In a recent conversation at a swanky midtown hotel, we got to talk to the lovely author, researcher, mother, performer, environmentalist, and leopard print fanatic Leslie Zemeckis. We chatted about how the “classic” times of burlesque, showgirls, and striptease differ from modern, “neo” times, and she used her own skills in the art of tease to not quite tell us about the subject of her next book. In person, Zemeckis is entirely charming and poised. More of our interview made its way to this piece about her exciting book launch party.
Q: Was it Sally Rand who said that the fan dance has been around has been around since the days of Cleopatra?
[It’s] sort of true. Certainly a striptease fan dance was never done before they brought it forth. And they both wouldn’t have called it a striptease, but whatever you called it, their clothes did go away during the middle of the act.
Q: Do you know who your next subject is going to be?
I think I do. And I think I just started writing her this morning. I’ve been writing this summer, a couple different things, but I think I’ve landed on what I want — I won’t tell you, but it is another once-famous person. I’m really excited. I got up at 4:00am this morning and started writing, so I think it might be what I’m gonna do next.
Q: I’m excited to find out who it is!
When I started writing [the book about] Lili, which I resisted for six months, her sister came to me and said, here’s a box, write about her. And I was like, I did my burlesque book, I’m done. And then I started researching it and realized nobody knew who Lili was. And then I just got her, and that’s how I feel about this woman, oh I understand she’s somebody who was huge in her time and yet really vilified. And I was like, “Oh I understand.” So we’ll see if I really do understand after a few more pages!
That’s kind of like my hook-in, is just try and understand somebody.
Q: What do you think about the neo burlesque scene — is it interesting to you?
I love what I see — there’s a show when I can I go to in LA — Donna Hood’s at the Globe — which is great, Tease if you Please. I love it. And Tito [Bonito] the Cuban Missile Crisis — I have an all-girls birthday party, and I hired him to come do a strip.
Q: It almost seems like burlesque performers used to get money from the audience and no respect, and now they get little money from the audience and more respect, because now it’s an “art form.”
But it’s not the industry — there is no longer that circuit where you can do six shows a day, six day a week, all year long. There just isn’t. They just have to…I mean, I don’t know because I’m not in it… take your opportunities where you can, which is what I do as a performer.
Q: People are very concerned these days about body positivity—
You could be any body type back then. And nobody cared. They never talked about it — [in interviewing burlesque Legends,] not one of them ever said anything [like], “Oh I wish my boobs were bigger, or my ass was this” — it was, “I was great! I was glorious!” In all their different shapes, which I just thought is amazing! I mean, it just never occurred to them to think “Oh I was a little chubby or I was a little skinny, I was a little that.”
Q: There’s a lot of talk now about how this is about empowerment, and this is NOT about the male gaze.
And it might be now. I mean, traditionally, burlesque is entertainment. And it’s comedy based, a lot of the stripping was comedy based. It was comedy, comedy, comedy.
Q: Can I ask you about Staar? Is she coming back?
She would if she had a producer to do it. I used to produce my shows, and it’s just too hard to produce it and direct it and be in it — it’s too much.
Q: There was going to be a book though also, no?
There was, and who knows? There still is — it’s written. I just haven’t revisited it, at all. I’ve been “stuck” in this world of all these other women. Whom I love.
[Staar was] what started the whole burlesque thing [for me]. She was kind of a cross between Gypsy Rose Lee and Mae West, and that is when I said, well what is burlesque and that’s what started the crazy research and film.
Q: I know you have a rather extensive collection of memorabilia— Where does it live, what do you do with it? Is it in boxes?
(Laughs.) It lives all over storage; it lives somewhat in my house. The goal is to have an exhibit with it. And actually I met with the New York City Museum here, a few years ago, to do it, and they were all wanting to do it, but they wouldn’t let me curate it.
They were, like, we’ll hire someone, and I was like, but I’m the expert on it, and it’s my [show]. So that’s another thing I just haven’t had time to do. But I do want to do an exhibit, and I’ve gotten everything from, Gypsy Rose Lee’s things, I’ve got Ann Corio, I’ve got Sherry Britton, I’ve got Betty Rowland, I’ve got something of Rose La Rose. Because from doing “Behind the Burly Q,” a lot of people gave me stuff—they didn’t give me the costumes, that I went and bought later —but you know, scrapbooks, photos— I’ve got Lili St. Cyr’s stuff, unbelievable. I have Blaze Starr’s dresses…
Q: Jo Weldon recently had her book launch at Housing Works, too: “Fierce: The History of Leopard Print
.“
Do you have a favorite leopard print piece?
.“No. It’s totally— it’s sick. It’s an addiction. And you think, oh my god, now I have TAPE that has leopard print on it. Ok, now, I’ve got it all, and then somebody brings you something else, and you’re like, oh my god.
This interview has been edited and condensed.