September’s meeting was a talk by Dr Ellen Wright (DrSmut on Twitter) about the history of the Windmill Theatre, that she is researching for her book, you can find out more about it and Dr Ellen here.
Ellen had spoken to us a couple of years ago, when she was the leader of the Cat’s Pyjamas burlesque co-operative, but as a lecturer in film at Leicester De Montfort University she is too busy, and has had to pass the pastie, so to speak.
The Windmill Theatre was famous for its nude shows of tableau vivant, where the ‘girls’ posed nude in static positions for up to 5 minutes – if it moves it’s rude – was the slogan. If the girls had moved the theatre could have been closed for breaching the obscenity laws resulting in a loss of jobs for a large number of performers. A few if us had a go for a minute, it was difficult!
During the Blitz it was famous for not closing and keeping morale of the troops up, and due to stringent obscenity laws the naked fan dance meant that four women were stationed to assist covering up the dancer.
The girls were also expected to do a variety of publicity stunts, including donkey derbies, news reel for Pathe about how to cure hiccups. There was a gruelling regime of a continuous review show and a shift system of one day on, one day off, and the theatre closed on Sundays. Not only were there nude ladies, but comedians and performers such as Bruce Forsyth, Benny Hill and Tony Hancock all appeared at the Windmill and the show changed every 2 weeks.
The girls were portrayed by the media as wholesome and middle class and often featured in magazine articles, one declared that they made the best wives in the entire world. This surprised many of us, although the media later called the theatre dated and old-hat. However, when it eventually closed its doors in 1964, due to changes in obscenity laws and more titillation available elsewhere, it was heralded as the ‘end of an era’ and a sad occasion.
Ellen also brought her fans and a few members had a feel of what it would be like to be fan dancer.
Another great meeting for Lincoln WI, next month is our birthday party and jive dancing.
The Lincoln WI 