Spectacles of Agency and Desire: Dance Histories and the Burlesque Stage

The Burlesque Family: Beware of Misidentification and Misrepresentation

While researching Burlesque, it is easy to come upon mis-identified information due to the ever-changing nature of the industry. Many famous performers took on protégés as well as became mentors and “family” to young women starting out in the business. Others built on more famous dancers’ fame to advance their own careers. For example, burlesque dancer Rosa La Roso used her stage name in order to gain more viewers due to the similarity of it to famous performer Rose La Rose. Similarly, today there is a famous dancer who goes by Lili St. Clair which is extremely close to a more famous dancer Lili St Cyr. In terms of material benefits, dancers who used similar stage names to other stage performers gained more money through ticket sales due to positive association in newspapers and mainstream society. However, on the other hand Rosa la Roso was actually sued by Rose La Rose over her similar name.

While I was researching Lydia Thompson online, I came across a picture of a performer identified as Lydia, but the picture did not seem quite right. Her face served a striking resemblance, however, the waist size and figure were much slimmer than Lydia’s. After searching deeper, I discovered that the picture was actually that of later Burlesque Dancer known as Violet Cameron. Violet Cameron’s birth name was Violet Lydia Thompson which could have been reason for the misidentification. However, this could be very misleading to researchers. In the burlesque field, name changes are common, dancers become “family.”  It is important when researching burlesque to double check sources to make sure misrepresentation and misidentification is not a cause for inaccurate research and interpretations. 
Works Cited:

Foulkes, Richard. "Violet Cameron (1872-1919)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. N.p., 2004. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.

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