Just One More Chance

There used to be so many burlesque houses on Manhattan's garish 42nd Street that it was virtually one big runway. A decade ago Mayor LaGuardia, who loved to brandish a besom, swept burlesque and all its trimmings right out of New York City; 42nd Street west of Broadway was left with a flea circus and a bereft feeling. Not until The Hat and his pecksniffian License Commissioner Paul Moss left office did there seem any chance to bring the strippers and the privy jokesters back to the boards.

Then Actors' Equity Association began begging the new Mayor to let burlesque in again--at least on parole. In an open letter to self-made Mayor William O'Dwyer, Equity magazine presented its plea. Sure, burlesque had its faults, but they were not great enough "to justify annihilation." Even Boston and Philadelphia, "which take a very high moral stand on the theater," have their burlesque shows.

Equity had its own stake in the matter : it was frank to say that the return of burlesque would mean jobs for comedians, strippers and chorus girls plus "some 2,000 additional people" (stagehands, musicians, etc.). But others had a stake too. Said Equity. "Burlesque was the poor man's musical comedy. He could take his whole family to it for what it cost to buy one seat at Broadway musicals."

Mayor O'Dwyer, no man to meet any issue head on, tried to turn his back to Equity's plea. Last week he was cornered and asked for an answer. Said he: "There will be no dirty shows. I don't care what you call them." To Actors' Equity, or to any other citizen for that matter, 'this seemed no answer at all.

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