Burlesque Reading List

This content features a comprehensive list of books and publications focused on burlesque and its historical context. Authored by various writers, these works explore themes such as performance, culture, costume, and the socio-political landscape surrounding burlesque from its inception to contemporary perspectives.

• Allen, Ralph. “The Best Burlesque Sketches; as adapted for Sugar Babies and other Entertainments.” Applause Theatre Books. 1995
• Allen, Robert C. “Horrible Pettiness: Burlesque and American Culture.” The University of North Carolina Press. 1991
• Barber, Rowland. “The Night They Raided Minsky’s; A Fanciful Expedition to the Lost Atlantis of Show Business.” Simon & Schuster. 1960
• Barbieri, Donatella. “Costume in Performance: Materiality, Culture, and the Body.” Bloomsbury. 2017
• Bensley, Lucas Andrew. “Daring Dames and Dirty Deeds: Chicago Burlesque, Drag, and Censorship Politics, 1850-1980” (2024). Dissertations. 4088.
• Bethel, Amelia. “Liberation Through Sexualization: The Dichotomous Nature of Burlesque Performance” (2021). Theatre Thesis – Written Thesis. 1.
• Bogle, Donald. “Brown Sugar; Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars.” Designed by Joan Peckolick. Harmony Books. 1980
• Brenner, Robert. “Deuce Redemption: Grindhouse Cinema, Moral Panic, and Urban Renewal.” The Graduate Center, City University of New York. 2025
• Briggman, Jane. “Burlesque: A Final Tribute; Legends Recipes and Minsky’s Files.” 2021
• Briggman, Jane. “Burlesque: Legendary Stars of the Stage.” 2004
• Brown, T. Allston. “A History of the New York Stage; From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901. Volume 3. New York. Dodd, Mead and Co. 1903
• Burke, Delaney. “Pleasures and politics: Moving towards a feminist performance practice.” Edith Cowan University. Theses. 2024
• Burns, Cheyenne. “Beyond Blackface: Minstrel Shows in Modern Day America,” The Confluence: Vol. 2: Issue. 2, Article 4. 2023
• Cervellon, Marie-Cecile and Stephen Brown. “Revolutionary Nostalgia: Retromania, Neo-Burlesque, and Consumer Culture.” Emerald Studies in Alternativity and Marginalization. 2018
• Clancy, Deirdre. “Costume Since 1945: Historical Dress from Couture to Street Style.” Second Edition. Bloomsbury. 2015
• Cullen, Frank & Florence Hackman & Donald McNeilly. “Vaudeville Old & New; An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America.” Volumes 1 & 2. Routledge. 2007
• Cunningham, Leslie. “Brown Skin Show Girls.” CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. July 2017
• Cunningham, Leslie. “Brown Skin Showgirls, The Cuban Edition”. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2018
• Detzler, Roger. “Queens of Burlesque: Murray Korean’s Pinups from the 50’s”. Asylum Publications. 2021
• Dorsett, Sekiya. “The Untitled Black Burlesque History Project.” City University of New York. Theses and Dissertations. Hunter College. 2017
• Edwards, Shelby Randall. “A Gal Named Lou.” Minnesota History, Summer 2016, Vol. 65, No. 2., pg. 54-59. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2016
• Farnsworth, Marjorie. “The Ziegfeld Follies; A History in Text and Pictures.” Putnam, First Edition. 1965
• Foulkes, Julia L. “Dancing America: modern dance and cultural nationalism 1925-1950.” (1997). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 – February 2014. 1241.
• Gänzl, Kurt. “Lydia Thompson: Queen of Burlesque.” Forgotten Stars of Musical Theatre. Routledge. 2002
• Gebhardt, Nicholas. “Vaudeville Melodies; Popular Musicians and Mass Entertainment in American Culture, 1870-1929.” University of Chicago Press. 2017
• Glasscock, Jessica. “Striptease; from Gaslight to Spotlight.” Harry N. Abrams. 2003.
• Hansen, Henny Harald. “Costumes and Styles: The Evolution of Fashion from Early Egypt to the Present with 700 Individual Figures in Full Colour” E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1956
• Hobin, Tina. “Belly Dance: The Dance of Mother Earth” Marion Boyars Publishers. 2003
• James, Scarlett and Michel Grondin. “BURLESQUE L’art et le jeu de la séduction.” 2011. Groupe Cogito Medias Inc.
• Jones, Patrick D. And Jared Leighton. “In Their Own Image: Artifacts from the Great Plains Black History Museum.” The Donning Company Publishers. 2014
• McNair, Brian. “Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratization of Desire.” Routledge. 2002
• Minsky, Morton and Milt Machlin. “Minsky’s Burlesque: A Fast and Funny Look at America’s Bawdiest Era.” Arbor House New York. 1986
• Monod, David. “Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890-1925.” University of North Carolina Press. 2020
• Muller, Eddie and Daniel Faris. “Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of ‘Adults Only’ Cinema.” St. Martin’s Press. 1996
• O’Brien, Erin & Bob Perkoski. “Rust Belt Burlesque.” Ohio University Press. 2019
• Ozdemir, Kemal. “Oriental Belly Dance.” Donence. 2002
• Palm, Diane Marie. “Rhinestones in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Las Vegas Showgirl and the Productions That Shaped Her.” 2016. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
• Robotham, Tom. “Varga.” World Publications Group, Inc. 2004
• Rosebush, Judson. “Burlesque: Exotic Dancers of the 50s & 60s.” Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2010
• Roth, Len. “The Bare Truth… Stars of Burlesque from the 40s & 50s.” A Schiffer Pictorial Essay. Schiffer Pub Ltd. 1998
• Rothe, Len. “The Queens of Burlesque: Vintage Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s.” A Schiffer Pictorial Essay. Schiffer Pub Ltd. 1997
• Sally, Lynn. “Neo Burlesque: Striptease as Transformation.” Routledge Press. 2022
• Schwarz, Ted & Mardi Rustam. “Candy Barr: The Small-Town Texas Runaway Who Became a Darling of the Mob and the Queen of Las Vegas Burlesque.” Taylor Trade Publishing. 2008
• Scott, Coleen. “The Costumes of Burlesque; 1866-2018.” Routledge, 1st Edition. 2019
• Sellers-Young, Barbara. “Belly Dance, Pilgrimage and Identity” Palgrave Macmillan. 2016
• Sherman, Jane. “The Drama of Denishawn Dance.” Wesleyan University Press. Middletown, Connecticut. 1979
• Shteir, Rachel. “Striptease: An Untold History of the Girlie Show.” Oxford University Press. 2004
• Sichel, Marion. “History of Women’s Costume” Batsford Academic and Educational LTD, London. 1984
• Sobel, Bernard. “A Pictorial History of Burlesque.” G.P. Putnams Sons; First Edition. 1956.
• Staszak, Jean-François. “Performing race and gender: the exoticization of Josephine Baker and Anna May Wong.” Gender, place and culture, 2015, vol. 22, no. 5, p. 626–643.
• Traubner, Richard. “Operetta: A Theatrical History.” Routledge. 2003
• Wallace, Carol McD., Don McDonagh, Jean L. Druesedow, Laurence Libin, and Constance Old. “Dance: A Very Social History.” Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1986
• Weldon, Jo. “The Burlesque Handbook.” Harper Collins. 2010
• Wortley, Richard. “A Pictorial History of Striptease. 100 Years of Undressing to Music” Octopus Books. 1976
• Zemeckis, Leslie. “Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America.” Skyhorse Publications. 2014