Sexy lingerie catalogs that come in the
mail to mom... sneaking them under the mattress for safe viewing later.
A name on the poster of the famous Irving Klaw flick featuring Bettie Page.
Janet Weiss writhing orgasmically in the Rocky Horror swimming pool scene...
All of these are associations that one
may have with the name Lili St. Cyr, but it is only the truly lucky who
associate Lili with more.
Some remember the suspense of sitting
in the audience at a nightclub like El Rancho Vegas or the Gayety in Montreal...
incense wafting from the stage, the lights going up, and a dancer performing
an act the likes of which had never been seen before. Those who remember
the exotic dances of Lili St. Cyr know that they were just that- while
big busted raunchy girls were swaying hips and twirling tassels in the
burlesque houses, Lili St. Cyr was pulling elements of fantasy, mysticism,
ballet, and Eros into her act. Instead of taking it off, Lili was often
putting it on, dressing on stage for her audience, and the results were
no less tantalizing.
Born Willis Marie Van Schaack in 1918, little is known about the childhood, which developed the young woman into the outspoken celebrity she would become. She was raised by her grandparents, the Klarquists, and had two show business sisters, Dardy Orlando and Barbara Moffett.
Having taken ballet lessons throughout her youth, she began to dance professionally as a chorus line girl in Hollywood. Unlike other ladies who have stroke-of-luck stories about being plucked from the chorus line and upped to a feature, Lili had to beg her manager at the club to let her do a solo act. Her self-choreographed act led her to bigger and better things, namely a bit part at a club called the Music Box, with an act called the Duncan Sisters. It was here that she came to a revelationÖ the fact that a dancerís salary was 1/18 of what the featured stars salary was. The difference? The featured star was nude.
Inhibitions seemed insignificant versus the drive for success.
Lili's stripping debut was at the Music Box, in an Ivan Fehnova production. The producer hadnít even seen her perform. He was won over by her striking looks. And the act was a disaster. Instead of firing her, Fehnova reconsidered, and a new act was put together. At the end of the dance, a stagehand would pull a fishing rod, which was attached to Liliís G-String. It would fly into the balcony and the lights would go dim. This famous act was known as "The Flying G", and such creative shows would be Lili's trademark.
Once Lili began traveling, her act only grew more and more.
One of her more well known venues was "El Rancho Vegas", a nightclub in the then-young town of Las Vegas. It was here that she would perform her staple act of taking a bubble bath on stage and being dressed by a maid for the crowd. Some credit her with helping to build the town into the empire it is today. She certainly contributed to the showgirl tradition.
Lili St. Cyr was considered to be the most famous woman in Montreal throughout the 1950s. French Canadians are notorious for their exclusivity, but they welcomed Lili as one of their own. (Of course, not all Montreal residents appreciated her presence, such as church leaders who called her act indecent.) She reciprocated their appreciation in the 1980's, with her French autobiography, "Ma Vie De Stripteasuse". In it, she clearly states her love for the city of Montreal, and the Gayety theatre where she performed.
No mention of Lili would be complete without bringing up her six serial marriages. It seems that Lili married for the thrill of it, and when it was gone, so was she. Her best known husbands are the musical-comedy actor Paul Valentine, and actor Ted Jordan. Jordan wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe, which claims that Lili and Monroe had an affair. This seems to be just one of the doubtful claims he made.
While Lili was featured in acting roles in several movies, an acting career never seemed to be in her cards. Typically she was relegated to playing the part of a stripper, or playing herself.
The films which feature her dancing, are often the most fascinating, such as the Irving Klaw film "Varietease."
From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, Lili was believed to have taken the throne from Gypsy Rose Lee and Ann Corio as the queen of the striptease. Her act was like an erotic ballet, was rivaled by nothing in any burlesque house. Though she is rather obscure today, her name popped up regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over her, and her attempted suicides.
As indicated by her suicidal efforts, Lili did not seem to find show business fulfilling. She had never dreamed of stardom as a child, to her it was just a job. So as Lili retired from the stage, she began a business which she would retain an interest in until her death.
Lili started a lingerie business. Similar to Frederick's of Hollywood in it's time, "The Undie World of Lili St. Cyr" designs offered costuming for strippers, and excitement for housewives. Her catalogs featured photos or drawings of her modeling each article, and descriptions of lavish detail and hand selected fabrics. Her company contended heartily with other lingerie businesses until it was finally sold to a Santa Monica lingerie shop.
Her final years were dedicated to remaining secluded, mysterious, and tending her cats. In 1999 she passed away. Since her final years were very Garbo-esque, her death wasn't widely known, but a small tribute appeared in Life magazine in a summary of the year.
When the cult movie the Rocky Horror Picture show came out, there was a scene in which Janet Weiss (played by Susan Sarandon) is swimming ecstatically in a pool, singing an ode to decadence. A line of her song goes: "God bless Lili St. Cyr!" The line goes largely bunnoticed, except of course by the fans that know every line of the movie.
As the Bettie page craze came to a peak, legions of fans began discovering the other dancers in those Irving Klaw photos and movies. Dancers began trying to recreate the lost art of burlesque, and even an A&E special was devoted to the subject.
The women who were secure with their sexuality, and who dared to be provocative before it was accepted will always be remembered, whether it be by a legion of devotees or a cult of enthusiasts. Lili's quote in her catalog stressed that her lingerie was for women of all shapes and sizes. With the newfound interest in burlesque and its performers, it is not likely she will be forgotten any time soon.