I was looking around the blog and had an idea to see if there were any interesting photos of dancers from maybe the 1960s or earlier and I found quite a few. That said not many were really compelling, but I found three that I think merit inclusion in the blog.
I never set out to find a photo of The Beatles in a strip club, but here it is. Hard to say where it was taken, but from the dress style I guess sometime around 1966 or 67 because after that time they were barely on speaking terms. If anyone out there can shed some light on this delightful scene, please feel free to do so.
The second shot I found just goes to prove that some things never change...
Note the drums and cymbals, the photo being taken before the days of DJs when dancers used live music to dance to. My best guess is that this photo was taken in America in the 1960s, but really I haven't a clue. Now onto the third and final photograph of this posting. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and the shot below is no exception, its almost perfect.
When and where is irrelevant, it's what is going on in the shot that I think makes it so priceless. Immediately we see the dancer in body glitter, wearing a ring and having a well earned drink. What appeals to me is the chap with his groceries that is shielding his face. My guess is that maybe a photographer (student maybe) was working the club that night and the dancer was posing just inside the changing room just as Mr Married-With-Kids arrived for an early evening session.
It strikes me that the moments captured in the photos above are lost deep in the past (40-50 years anyone?). Who the dancers were and where they worked is a mystery that we are unlikely to ever solve and it strikes me that one day, everything we do, every customer we know, every dancer we watch and every club we go to now will one day be as lost.
Out of interest, what do you see in the photos above? Everyone sees things differently and I would like to know what you saw and what it meant to you....
There was a scene in The Magical Mystery Tour where the tour visited a strip show.
ReplyDeleteYou had strip clubs in the 60s but also cabaret type clubs used to feature strippers sometimes and they were seen at that time as more mainstream show biz than they are now. I remember doing an interview with David Charles the stag show guy and he said when he started stag shows normally had a live band and the girls used to carry sheet music for their bit. Pubs started having strippers in the 60s but by the 70s full time strip pubs became more common {I think Metropolis then called the Arabian started in the very early 70s}. In more recent times though stage shows have become less and less important and private dances ever morwe so.
ReplyDeleteTyke