by Ed Galing
Iniquity Press / Vendetta Books
Burlesque, copyrite 2005 by Ed Galing. ISBN 1-877968-33-1 Cover art by Michael Shores. Title page illustration by Angela Mark. Ed Galing runs Peerless Press at 3435 Mill Rd., Hatboro, PA, 19040. Two of these poems were first published by Ed Ochester and Judith Vollmer in 5 AM. Thanks.
The world of Burlesque
while it was alive, was a fascination roller coaster ride for sex starved individuals during the years when sex was still considered something nobody talked about. Those early times that I lived in, from about 1935 until the start of World War Two, were hectic exciting days. Where else but a burlesque show could one see a bit of skin, laugh at the raucous jokes of the baggy pant comedians, or watch chorus girls doing an ensemble; enjoy stars such as Ann Corio, Margie Hart, Georgia Southern, and many others, do a strut and a strip across the stage to the noise of the drum, and the shouts of us guys who reveled in the naked scene.
In Philadelphia, where I lived, I attended the Troc Theatre, at 10th and Arch streets. This seedy part of the city consisted of jewelry stores, honky tonks, dirty streets, and trolly cars;…and the Troc, with it’s run down building, and full length posters of the strip stars outside, before you walked in and paid your dollar bill…
Although Burlesque has vanished, I have tried to keep it alive in memory, and offer these poems as a kind of fond salute to those days when I was young and innocent. — Ed Galing, 2004
Chap Book version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)