Holden West
Aug 17, 2009, 4:02 AM
Showgirls, Sex and Sin in Postwar Vancouver
‘Good girls gone bad' or fiscal godsend? (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
Globe & Mail
Becki L. Ross
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 24, 2009 02:19PM EDT
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00140/burlesque_140721gm-a.jpg
After the Second World War, the port city of Vancouver strengthened its place as a financial headquarters in western Canada. By the 1950s, Vancouver was heralded as both a playground for outdoor recreation and a model of indoor cultural sophistication and nighttime entertainment.
Prohibitions against commercial entertainment on Sundays were revoked. Vancouver basked in growing economic affluence, optimism and new opportunities for leisure. By the 1960s, the entire city centre glowed from the electric energy of 18,000 neon signs. The eight-lane Granville Bridge (built in 1954) and the rezoned, densely developed West End enabled easier access to the city's core.
Inspired by visionary urban planner Jane Jacobs, local citizens rejected the construction of an elevated freeway (https://miroguide.com/items/2068021) that would have splintered the centre of town: This decision not only distinguished Vancouver from most major North American cities; it showcased the city's downtown as a compact, intimate destination.
To the city's workers who toiled for long hours, a “night out” on the weekend promised a much-welcome diversion. To suburban couples in New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Delta, Richmond and Surrey, dressing up for nighttime amusement meant temporarily escaping the comfort and familiarity of detached homes, small children, and shopping malls.
Vancouver's independent nightclubs employed thousands of workers – as well as stripteasers, there were the club owners, managers, booking agents, doormen, bouncers, ticket-sellers, hat-check girls, cigarette and cigar girls, go-go dancers, choreographers, photographers, costume designers, club secretaries, bookkeepers, MCs, DJs, cooks, kitchen staff, bus boys, prop, set, and lighting specialists, waiters and waitresses, cleaners, bartenders, musicians (who supplied dancers with live accompaniment until the mid-to-late 1970s), and lawyers (who defended clubs when busted by vice squads).
Other workers whose earnings were derived from commercial striptease included specialty shoe, hosiery, makeup and liquor suppliers, cab drivers, hair stylists, manicurists, pedicurists, security guards, wig-makers, tanning salon operators, clothing and fabric retailers, drug sellers, child-care workers (who minded the kids of dancers), plastic surgeons (who did boob jobs), media pundits and newspaper owners, who raked in piles of dough by selling daily advertising spots to nightclub promoters.
In all, commercial striptease became as vital to the city's postwar economic growth as its railway facilities, sawmills and grain elevators.
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
more (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
Stripped bare (http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=e4ae7cd2-9f50-4461-820b-3659a218dd9e&p=1)
Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture, Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/282673bf-1acf-417f-ac0c-192ad0df93e0/frontstrippedbare.jpg
Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture,
Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors.
Photo-Dan Toulgoet
‘Good girls gone bad' or fiscal godsend? (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
Globe & Mail
Becki L. Ross
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 24, 2009 02:19PM EDT
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00140/burlesque_140721gm-a.jpg
After the Second World War, the port city of Vancouver strengthened its place as a financial headquarters in western Canada. By the 1950s, Vancouver was heralded as both a playground for outdoor recreation and a model of indoor cultural sophistication and nighttime entertainment.
Prohibitions against commercial entertainment on Sundays were revoked. Vancouver basked in growing economic affluence, optimism and new opportunities for leisure. By the 1960s, the entire city centre glowed from the electric energy of 18,000 neon signs. The eight-lane Granville Bridge (built in 1954) and the rezoned, densely developed West End enabled easier access to the city's core.
Inspired by visionary urban planner Jane Jacobs, local citizens rejected the construction of an elevated freeway (https://miroguide.com/items/2068021) that would have splintered the centre of town: This decision not only distinguished Vancouver from most major North American cities; it showcased the city's downtown as a compact, intimate destination.
To the city's workers who toiled for long hours, a “night out” on the weekend promised a much-welcome diversion. To suburban couples in New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Delta, Richmond and Surrey, dressing up for nighttime amusement meant temporarily escaping the comfort and familiarity of detached homes, small children, and shopping malls.
Vancouver's independent nightclubs employed thousands of workers – as well as stripteasers, there were the club owners, managers, booking agents, doormen, bouncers, ticket-sellers, hat-check girls, cigarette and cigar girls, go-go dancers, choreographers, photographers, costume designers, club secretaries, bookkeepers, MCs, DJs, cooks, kitchen staff, bus boys, prop, set, and lighting specialists, waiters and waitresses, cleaners, bartenders, musicians (who supplied dancers with live accompaniment until the mid-to-late 1970s), and lawyers (who defended clubs when busted by vice squads).
Other workers whose earnings were derived from commercial striptease included specialty shoe, hosiery, makeup and liquor suppliers, cab drivers, hair stylists, manicurists, pedicurists, security guards, wig-makers, tanning salon operators, clothing and fabric retailers, drug sellers, child-care workers (who minded the kids of dancers), plastic surgeons (who did boob jobs), media pundits and newspaper owners, who raked in piles of dough by selling daily advertising spots to nightclub promoters.
In all, commercial striptease became as vital to the city's postwar economic growth as its railway facilities, sawmills and grain elevators.
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
more (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/good-girls-gone-bad-or-fiscal-godsend/article1230342/)
Stripped bare (http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=e4ae7cd2-9f50-4461-820b-3659a218dd9e&p=1)
Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture, Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/282673bf-1acf-417f-ac0c-192ad0df93e0/frontstrippedbare.jpg
Once numbering in the dozens and celebrated in pop culture,
Vancouver's globally infamous strip clubs have been reduced to a handful of survivors.
Photo-Dan Toulgoet