A Brief History of Burlesque

Burlesque didn't start as the sultry art form we know today. It began in the

1840s as satirical theater that mocked high society and opera. Working class audiences

packed venues to watch performers lampoon the elite through exaggerated comedy and parody.

The word itself comes from the Italian "burla" meaning joke or mockery. Everything changed

in the 1860s when a dancer named Lydia Thompson brought her British Blondes troupe to New York.

She introduced something scandalous for the era: women in flesh colored tights performing comedic routines.

The shows caused absolute chaos. Newspapers condemned them as immoral, churches protested,

but audiences couldn't get enough. Burlesque exploded across America. By the 1920s,