Varietease
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Irving Klaw
Bettie Page
Lili St. Cyr
Cass Franklin
Monica Lane
Bobby Shields
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After host Bobby Shields welcomes the audience to "Irving Klaw's musical, variety show," he introduces some of the following acts and events: popular pin-up girl and later cult favorite, Betty Page, performs a harem dance; Lili St. Cyr arrives at her dressing room fully dressed in fur coat and dress, then undresses down to bra, panties and garter belt and fixes her hair in preparation for her act; Cass Franklin presents his singing partner, Monica Lane, and they perform "Ridin' Down Manhattan Way"; Shields returns with a comic be-bop dance; back in St. Cyr's dressing room, she receives the gift of a transparent negligee, then prepares to dress for her act; an unidentified couple perform a Spanish dance; comedienne Christine Nelson does patter about her friends and sings "I'm a Bridesmaid, but Never a Bride"; Chris La Chris performs a dance routine; comedian Dave Starr performs a brief stand-up routine; in her dressing room, St. Cyr emerges from behind a screen dressed for her act and puts on jewelry; Shields introduces Baro and Rogers, who perform a comic ballroom dance routine; in a restaurant setting, an unidentified female dancer performs an erotic dance for her boyfriend Vickie Lynn, who declares that he could do better, so she challenges him to do so; Shields sings "Broken Toy"; Vickie Lynn returns dressed as a woman and dances for his girl friend; Shields then returns to present impersonations of popular singers Nat "King" Cole, Frankie Laine, Bill Kenny of the Inkspots and Billy Daniels singing "Broken Toy"; St. Cyr primps some more in her dressing room; Franklin and Lane sing "A Parisian Honeymoon"; Twinnie Wallen performs an acrobatic can-can dance; finally, Franklin announces St Cyr, who strips, then in bra and g-string, performs the second part of her act, an interpretive dance.
Director
Irving Klaw
Cast
Bettie Page
Lili St. Cyr
Cass Franklin
Monica Lane
Bobby Shields
Baro & Rogers
Christine Nelson
Shelley Leigh
Vickie Lynn
Twinnie Wallen
Chris La Chris
Dave Starr
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
An opening title card on the print viewed described the film as a "New Edition" prepared in 1993. Variety and Hollywood Reporter reviews, at the time of the film's original release in 1954, gave a running time of sixty-five minutes. The version viewed ran seventy-one minutes. It is possible that the 1993 version contained added material from Irving Klaw shorts and the feature Teaserama, which bills dancers Peppe [sic] and Roccio, who do not appear in the "New Edition" of that film, but May be the Spanish dance act in Varietease. Comedian Dave Starr, seen very briefly in Varietease, is featured in Teaserama. Klaw was a well-known pin-up photographer who also made short "erotic" films for the home market.
The Variety review stated that Klaw had prepared two versions of the film, one for states with censorship boards and another for those without. The version viewed appeared to be the one intended for release in states with boards.
