Dancing in Paradise, Burning in Hell : Women in Maine's Historic Working Class Dance Industry.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Dancers for Money: America Meets the New Dancing Women of the 1800s, Recoils in Shock, and Yet Whispers "Come a Little Bit Closer" -- The Hurdy Gurdy Girls, Burlesque Women, Little Egypts, and Taxi-Dancers of the 1800s-1940s -- Chapter One. The Road to Perdition: The Early Barroom Dancers, the Hurdy Gurdy Girls, the Circus and Fair Come to Town, Native Americans Perform, and the Dance Hall or Whorehouse Riot of 1849 -- Chapter Two. Scandal on the Stage and the Search for Much More: Early Vaudeville Comes to Maine, the Midways Beckon, the "Wiggle Dance" Shocks, and Other Vice Concerns of the Early 1900s -- Chapter Three. Oh, for the Satin Slippers and the Gold and the Silver Purses: Scandal in the Dance Halls, Taxi-Dancers, Lucy Nicolar Retires as Molly Spotted Elk Dances Out, and the Early Dance Contests of the 1920s -- Chapter Four. And the Victrola Played On: The Early Marathons in Maine and the Start of the Large Dance Endurance Contests, 1923-1933 -- Chapter Five. Dancing in Paradise, Burning in Hell: The Paradise Dance Pavilion Fire of 1933 and the End of the Endurance Dance Era -- Chapter Six. The Dance Didn't Go On, and They Really Weren't Strippers: The Shipyard Workers' Riot of 1943, Another Dance Hall Fire, and the New Vaudeville, Burlesque, and Movie Dancers in Maine -- Chapter Seven. Bring Back the Hootchie-Cootchie: America and Maine Greet the New Eastern Dancers of the 1950s and 1960s, Exotic and Erotic Dancers Spread through the State, and a Little "Supper Club" Showcases Female Dancers in the North -- Chapter Eight. "Little Egypt" Grows Up and Becomes the Queen of the Coast: The Emergence of Modern Ethnic and Belly Dancing in Maine in the 1960s and Beyond.

Chapter Nine. Conclusion: The Same Old Moves with New Respectability, at Least in the Eyes of Many: Maine's Transformed Belly Dancers, Taxi-Dancers, and Burlesque Performers of the Late 1900s and Early 2000s -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.

Historian Trudy Irene Scee explores the dance industries of Maine, how they were effected by national events, and how events in Maine effected national trends. She explores the difficulties women faced in the early 20th century and how they turned to new forms of entertainment to make money and pay for food and shelter. The focus of the book centers on the 1910s through the 1970s, but extends back into the 1800s, largely exploring the dance halls of the nineteenth century (be they saloons with hurdy-gurdy girls and the like, or dance halls with women performing the early forms of taxi- and belly dancing), and includes a chapter on belly dancing and other forms of dance entertainment in Maine in the 1980s to early 2000s. The newest form of dance--striptease dancing--is not be examined specifically, but is discussed as it pertains to the other dance forms. The book forms a unique look at one segment of Maine history and is a terrific addition to the literature on women's issues.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.