THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival" captures a moment in time when young burlesque dancers meet up with elderly legends in the blazing hot desert in the world's only museum dedicated to the history of striptease.

With little more than social security checks, Jennie Lee, a 1950s labor union organizer for strippers, and striptease dancer Dixie Evans, "the Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque," transformed a goat shed in the Mojave Desert into Exotic World.

A feature-length documentary about the decline of Exotic World, the film offers an intimate look at the smart, sassy 85-year-old Dixie as she struggles to keep the museum alive. The film also shines a bright light on other former striptease dancers of the early burlesque circuit as well as young stars of the largest burlesque revival since the 1940s.

Shot between 2002 and 2010, "Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival" is a work in progress, and the success of the current $25,000 "Kickstarter" fundraising campaign will determine the film's future.

In the early 2000s, young burlesque revivalists began to make pilgrimages to the museum, and Dixie began to draw crowds more exuberant than she could have imagined. Young women from across the country, some accompanied by their mothers, arrived to meet Dixie and listen to her first-hand accounts of striptease history.

The annual burlesque show at Exotic World, where the young and elderly dancers perform, is a feast for the senses. And the interviews with the aging stars, photos of them in their prime line the walls of the museum, is alive with history. Interviews with the former striptease dancers are contrasted with old footage of them performing at the top of their game.

The encounters between the young and old dancers and the interviews with them are rich with ideas about erotic femininity, memory, feminism, the politics of history, artistic and commercial sexual performances, working-class history, sub-cultural formation, censorship, aging, inter-generational communities, discrimination and joy.

"Absolutely fantastic and a moving tribute to these amazing women,"says Margaret Cho, comedian, actress and narrator of "Exotic World and

the Burlesque Revival."

The Past

During the late 1950s, burlesque dancer Jennie Lee, "The Bazoom Girl," founded the first labor union for burlesque dancers. As burlesque faded in the following decades, Jennie Lee gathered dancers together for reunions, collecting photos, stories, costumes, props, and other significant artifacts from her fellow dancers, hoping to one day build a museum and retirement home for retired strippers.

During the 1980s, out in the middle of the Mojave Desert, Jennie's dream started to materialize on a small goat ranch off Route 66. There, she and her husband Charlie Arroyo intended to build the world's first museum dedicated to the art of the striptease and its performers. Over many months dancers gathered at the remote ranch and fantasized about a future museum, retirement community, waterfalls, and an American tourist public seeking to learn about their past.

Us girls knew who we were, and we knew we were part of an industry that wasn't recognized, so we just decided to recognize it ourselves," says Dixie Evans, "The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque," and a star of the documentary.

Diagnosed with breast cancer, Jennie Lee enlisted Dixie Evans, the postwar era "Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque," to move to the goat ranch, take over renovations, and keep their dreams alive. The women nailed costumes, photos, and other artifacts to the walls, dubbed the museum "Exotic World," and waited for the tourists to come.

In 1990, Jennie passed away, leaving Dixie and Jennie's widower Charlie to keep the dream of Exotic World alive.

As tourists slowly began making their way to Wild Road, past the lion statues and through the iron gates of Exotic World, legendary stars of the postwar burlesque era also began making annual visits with their scrapbooks for a reunion and pageant. In the meantime, dancers seeking nursing care and a home began making their way to the ranch.

The Present

Then, in the early 2000s, everything changes. After several clever national press campaigns, Dixie begins drawing crowds more exuberant than she could have imagined. Young women, from across the country, some accompanied by their mothers, arrive to meet Dixie and listen to her first hand accounts of striptease history.

Word spreads among young performers across the world about the annual reunion pageant, an event that draws legends, and dozens begin making annual pilgrimages to meet their predecessors and compete at the

reunion for the title of Miss Exotic World. These young women grow dedicated to the museum, seeing in burlesque a shared sexual sensibility, and in Dixie a fairy godmother.

In the blazing desert, each dancer, whether an elderly legend or young revivalist, in spectacular hand-made costumes, bursts out on the sun-drenched wooden stage to perform short, sexy and often comedic dances about desire and femininities.

Collectively, performers across generations spectacularize their varied responses to being sexual subjects/objects of attention. Performing a wide variety of roles—dominatrix, goddess, waitress, daddy's little girl, vixen, diva, housewife, glamour girl, racialized exotic, seductress, virgin, soldier, starlet, cross-dresser—performers

use tricks of their trade, such as comedy, magic, gymnastics, stunts, and choreography, to create compelling ideas about gender, desire, power, pleasure, beauty, and aging in American culture.

A national burlesque community starts to take shape. Performers connect with one another at Exotic World, share ideas, and create a performance network through New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo, and London. Together they launch an international revival among thousands of women, men who perform boylesque, and performers who identify as transgender.

In the meantime, however, the years are taking a toll on both Dixie and her beloved museum. County regulators threaten to shut down the operation. As a new generation of dancers fall in love with the elderly museum curator and her history project, they begin to realize that they may have arrived just in time to experience Exotic World's last days.

Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival was funded in large part through "Gurlesque Burlesque", a series of Chicago-based burlesque shows thrown by Director Red Tremmel and supporters, over the course of several years. The last show in the series drew 2,800 participants. The project is also supported by Columbia College's Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women in the Arts and Media. Other funding has been secured through the generosity of

individual donors.

Stars of the film include:

Dixie Evans, Satan's Angel, Tempest Storm, Bambi Jones, Tura Satana, Kitten Natividad, Dirty Martini, World Famous *BOB*, Indigo Blue, and narrated by Margaret Cho.

About the filmmakers:

Red Tremmel, Director

Red Tremmel is a Professor of history who received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Red is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and a fellow of Columbia College's Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media Fellowship Program. Red has taught at The Evergreen State College and Portland State University and been funded by the Social Science Research Council's Sexuality Research Fellowship

Program; the University of Chicago's Center for Gender Studies Fellowship Program; the James Hormel Sexuality Fellowship Program;

and, the Lesbian and Gay Studies Project.

Courtney Hermann, Producer

Courtney Hermann is an independent documentary filmmaker and educator from Portland, Oregon. Courtney holds an MFA in Film and Video Production from Columbia College Chicago and is the Assistant Department Director of and a faculty member in the Digital Film and Video department at the Art Institute of Portland. Courtney produced the award-winning documentary Standing Silent Nation, which aired nationally on PBS's Emmy-award winning documentary series, P.O.V. Praised by The New York Times, the documentary was featured at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and won the audience award at several film festivals, including the Sedona International Film Festival.

Kerribeth Elliott, Editor

Kerribeth Elliott is a freelance media producer and editor from Portland, Oregon. Kerribeth holds a BA in Film and Video Production from Columbia College in Chicago. Kerribeth crewed on the award-winning documentary Standing Silent Nation in several different capacities from development to distribution.

Marie-Joëlle Rizk, Cinematographer

Marie-Joëlle Rizk is a Chicago-based filmmaker born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her DP work includes the award-winning films Stray Dogs, Pretty Ladies, Sacred Sounds, and A Wink and a Smile. She has also shot dozens of such major reality shows as America's Next Top Model, The Real World, Making the Band, Starting Over, King of the Jungle, MTV's Made, Buy Me; as well as medical documentaries such as The Critical Hour, Maternity Ward and Chicago's Lifeline. Her own films Paper Gardenias, Tabbouleh and Changing Grounds, have screened in dozens of international festivals including SXSW in Austin, Texas and The Beirut International Film Festival.

Jessica Halem, Development Coordinator

Jessica Halem is a comedic performer and community organizer. After studying at Sarah Lawrence, Jessica worked for Bella Abzug at the Women's Environment & Development Organization. For five years, Jessica was the Executive Director of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project in Chicago. As a stand-up comic, Jessica tours her brand of "Comedy as a Tool for Social Change" and has been written about in Fast Company, the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and The Advocate.

Credits and Specs:

Director: Red Tremmel

Producer: Courtney Hermann

Cinematographer: Marie-Joëlle Rizk

Editor: Kerribeth Elliott

Development: Jessica Halem

88 min. English.

Not yet distributed.