visits
text and photos by chris beyond ©2005
This year's Miss Exotic World Pageant took place on June 4th at its usual location at Exotic World USA in Helendale, California. It was also the 4th time I've attended in as many years. The actual pageant usually takes place on a Saturday with a pre-party held the night before. After a bunch of my friends asked me why I didn't go to the Pre-Party last year, I decided to make two days of it this time.
But first...
Maybe I should explain the basics of Exotic World and the history of Burlesque...
Exotic World, and really the whole idea of burlesque, is hard to explain to people. Exotic World USA is a museum of the burlesque arts located near Barstow just two hours away from Los Angeles. In fact it is centrally located between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It was started by the famous "bazoom girl" burlesque star Jennie Lee (aka "The Biggest Bust In Burlesque" and "Miss 44 And Plenty More") and was originally 
just a bunch of pictures and memorabilia in a bar she ended up running in San Pedro. Miss Lee was a popular performer in the 50s, but was made even more popular with her peers when she started The Exotic Dancers League Of North America to help protect the rights of her fellow performers. She was so popular, in fact, that JAN AND DEAN even wrote a song about her titled "Jennie Lee" which ended up being #1 in the charts. She moved to Helendale with her husband when he bought an old goat farm there. The artifacts came with her and she eventually moved them into the space formerly occupied by the goats (after adding a new roof to protect them, of course).
When Jennie Lee died from breast cancer, her husband didn't know how to deal with all of the people tryng to visit the museum, so he called on one of Jennie's best friends, Dixie Evans (aka "The Marilyn Monroe Of Burlesque") to continue the museum and take charge of the Exotic Dancers League which had become more of of a small group of former performers who reunited every year. After attending a reunion in 1993 where only three people showed up (including herself), she decided to do something drastic and sent out press releases to every major media outlet announcing that she was hosting a Striptease Reunion and Convention where several big names of burlesque like Tempest Storm and Mamie Van Doren were invited to perform. The truth was that Dixie did invite them, but didn't think that they would actually show up. The show ended up being a huge success with the attendees and the press and 14 years later the shows have grown significantly with a few ups and downs here and there, in terms of attendance. In fact last year's attendance was much lighter than expected so this show was more important than ever.
Burlesque itself, as a form of bawdy entertainment, started maybe more than a century ago. The shows were usually made up of song, dance, and comedy numbers. It wasn't until the 1920s when they started to incorporate striptease into the 
shows. For the next couple of decades, the strip acts became more and more of the main attraction of the shows and were even integrated into the comedy and song numbers.
Burlesque dance routines became more elaborate with props such as giant fans, balloons, and even giant martini glasses. In a country where sexual freedom has been suppressed since before we were even founded, attitudes were finally lightening up and started to catch up slowly to what was happening in Europe. Burlesque acts were not the "pole dancers," "lap dancers," or "table dancers" we think of who perform at the local strip club today. There was an elegance and artwork to the performances that most of today's "dancers" simply cannot touch. Striptease artists of yesteryear rarely ever did strip down to anything 
beyond pasties and a g-string. And the journey to get from an elaborate costume to that in a few minutes was sometimes more perilous than a hobbit's adventure through Middle Earth. Costume malfunctions could lurk at every turn. Dresses could snag on pantyhose. Pantyhose could snag on bras. Bras could snag on eyelids. It was all in the name of entertainment and, by today's standards, many of these performances would be rated PG.
But therein lays the dilemma in trying to describe a burlesque show to someone.
When people think of striptease, they, of course, think of the modern image of "the stripper" who sways to and fro to GUNS AND ROSES and shows you her vagina for a few bucks thrown her way so that she can try to make enough of a living to support her autistic child and a boyfriend who was recently laid off because GM moved his job to another country where people are desperate enough to accept what little pay the company now offers them there. Burlesque shows today are a throwback to an era long gone with a modern touch of punk rock thrown in. And at Exotic World, perhaps the "pageant" factor of the show is part of the reason why most of the younger attendees are women. Oddly enough a large chunk of the audience are senior women and men. It's interesting to know that many of these ladies may have been burlesque stars themselves at one point in their lives.
Bu getting back to my point, maybe the best way to make somebody, let's say your friends, understand is to just to get them to go so they can see it for themselves.
adventures which led us to The Date Festival in Indio, California. He was dressed up like a low-rent wizard and he ran a fortune booth with his two mannequins who looked like rotting corpses dressed up to look like a 
gypsy and a wizard. Adding to the strange vision of these "people" were the two tiny television screens peeking out from their chests. The signs said that they were computer palm readers and that Jeanie "foretells guidelines for the physical & romantic areas of your life." I thought that they were disturbing and perhaps they lived on the blood sucked from our palms. So anyway this guy tells us that he used to be an MC for the Miss Exotic World Pageant and that we should check it out. We slowly backed away and eventually went to our first Miss Exotic World show the next year. This led to our eventual interview with Dixie Evans which you can read in "The Sexiesque Issue."
for this year's pageant. As it turned out, our friends thought that Kelly and I were weirdos for enjoying the show there and that I only wanted to go to "see boobies." You see, like many people, they equated burlesque dancers with "strippers" and thought that the acts were the same. No matter how much I tried to explain the difference, they just didn't get it. But after Holly explained to them that the gals who perform at exotic world were actually having fun and doing it out of their own pocket to try to help raise money for Exotic World (which makes most of its funds from the yearly pageant), something finally clicked and they decided to finally join us. And not only that, they actually were looking forward to it!
So, as I said, we decided to do an overnight adventure and we booked a nearby hotel. The official pre-party was at another hotel, but it was completely booked. We checked in and decided what the plan for the evening would be. Between the two rooms we booked were photographer Jenny Lang, furniture and toy designer Phil Aja, Brandon Finch, No-Fi collaborator Brandon Huff, Scott, designer Joshua Benny, future director David Lang, Holly-tron, and me. It was a hot day and everyone was tired from the drive which ended up taking a bit longer because we left late and ended up in rush hour traffic. For a while it seemed like only Holly and I would go to the party that night, but we were able to get everyone except Phil to go with us.
The place was already hopping when we arrived. The first person who greeted me was Kitten 
Natividad (of Russ Meyer's "Beyond The Valley Of The Ultravixens" and a previous No-Fi Interviewee who was also featured in "The Sexiesque Issue") who was there with Tura Satana (of "Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!") whom I have never met. As it would turn out, these were two of the most popular 
guests that weekend and even Tura, who must be used to tons of affection from male fans, seemed overwhelmed by all the female fans, many of whom at this party were also performers, who wanted to meet her. I'm there two minutes and already I'm taking pictures of my friends posing with Kitten and Tura.
The next people I see are my friends Don Spiro (photographer for two of our no-fi covers), Augusta (director of The Velvet Hammer Burlesque documentary), Emmy Collins (December 2004 coverstar), and Miss Kitten DeVille 
(Miss Exotic World 2004 who recently made an appearance on The Surreal Life). I was shocked to see that Kitten DeVille was sporting a cast on her lower leg which I found out was from a recent stage mishap. In true burlesque style it was colored pink with rhinestones for decorations and her crutches were also pink and 
glittery. I don't get to see these friends very often except at events so it was fun seeing them again. And I know they're my friends and all, but they are also some of the nicest people I've met in the last few years. You always hear about how lame people can be in this town, and yet I always seem meet the coolest people around.
No-Fi "Radio" favorite. She had some of the spiffiest costumes all weekend (more on that later) and I thought she was a perfect choice as host for the evening. The focus of this night's events were to highlight the Legends Of Burlesque and perfomances were given by legends such as Satan's Angel, Bambi Sr., 
Camille 2000, Ricci Cortez, and many more. In between legendary acts were some up and comers including another December 2004 coverstar 
Anna Bells, who is now strictly a solo act. She did a tropical number involving a really well put together costume featuring giant leaves as her dress. At another point during the evening the stage became host to a burlesque fashion show where several performers, classic and new modeled some new burlesque gear, all with that retro look. As the evening continued, my 
bunkmates grew tired and I left right after Eliza Bane's act and Kitten Natividad's wild stage interview. One embarrassing thing about this was that I promised Emmy that he could stay with us at our hotel, but I totally forgot to find him before he left. It all worked out though as he ended up staying with Kitten DeVille and Sean. We got home and pretty much retired for the evening to save our energy for the next day.