[CABARET,
Sept. 1956, pp. 20- 22, 44.]
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Dance team
of Lopez and Romero do apache number
in which he strips the costume off Conchita. She
finishes her
dance nude.
THE WORLD'S RAWEST BURLESQUE SHOW
NOWHERE CAN PUBLIC SEE AS RIBALD AND RACY A SHOW AS IN
HAVANA, WHERE PATRONS SEE COMBINED STAG MOVIES AND STRIP
TEASE.
By:
Jay Mallin
Page 21
FOR A LONG TIME, Havana has enjoyed the reputation of being
the sexiest
city in the Western hemisphere. To nearly everyone–and
Americans
especially–her main commodities have been rum, cigars and
women.
But the Americano expecting to find the ultimate in
wickedness in
Havana will be disappointed in at least one respect.
The famed
capital of Latin vice has only one burlesque house. It
is the
Shanghai Theater, located appropriately enough in Chinatown,
among the
narrow, winding streets of old Havana.
But if it's small in numbers, Cuban burlesque more than
makes up for it
in punch. There is probably nothing–including the
rawest of
Parisian shows–that is quite as raw as the peculiar
combination of
blackout skits, sexy dances and stag movies that make up the
Shanghai
bill.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Girls of all nationalities, shapes and
sizes work
in the Shanghai. In many numbers, girls remove
costumes behind
props like cardboard bunnies and then step forward.
There have been other burley houses in the city, but over
the years
they have succumbed to the onslaught of the law. The
Shanghai,
however, continues to operate and pack ‘em in every night as
it has for
the past 24 years.
"We close only for revolutions," says
Jose Orozco Garcia,
a paunchy,
affable fellow with a big cigar and the tailoring of a
syndicate hood,
including fedora. He has managed the house since it
opened.
"We aren't bothered by anything else," he says, smiling as
he fingers
his diamond stickpin.
A shabby, hulking building on Zanja Street, between Manrique
and
Campanario, the theater was originally built as a home for
oriental
drama. In spite of a large Chinese population, the art
form fell
on evil days, however, and the theater changed hands to
become a
burlesque hall.
Seats range in price from 65 cents for a bench in the
Page 22
balcony to $1.25 for a stage side chair. Inside, the
house is
surprisingly large. It seats 750-400 on the main floor
and 350 in
the balcony.
The audience is almost entirely male. It's rare
occasion in more
ways than one when a curious turista appears on the arm of
an escort to
see the show.
Groups of society women do however occasionally don masks
and watch the
proceedings from boxes discreetly ranged along the side of
the house.
But everyone is much more comfortable when there are no
ladies in the
audience. This is not so much a delicacy, but because
weak-stomached Americano maidens have had to be carried from
the house
in a semi-hysterical state after seeing part of the
show. Just
the same, Garcia sees to it that when a woman does come, she
is treated
with due respect.
"This is a nice place," he says. "When never have any
trouble
with the tourists. They like it very much, and we are
happy to
have them."
The rest of the audience–in fact the major portion–is native
in the
peculiarly cosmopolitan fashion of Havana. Any night
the house
will be filled with Chinese, Spanish, Negro, Cuban and a
half-dozen
other nationality groups, and from all strata of
society.
"Everybody in Havana knows the Shanghai," Garcia says
proudly.
"And everybody comes here."
What they find is a show that is unique among even the most
unusual
Havana entertainment. The program is a combination of
American
bur- (Continued on page 44)
Page 44
lesque, French Follies Bergere, Cuban humor, Latin dance and
stag parties the world around.
The curtain, obviously a holdover from the decades-past
Chinese drama,
opens to reveal a stage filled with girls. Tall,
short, skinny,
fat, light, dark, they pose on a series of platforms,
modestly attired
in shorts and bras.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Traditional rhumba is also part of
Shanghai's
show, but always winds up with strip act that leaves
dancer minus
G-string.
The orchestra swings into a fast rhumba. The girls
break their
poses, form a chorus line and advance, smiling, to the stage
apron. There they demurely reach behind, undo a snap
and doff
their bras, dangling them enticingly as they two-step back
to the rear
of the stage.
With a tremendous fanfare from the orchestra, the curtain
sweeps
shut. The orchestra begins another tune. The
curtain
re-opens, to discover the girls, now nude, each covering
herself
modestly with a parasol. Once again they advance,
twirling the
parasol, and doing a series of side-step maneuvers that
parody the
Radio City chorus line. Then, suddenly, the lovelies
all fold up
their parasols and stand, completely revealed.
Blackout. Fanfare. Curtain.
This sort of display alternates through the show with three
other main
attractions. Of these, the sexiest is doubtless the
series of
semi-apache dances done by Conchita Lopez and Alfred
Romero. The
pair whirl around the state while Romero systematically
strips the fair
Conchita to G-string an bra. Then, in a solo bit, she
finishes
stripping altogether.
Blackout. Fanfare. Curtain.
Occasionally, as an encore, the lights and curtain come up
to reveal
the many-shaped chorines in another nude tableau for an
instant.
Third on the bill is one of a series of blackout skits which
are almost
impossible for the tourist to understand, but throw the
native audience
into convulsions of laughter. Almost any French,
American or
Cuban work that can be cut and edited to make a sex "point"
is grist
for arranger Antonio Lopez.
Cuckoldry, adultery, a boy's first visit to a bawdy house,
fairydom,
and the amorous problems of old age are typical
themes. All of
the playlets are liberally interlarded with topical
references,
colloquial ad-lib wise-cracks. Frequently the players,
who
double, triple, and even quadruple in roles through the
evening, don
the makeup of famous screen or television stars.
Typical of the humor is a popular skit involving a boy and
girl in a
restaurant. The two sit at a bare table, the waiter
appears and
pulls a pair of menus from his pocket.
The boy asks where the tableware is. Without a word,
the waiter
pulls knives, forks, spoons, napkins out of his pocket and
sets the
table. After some discussion of the menu, the girl
orders
coffee. Out comes a cup and a pot and the coffee is
poured.
Salt and pepper? Si, senor, right here in the hip
pocket.
Sugar? Yep, in a bottle from the jacket breast pocket.
Where, then, asks the girl, is the cream? The waiter
leaves nothing to the imagination in answering that one.
Competing with the live entertainment are the interludes of
stag
movies, shown on a screen which drops in front of the main
curtain. There, flickering dimly before the hundreds
of upturned
faces, appear some of the most prodigious physical
endowments in the
world, with graphic demonstrations of their use.
"This is probably the only public place in the world where
such movies
are shown," says Garcia. "So do not describe them in
detail, for
it would only cause difficulty."
Fearful that this fact may reflect on his native land,
Garcia is quick
to point out that none of the films are of domestic
manufacture.
"We obtain them from all over the world–New York, Paris, and
Mexico
City," he says.
Keeping a show on the boards is a grueling task for the
staff and
company of the Shanghai, because, says Garcia, "We change
the show
every day." The three-a-day schedule of performances
is preceded
by a full morning of rehearsals, in which the cast gets the
next day's
skits and dances in mind. To maintain the schedule
calls for a
company of 60 girls and a dozen men. In any one show,
at least a
dozen chorines, one or two principal dancers, and a
half-dozen men may
be involved.
"It is a difficult task, but we have never missed a
performance in the
24 years we have been operating–except, of course, for
revolutions,"
says Garcia.
Garcia says that the theater has been so successful lately,
that plans
are under way for construction of a new, modern house in
another part
of town.
"When the Follies Bergere played the Blanquita theater here
earlier
this year," he says, "They jammed the house even though it
is the
world's largest theater in capacity.
"A good Havana burlesque will stay out of the red as easily
as a bad
one, and we feel that nothing is too good for our
customers. When
they come expecting to see an artistic performance, we will
give it to
them."
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Comic relaxes backstage with some of Shanghai's
chorines, who have a tendency to be very beefy like many
of Cuba's
girls.
The Shanghai is not without some problems. Garcia
complains that
showgirls are not easy to find. He says: "Ours is a
small country
and there are not many girls who are willing to appear
naked.
End of Page
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