Updated October 2026: typos and names corrected, links checked, and links added to our newer, fully sourced pieces on how the 1950s and 1960s shaped the modern show and the worldwide development of striptease. Dancers looking for stage work today can find current openings on StripRecruit.
Classic striptease
I have recently produced several articles involving historic Classic striptease acts from 
the 1950s and 1960s about Paul Raymond, Crazy Horse Paris, Phyllis Dixey etc and recently I came across this compendium of historic strip clips I thought readers might find interesting,
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5190CB738C40F07A
You will note that most of these classic striptease acts involve considerably more tease than strip and also that performers in those days like the gorgeous Virginia “ding dong” Belle {left} tended to be curvier but rather less athletic than today’s pole-toned
A woman has been arrested for Airport striptease protest at Essex airport
dancers. The girls who worked those days made up for the strict rules about
nudity by developing elaborate acts and this resulted in the 50s and 60s
with a troop of US Classic striptease performers achieving considerable fame and not a little fortune as headline acts like Blaze Starr {right} and Tempest Storm {left}. The girls mainly appeared in normal cabaret clubs and burlesque type reviews as full time strip clubs had not really developed at that point. It’s interesting to see how well dressed the mixed audience was in those days ! Several of the headline US acts toured Europe and were seen as modern and sophisticated at that time.
The Shocking History of striptease
Things started to change very quickly in the 1960s , the first full
time topless bar in the US the Condor
Club in San Francisco opened in June 1964 featuring as it’s star Carol Doda {right}. Things like porn and girlie magazines became much more mainstream and Classic striptease stars like Monroe and Mansfield had stripped in Hollywood movies as the pace of liberalisation increased. The Condor club {and many other US venues} went full nude in 1969 and the hyper raunchy Mitchell Brothers theatre also in San Francisco opened in the same year.
There was still a market for headline classic striptease dancers though as the decade progressed
they tended to become well known adult models and porn stars like Candy Samples {right} and Uschi Digard {left}. A lot of the headline US strippers of the time appeared in the cult Russ Meyer films , the most famous being Kitten Natividad {right} who was also Meyer’s girlfriend for several years and a feature stripper of long standing.
As the 70s came in strips became more explicit and less elaborate and the later Classic striptease stars tended to be mainly well known porn actresses like Marilyn Chambers and Annette Havens. They were very attractive but a rather different shape to the stars of the 50s and this, and the interest in longer and more stagey strip shows, has created the more recent burlesque boom featuring the likes of Dita Von Teese and Immodesty Blaize {left} who even mimic the sorts of names used in the 50s.
Tyke
