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Lady Mekaella received a humanities certificates from both Harvard & The Smithsonian Institute, while topless with a bottle of wine and a cat in her lap. She's a traveling showgirl known as Florida's Naked Nerd.  She's now working on her second certification class for historians from Harvard via online classes during Covid19 shutdowns.

"What, Like It's Hard?" - Elle Woods

World's Faire Not So Fair, for showgirls arrested

7/22/2020

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In the very early 20th century two things drew spectacle: The New York World's Fair & scandal in the press.  The World's Fair was the height of excitement featuring exhibitions and showcases in the international eye, including vaudeville acts, particularly burlesque. From Sally Rands famous fan dance to the belly dancing of “Little Egypt.” (Sally Rand herself was arrested for her fandance at the Chicago world's fair in 1933 herself, but tonight we are in New York. )
But over zealous censors really had it out for the entertainment area of the New York World's Fair, which resulted in multiple raids. Including Joan Vickers & Fay Krop, two showgirls arrested backstage during their performance at "Congress of Beauty" & the popular "frozen alive" show.  The reason for the raid in the first place? Inspector Mooney was sent by Mayor LaGuardia, upon the requests of religious leaders who had attended past performances and where so offended by entertaining women in both sets of acts that they wrote letters., demanding action.  The Rev. George Drew Egbert (yes, Egbert, even his name sounds like his life is so dull and drab he goes LOOKING for art to silence for sport. One can assume if he didn't have the hobby of censoring women he'd have the DMV for a personality) wrote that he found the burlesque acts "disgustingly revolting" after himself and another Minister went actively looking for nudity on Thursday night and witnessed the frivolity and fun of vaudeville. This resulted in the women being arrested for indecent exposure Monday during a weekday performance. ​

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This resulted in some papers printing the addresses and real names of the showgirls, an unfortunate common practice at the time, placing them in potential danger. Both women where released on bail, so when they returned to performing it resulted in large crowds and continued bookings. 
But the press also resulted in getting License Commissioner Paul Moss involved and aiding for the performances to continue, in which he and a judge attended a show to see if it violated the law. Suggestions for minor changes where made, but the productions where approved to resume with those changes, a brand new license to produce each act for the businessmen in charge and the girls could get back to work.  Joan with her fan dancing act, and Fay could throw back on her g-string and hop back into the ice. Both showgirls had a bail of $500. Today that would be $9,273.27 a total of $18,546.55. 
81 years later, we thank Fay & Joan for their nights in jail, their tolerance of police interference, & their bravery for what we have as showgirls today. One can only hope that ones "released on bail" press photo can be as sassy as theirs.  
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8/24/2020 05:58:20 pm

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