Cinema Still Life: Speaking of Nudity

Cinema Still Life salutes one of the few professions that was extremely difficult to portray in the movies during the Production Code Era: Stripping. Of course, restrictions against nudity in the code didn't stop anyone from depicting strippers, just from ... uh ... you know ... stripping them.


Alla Nazimova as Salome in the movie of the same name from 1923, doing her famous dance.
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Sally Rand, real-life fan dancer applies greasepaint in preparation for a number.

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Rita Hayworth as Gilda (1946) doing the dance that made her a star (of course, she only manages to get one glove off).

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Brigitte Bardot in Mademoiselle Striptease (1956), aka En Effeuillant la Marguerite. Roger Vadim wrote the screenplay although it was directed by Marc Allégret. Vadim would write and direct Bardot's next film, And God Created Woman (1956) which had the great tagline, "but the devil invented Brigitte Bardot."
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Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy (1962).
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And the real Gypsy Rose Lee (born Louise Rose Hovick) in 1935.
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Joanne Woodward gets a visit from hubby Paul Newman on the set of The Stripper (1963)
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And finally, also from 1963, real life ballet dancer turned stripper Kathy Keaton with manager Michael Howard. She would go on to marry Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione.

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As Always, Click to Enlarge

P.S. I just realized this is my 100th post. I would have never guessed when I started this that my 100th post would be on strippers. Go figure.