I was so impressed with the Effie’s Club Follies show Thursday, May 25, 2006 at the Georgia Theatre that I did a little research (google) on burlesque. I found out about Lydia Thompson and Ralph Allen and lots of stuff I never knew before.
I seem to remember a discussion recently about the origin of the term “blue laws” though I can’t recall the exact context.
Anyway, here is a possible origin of that term:
‘Blue Material — Crude jokes or other material using graphic sexual or toilet references or profanity. The term comes from the days when E.F. Albee, of the massive Keith-Albee vaudeville circuit, insisted that performers stick to strict standards of propriety. Sophie Tucker, in her biography “Some of These Days,” wrote “Between the (Monday) matinee and the night show the blue envelopes began to appear in the performers mailboxes backstage … Inside would be a curt order to cut out a blue line of a song, or piece of business. … There was no arguing about the orders in the blue envelopes. They were final. You obeyed them or quit. And if you quit, you got a black mark against your name in the head office and you didn’t work on the Keith Circuit anymore. During my early years on the Keith Circuit, I took my orders from my blue envelope and — no matter what I said or did backstage (and it was plenty) — when I went on for the Monday night show, I was careful to keep within bounds.” The tint of those envelopes gave “blue material” its name.
May 26th, 2006
by closet prude
I think the subject may have been discussed in their program. I was impressed too! I laughed so hard. I only had to look away embarassed a couple of times. The dancing was so good it made me dance, and the music and the jokes. The cello player in the Dictatertots was great with his bow. My partner and I were humming the striptease song during the bridge game tonight. Still horny.