Pasties for Posterity

The sign catches your eye as you're about to pass the Emergency Arts building at 520 Fremont: This way to the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Set inside a nook adjacent to The Beat Coffee House, this museum's permanent exhibition, Spectacular, Erotic, and Slightly Shocking: A Timeline of the History of Burlesque, displays photographs, posters, memorabilia and wardrobe items (some signed by the performers themselves). Turn the corner and you'll find a poster advertising a mother-daughter act headlining John Waters starlet Liz Renay (of Blackenstein fame). If you're into more serious history, there are displays on women of color in burlesque, and dancer associates of Jack Ruby who testified in the wake of the JFK assassination. This temple to the ecdysiast arts deserves your support, and as luck would have it, the Burlesque Hall of Fame 2014 Weekender is coming to The Orleans June 5-8, featuring the 57th Annual Striptease Reunion and the 24th Miss Exotic World Pageant. Your chance to mingle with the "Titans of Tease," as past years' souvenir programs have put it. Meanwhile, drop a bill in the donation box or visit the gift shop.