Burlesque

HELENDALE, Calif. -- In the middle of the desert, by the Mojave River and the Santa Fe railroad, past meets present as people from all walks of life gather to honor a lost art form. The place is Exotic World. The art is burlesque.The Miss Exotic World Competition and StripTease Reunion, held annually on the first weekend in June, is an exercise in nostalgia and a chance to see some of burlesque's legends strut their stuff. It is also an opportunity to romanticize the past and deplore the present state of striptease.

WASHINGTON -- Don't judge a book by its cover. But begin judging Ron Rosenbaum's book by its brilliant dust jacket, which features an old, grainy black-and-white photograph of a cherubic infant, less than a year old, dressed in a white gown with a ruffled collar, staring at the camera with wide, dark eyes, his delicate lips slightly parted, a look of mild curiosity on his round face. How did this small bundle of potentialities become Adolf Hitler?In "Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil," Mr. Rosenbaum, a novelist and literary journalist, takes readers on a mind-bending tour of "the garden of forking paths" in "the trackless realm of Hitler's inwardness."

Leaha Nova Rizzo, a former Block ecdysiast and costumer who was sometimes called "Baltimore's Betsy Ross of Pasties and Sequins," died Monday of Alzheimer's disease at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Roland Park. The Towson resident was 77.Mrs. Rizzo sang and danced on The Block during the "Guys 'n' Dolls" era of the 1930s and '40s under the stage name Leaha Scotti, billed as "The Blonde Bombshell."During World War II, she was a headliner and mainstay of the 2 O'Clock Club on Baltimore Street.

The wretched, wistful truth is that things really were better in the Good Old Days. They were, anyway, if you had vast advantages of access, mobility and the time and appetite to indulge them all, willy-nilly, helter-skelter, and got paid rather nicely for doing so.So went the years between 1948 and 1962 for Art Buchwald. His book about all that, "I'll Always Have Paris" (Putnam's. 236 pages. $24.95) is just coming out. It should delight almost everybody it does not offend. You have to be pathologically pompous or terminally earnest to be offended.

To say that a show about a striptease artist suffers from overexposure may seem odd.The hit 1959 musical "Gypsy," the fascinating story of burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, made show business history. But after countless stage productions, a popular movie version and a recent television production starring Bette Midler, this show has been done to death.One would hope, then, that the Phoenix Festival Theater production playing at Harford Community College through next Sunday would offer some fresh perspective, updated choreography or perhaps some contemporary twist.

The world-famous Block woke up yesterday with a monumental hangover from the massive police invasion of Friday night, and was left wondering whether it had a future.Said a man in a brown bomber jacket who parks cars at a lot just off Baltimore Street, and who declined to give his name: "The Block has changed. It used to be nice down here long time ago. No problems. Everybody go in the bars and have a nice time. Now we get a lot of muggings. It gets worse every year. Too much stuff going down."

It isn't right for Jean Honus to be all alone on Barney Street.The house is quiet; hours are long.And there's no action.Not like the days when men gave her diamond watches just because they liked the way she moved.When strangers by the hundreds whooped and hollered and whistled as she sashayed her knockout figure across a stage.Back when Jean Honus did the striptease on Baltimore's Block in the glory days of burlesque.The theaters and musicians, the bookies, the barkers, the wise guys, the prizefighters and the straight men, all gone.

IT SITS empty now, a dark cavern of movie memories, most of them from the '30s and '40s. The marquee, hanging over the sidewalk on the south side of 315 West Fayette St. just off Eutaw, still reads "Town." And for a classic showbiz memoir, there is no story quite like the Town story.What we came to know as the Town opened in 1910 as a burlesque house called the Empire. In 1913 the name was changed to the Palace and the fare to vaudeville, and here the plot thickens. Shortly after its rebirth, the Palace began to play burlesque again, and the rival Gayety (the remnants of which are still at 404 East Baltimore St.)

Stanley Livingston had something over the other 1960s child stars in Hollywood, an advantage that the kid who played Eddie Munster and the boy who raced across the tube as Dennis the Menace didn't have.The guy who played chubby Chip on "My Three Sons" from 1960 to 1972, Mr. Livingston had a family that hailed from Baltimore.Now 41, he thinks his local roots might have helped him remain as normal as a kid can be when you grow up on television."Mom wasn't a stage mother at all," said Mr. Livingston, whose younger brother Barry played "Ernie" on the show.

Famous TV siblings Chip and Ernie Douglas of "My Three Sons" are the real-life sons of a Baltimore Block stripper who performed during the Great Depression under the name Marilyn Primrose.This and other obscure and marvelous facts of Baltimore burlesque fill pages in the personal history of 81-year-old Bernard Livingston, lawyer, author, United Press International photographer, filmmaker, and favorite uncle of Stanley "Chip" Livingston and Barry "Ernie" Livingston."You got it," said Mr. Livingston, in Baltimore this past weekend to screen one of his documentaries in a film festival at the Orpheum Cinema on Thames Street.

SATURDAY PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE: The Ed Wood-directed cult classic is revered and reviled for its low production values, lackluster acting and generally shoddy film work. It has been considered such an awful film, the Southeast Anchor Library, 3601 Eastern Ave., offers prizes to folks who can sit through it in its entirety. The film begins at 2 p.m. Saturday. This screening is free. Call 410-396-1580 or go to prattlibrary.org. NIGHTLIFE '09: Raise your glass to celebrate Moveable Feast's anniversary at Grand Central, The Hippo, Club 1722, The Depot, The Drinkery, George's, Idle Hour and Leon's.

Native Berry Festival: Berries, barbecue and bands abound at the Native Berry Festival in Herring Run Park. The festival, which runs noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, features a berry dessert contest conducted by celebrity judges, live music starting at 1:30 p.m., and plenty of crafts, food and beverages. Cherries, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, mulberries, strawberries and serviceberries will be available. The event is free and open to the public but the dessert contest requires a small donation.

The lowdown -- Ellicott City-based group The Dangerous Summer has worked with producer Paul Levitt, who has collaborated with Dashboard Confessional and All Time Low, and released If You Could Only Keep Me Alive, last summer. The band joins fellow indie quartet the Apathy Eulogy, of Baltimore, for a show at Rams Head Live tomorrow. The Great Escape, Oh, The Story! and Stupid Hero also perform. If you go -- Showtime is 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place. Tickets are $9. Call 410-244-1131 or go to ramshead live.

Let the (video) games begin The lowdown -- Nintendo DS night returns Monday to the Sidebar Tavern. Charge up your DS, bring your best games, and prepare for a night of competition with a tavern full of video gamers. If you go -- Doors open at 9 p.m. Monday. The Sidebar is at 218 E. Lexington St. Call 410-659-4130 or go to sidebartavern.com for more information. Admission is free. Acoustic Godhead The lowdown -- Don't miss Godhead's intimate acoustic show tonight at Fletchers. The Washington-based industrial rock band is working on its new album and will soon release an acoustic EP. Godhead's 2006 album, The Shadow Line, features the single "Trapped in Your Lies."

Body Art Ball The lowdown -- The Tuaca Body Art Ball, a display of color, art and illusion, comes to Rams Head Live Monday. The show features 20 performers whose bodies are canvases. The painted performers will participate in a runway show replete with music and flashy lighting. Also, attendees can interact with the painters as well as the painted performers. If you go -- Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place in Power Plant Live. The event is for ages 21 and older.

Vaudeville Yard Dogs Road Show at Ottobar At 9 tonight, check out the Yard Dogs Road Show, a troupe of saloon vaudeville performers at the Ottobar. Expect light bulb- and fire-eating and general cra ziness. Local burlesque act Trix ie Little opens. The Ottobar is at 2549 N. Howard St. Tickets are $10. Call 410-662-0069 or go to theottobar.com.

Events have thoroughly outstripped the would-be outrageous new burlesque of politics and show biz, American Dreamz, in which a dunderheaded president (Dennis Quaid) wakes up after his re-election, decides to read a newspaper and gets so depressed that he doesn't leave his bedroom for three weeks. It's mildly amusing to see his chief of staff (Willem Dafoe), a lean and hungry version of Dick Cheney, dictating whatever his boss should say via a cuff-link transmitter to an earpiece. But what's supposed to lift the movie beyond banal parody to wild satire is the chief of staff's attempt to raise the president's sagging poll numbers.

NATIONAL Chertoff denies Katrina neglect Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff rejected accusations that he had neglected preparedness for natural disasters because he was preoccupied with terrorism. pg 1a MARYLAND City, CSX settle tunnel fire suit Four and a half years after a derailment and fire in the Howard Street tunnel created havoc downtown, CSX Transportation has agreed to pay Baltimore $2 million to settle the city's lawsuit against the railroad company. pg 1a WORLD Shouting disrupts Hussein trial Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants, one in pajamas, were forced to appear in court yesterday without their attorneys in a session marked by frequent shouting matches.

Before the backstage mirror, barely dressed dancers fret about limp curls, gooseflesh and uneven panty fringe. But Catherine Bohne stands apart from them in her four-inch-high Mary Janes, contemplating a more serious problem: Her cat ate her pasties. It happened about 11:30 p.m. Friday, the eve of this, her first-ever burlesque performance, when the two red, sparkly stars were to be all that stood between her and total toplessness. She discovered their mangled remains on the floor of the spare bedroom, cursed out the cat and despaired.

Anonymous Secrets The lowdown -- What began as a simple art project has expanded into a movement. To create PostSecret, Frank Warren began asking people to send him anonymous postcards with their deepest secrets on them and posting the responses on a blog. On Tuesday, the American Visionary Art Museum will display more than 100 never-before-seen postcards, and visitors are invited to bring their own to place in a mailbox designed by D.C. artist Mark Jenkins. If you go -- The American Visionary Art Museum's shop, Sideshow, 800 Key Highway, will host the PostSecret event from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday.