The Theater: Just One More Chance

There used to be so many burlesque houses on Manhattan's garish 42nd Street that it was virtually one big runway. A decade ago Mayor LaGuardia, who loved to brandish a besom, swept burlesque and all its trimmings right out of New York City; 42nd Street west of Broadway was left with a flea circus and a bereft feeling. Not until The Hat and his pecksniffian License Commissioner Paul Moss left office did there seem any chance to bring the strippers and the privy jokesters back to the boards.

Then Actors' Equity Association began begging the new Mayor to let burlesque in again—at...

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