The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62177 Message #3214937
Posted By: Sandra in Sydney
29-Aug-11 - 11:20 PM
Thread Name: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew?
Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew?
Paul Burke - And "ecdysichorist" gives Classical tone to strippers.
I've seen this word used for strippers, but Google couldn't find it
found it - ecdysiast in Wikipedia's article about Gypsy Rose Lee.
Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen.