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Liz
Renay , by Michelle Carr
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Keeping the oral history of
burlesque alive is no easy task, yet an educational and inspiring
one. Seeking out and contacting burlesque's subcultural characters
that time has obscured is very much like a treasure hunt. What is
revealed are gems of wisdom, experience, heartache and personal freedom.
Our predecessors, our pioneers; the true blue iconoclasts.
To say that Liz Renay is fascinating is an understatement, she is
a genuine renaissance woman. Liz Renay is a writer with three books
under her tightly cinched belt, an accomplished painter, a burlesque
star, an ex con, a humorist, an actress, a great great grand mother
- an icon. If you are not familiar with Liz Renay I suggest the best
place to begin is to go to your local video store and rent John Water's
Desperate
Living, that's where I was first
introduced to and hypnotized by Liz some 13 years ago. Her image was
forever etched into my memory.
......I was telling you how I walked out with the kids in the middle
of the night, with no money cuz he was the worst of all my marriages.
I wanted to kill him so I wanted to get out of there before somebody
handed me a gun and I blew him away!
So, anyway, I had to do something FAST, cuz I was there with no money,
two kids in the hotel, no way to keep them. I needed a way out. I'd
been to 52nd street, thought the acts seemed quite easy; I thought
"I could put something together like that. But, I didn't have any
money at all except this $20 bill. I was able to buy a little pair
of panties, and a bra - black. I bought a whole bunch of colored ribbons
and just strung the ribbons from the panties to the floor and then
the only thing I had money left for was a piece of sheet music. In
those days, it was like 80 cents. I also bought a thin, flimsy veil.
I tied it around my face like a bandit. I bought the veil because
I didn't think that I’d even want to show my face. I had no idea what
the music was like; I'd never heard it. I was looking through the
sheet music, and I came across one called "The Vagabond." That made
sense because me and my 2 kids were like vagabonds, so I grabbed that.
I
got to the club, and the wardrobe lady said "Oh, that costume's great."
Everything was spilling over and pouring out and pooching out - it
was WAY too small, but I was crammed into it somehow, with the ribbons
flinging around. I was almost nude to begin with! I had to make up
a name on the spot, so I said "Miss.......... Mystia, from the Far
East! Well, the whole act was a mystery to me, and that's how I began
on 52nd street.
Of course as time went on my acts got more elaborate, and they were
just piling so much money and diamonds and jewels and minks, it just
seemed silly to be working. So, I quit; I got married. The papers
made a big thing about "Mickey Cohen's girlfriend marrying a millionaire"
and everything. I mean, he did get a lot of publicity and that just
turned him green. He hated to be connected with all these things.
He lumped burlesque in the same category. I eventually got rid of
him instead of my career.
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