecting the dancers.

"I met Tanayo in 1994, and she wasn't well," she said. "She asked me to help her find her old friends from burlesque, and that was when I formed the Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society, because I'm fascinated by the history of burlesque."

In keeping with Briggeman's desire to preserve that history, this year's reunion will be sponsored by actress Leslie Zemeckis, who will shoot footage for an upcoming documentary of the history of burlesque during the two-day event.

Briggeman said that at one point since forming the Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society, the number of girls she had contacted swelled to 225, but now that number has fallen to between 175 and 185.

"Hopefully, the documentary will help us find more people," she said. "At this time, many of them are pretty old, and as we lose them, we're losing history."

Briggeman also said many of the old time dancers feel that genuine burlesque died in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

"There's the new stuff, but it's not the same, it's not true burlesque" she said. "Until they bring back the comics, the straight man, the house singers and go out on a circuit performing, it's not the same thing."

Ultimately, Briggeman said her goal is to bring the dancers together and celebrate the history of burlesque.

During the two-day reunion, she hopes to introduce and reunite dancers, and also get them up and dancing again during a performance segment, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

"We know there are still a lot of the old time performers out there, and we'd love to find more of the girls," Briggeman said. "I know at one time Georgia Storm lived in Vegas, and Robin Jewel was there, also. We'd love to find them."

For more information about the Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society, visit www.burlesquehistory.com.