If you can’t afford a trip to the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, fret not. The museum is now posting some of its exhibits online, thanks to a federal grant.
The organization received $32,445 during the Covid-19 pandemic to create high-quality scans of its collection to post more content online.
Its slogan is “Spectacular, Erotic, and Slightly Shocking, A Timeline of Burlesque History.” The museum calls itself a “growing testament to the power and social impact of the art of the tease.”
The new online database of museum objects includes photos of topless and almost-naked women posing. Signed photographs are scrawled with special messages, including one dedicated to “the exotic dancers league Hall of Fame, love and luck always” from a naked Blaze Starr, and others from people like Dixie Evans, “the Marilyn Monroe of burlesque.”
Costume pieces like clothing, jewelry, shoes, and gloves are exhibited, but also more risqué objects, like “pasties” and underwear.
“We’ve been hard at work digitizing and cataloguing material in our collection – since we implemented our new software, we’ve added over 1300 pieces to the catalogue!” a message on the website states. “We will add more as time goes by – our goal is eventually to have a significant part of the collection available to view online, and to be able to offer researchers access to specific elements as needed.”
Freedom of expression and adults’ ability to enjoy bawdy entertainment is part of what makes America interesting, but it should be limited to private funds — softcore pornography shouldn’t be funded with taxpayer dollars.
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