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• 1 2015-11-16T13:52:13-08:00 How Rose La Rose Influenced Her Own Image 11 Katie Page 1 pathway plain 2015-12-07T07:15:30-08:00 In an interview for the Sunday Daily in 1969 by Bill Lavely, Rose La Rose explains that there is not one type of stripper. “They all do it because they love it. I don’t approve of the ones that do it just for the money” (Lavely). While this statement only refers to dancers she associated with, it contradicts many other opinions in the industry. Along with this, it is also self-contradictory due to the fact that she used her burlesque career to advance into stage management which led her to making more money. This bold statement is one of many that Rose La Rose used to shape how the public views Burlesque dance and stripping. She was constantly establishing an ideal image for burlesque women whether she was speaking as a representative and defending strippers at that time or making a generalization to benefit her own image. However, it is clear that by her only approving of women who are in the business for the love of the “art” she is holding herself and her career and to a higher standard.
  
  In another interview for the Byline Newspaper titled “There is a Business in Beauty”, Rose La Rose explains how burlesque dancers “put in 4-6 hours each day, 7 days per week, on the stage plus rehearsals” (Shoup).  She explains that “of all show people, those in burlesque must work the hardest, with the New York City Rocketts chorus girls holding a close second” (Shoup). Rose La Rose worked to elevate the stigma of the Burlesque profession and explain to the general public how hard the dancers work to do what they do. This works well as a rhetorical strategy because when a reader learns that a dancer spends hours of hard work behind one performance their credibility as working professionals elevates. To someone who may not understand a performing career, it is logical to associate hard work and long hours with merit. 
  
  An Ohio newspaper article on the death of Rose La Rose explains how throughout her career she was friends and colleagues with newspapermen and editors. It reads “She was a friend of many newspapermen and once helped editor Irving Leibowitz of The Journal write a column Indianapolis about sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. She called Kinsey a “dirty old man” and accused him of conducting an immoral and unscientific poll of women who yearn to divulge their sex lives and myths” (The Journal 1972). Not only did Rose La Rose advocate for burlesque dancers through the press but also for average women who were proud of their sexuality. She worked with this journalist to expose someone who was allegedly misrepresenting women and their sexuality, which at that time would have been extremely controversial. Overall, there are many newspaper articles and photos before and after her death that show how much of an influence she had on her own image, the press, as well as the publics’ perception of burlesque dance as a respectable profession.
   

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  Works Cited

  Lavely, Bill. “Strippers are Really Extroverts” (March 1969). Sunday Daily. Newspaper Clipping. Series 5, Box 1, Folder 5. Charles H. McCaghy Collection of Exotic Dance from Burlesque to Clubs. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute, Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, OH. 2 Dec. 2015.

  Shout, Paula. “There is a Business in Beauty.” Byline Newspaper. (Holland,OH) Clipping. Series 5, Box 1, Folder 5. Charles H. McCaghy Collection of Exotic Dance from Burlesque to Clubs. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute, Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, OH. 2 Dec. 2015.

  “Rose La Rose, A Queen, Dies” (July 1972). The Journal. (Loraine, OH) Newspaper Clipping. Series 5, Box 1, Folder 5. Charles H. McCaghy Collection of Exotic Dance from Burlesque to Clubs. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute, Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, OH. 2 Dec. 2015.