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by
Hope Urban
This interview
was originally published
in the February 14, 1995 Velvet Hammer
souvenir programme.
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Russ
Meyer: I think old burlesque cannot
be rejuvenated. With all this real hardnosed stuff these girls have to
do, and they make a lot of money, you know, working in clubs throughout
the United States and Canada. Their work is not burlesque at all. I mean,
they’re out there trying to sell tips and their stuff, by and large,
is based in rock stuff. To find anybody left, I have a good friend who
would like to, has done it in other places like the Market Street Cinema
in San Francisco. They make an attempt at it, certainly they do, but it
ends up to be people enjoying favors, touching the women. And they, of
course, extract money from these guys, they’re kind of half-wits,
that’s what’s going now. If you come across a real good burlesque
show, I think you'd have trouble attracting any kind of audience.
Velvet
Hammer: Seeing as how “The Immoral
Mr. Teas” was one of your first successes, do you think the days
of tease were better than today's honesty?
Russ Meyer: We started it all. No one had gotten into that kind
of thing at all. I decided to make a movie about a little old guy that
undressed women with his eyes.
Velvet
Hammer: What year was that?
Russ
Meyer: It was 1958. It was a big,
big success. There were a lot of copies, but it didn’t do a damn
thing for burlesque. Nothing whatsoever. I have known some burlesque girls,
one of which was Miss St. Louis. She was a remarkable beauty and she would
work in theaters that no longer exist. And they were run by showmen, in
a sense, guys like Dave Friedman. He was a real sincere guy about trying
to put a gal across in some sort of presentation. And the other one was
Tempest Storm. She lasted longer because she would work in Vegas and Reno
theaters. The person who really did the most for burlesque was Peter DeCenzie.
He had the last really good burlesque show to my knowledge.
Velvet Hammer:
Where was that?
Russ Meyer:
In Oakland, it was called the El Rey Burlesque. PeterDeCenzie was a very
serious guy when it came to putting on these shows. They were all handled
with orchestras and pushers, they called them, guys selling popcorn, candy
and so-called “sexy” pictures.
Velvet Hammer:
So it was a big show....
Russ Meyer:
It was a big show. It had, like, 8 strippers and then, in this instance,
that's how I got to know him, I was shooting pictures for magazines and
girls. He was very open to the idea of making a film, which is called
“French Peep Show.” There are a few 16mm prints around. It was
shot as the show was presented, first in 16, then later blown up to 35mm.
Tempest Storm happened to be the lead, there were 8 more very beautiful
women. They played with an orchestra.
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