Minsky's GOTHAM THEATRE New York City BURLESQUE Nudity 1933-1934 Season Ticket

Description

This is a rare original Season Ticket to Minsky's Gotham "BURLESQUE" Theatre (formerly the Little Apollo Theatre) on 125th Street at Third Avenue in New York City ..... Background:
It was showbiz serendipity that made Minsky's Burlesque an entertainment brand name between the World Wars: The Minsky brothers' first theater, the National Winter Garden, was inconveniently located on the sixth floor of a building on New York's Lower East Side, and it was simply cheaper for the Minsky's to create their own shows than to haul sets and costumes from touring productions up six flights.
It was also a lot better business, clearly. Before long, Billy Minsky began to tinker with burlesque's signature blend of lowbrow shtick and chorus-girl production numbers, along the way encouraging dancers to lose more and more of their costumes before exiting the stage.
The Minsky's first push out of the Lower East Side came in 1922, when Billy Minsky acquired the Park Theater at 5 Columbus Circle
. Though early performances reviewed well, ticket sales remained low, and the Minsky's were forced to leave the Park only a year later.
The Minsky's did not give up, however, soon acquiring the Little Apollo Theater on 125th
Street, which, according to Morton Minsky, was soon taking in net profits of around ,000 a week.
This success allowed the Minsky's to expand further, buying out competing theaters and consolidating their hold on burlesque in New York City.
According to Morton Minsky, while Minsky shows aspired to be more artistic than the usual burlesque fare, those staged at the New Gotham were actually cruder and more overtly sexual than was common at the time ...
In a regulatory pas de deux that would go on for decades, Minsky's was first raided for nudity in 1917, which in turn boosted attendance until the next dancer went too far. This went back and forth until a 1937 raid shut down Minsky's, and by extension burlesque, for good.
By his Depression-era peak, though, Minsky wasn't just the poor man's Ziegfeld -- he was competing on Ziegfeld's own turf with a string of burlesque houses in the heart of the theater district, packing in growing ranks of those who couldn't afford Ziegfeld's pricier "Follies". Indeed, it was this class divide, in part, that doomed Minsky: While Ziegfeld's topless showgirls were considered
tableaux vivants,
Minsky's wriggling cuties were simply seen as smut.
In the mid-1920's, you were allowed to have nudity onstage as long as you didn't move.
There was one actress at the National Winter Garden, Mademoiselle Fifi, who shook her breasts, and that caused a raid.
This was the raid that inspired Rowland Barber's 1960 historical novel, "The Night They Raided Minsky's" .....
DETAILS: This rare Season Ticket measures 4 1/8" X 2 3/8" inches and admitted two to Minsky's Gotham Burlesque Theatre. The backside notes that for 25 cents, the ticket holder was entitled to an orchestra seat ..... CONDITION: With the exception of creasing from having been folded and minor edge wear, this rare season ticket is in excellent condition and will make a wonderful addition to the collection of any theatre aficionado or historian. This item will be carefully packaged in a protective, carded sleeve and backed by stiff cardboard.