{"id":12740,"date":"2023-03-18T19:39:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T02:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=12740"},"modified":"2023-03-18T19:41:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T02:41:20","slug":"betty-rowland-1939-burlesque-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=12740","title":{"rendered":"Betty Rowland–1939 Burlesque Bust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Betty Rowland–Burlesque Queen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In November 1939, police took into custody several performers and comics at the Follies Theater at 337 S. Main Street. Among them was Betty Rowland, the \u201cRed-headed Ball of Fire\u201d and charged them with exhibiting an indecent show. The defense spent a day in jury selection trying to assemble a \u201cshock proof\u201d panel who could withstand seeing the forty-four photos secretly shot by police photographer George T. George, and handle hearing the \u201chair curling\u201d transcripts from the show read by undercover Policewoman Cheryl Goodwin. Would the jury of nine women and three men be up to the task?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The halls surrounding the courtroom became a popular hangout for citizens hoping to catch a rare glimpse of a burlesque queen in daylight. The ladies arrived demurely dressed, sans makeup, disappointing the gawkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The highlight of the trial came when Officer Jerry J. Uhlick, a husky 200-pounder, stood up at the request of the City Attorney and demonstrated the bumps and grinds he\u2019d witnessed from his seat in the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the courtroom convulsed in laughter, Uhlick quipped, \u201cMiss Jo Anne Dare performed the dance on the theater stage better than I can!\u201d Although he admitted that he \u201ctook a fling at the stage in my younger days.\u201d We assume the fling wasn\u2019t as a dancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The defense showed photos of jitterbug dancers and said that moves every bit as suggestive as the bumps and grinds seen on the Follies stage were being performed by young people nightly all over town. They also showed photographs from popular movie magazines showing scantily clad movie stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FILM FUN MAGAZINE, 1937<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the vigorous defense, Judge Arthur S. Guerin convicted all the defendants. The judge ordered each of them to pay $250 fines as a condition of their two-year probation. During their probation period, they must not engage in immoral shows. The owner, Tom Dalton, paid $3,000.00 in fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Betty was a force to be reckoned with during the heyday of burlesque. She had a stage presence that belied her diminutive stature, and she was the highest paid dancer in her field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Betty Rowland<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Betty was only in her teens when she began dancing professionally at Minsky\u2019s in New York. Burlesque houses thrived in NYC during the early 1930s, but by 1935 citizens\u2019 groups were trying to close them, and Mayor LaGuardia had deemed burlesque a \u201ccorrupting moral influence\u201d. The city\u2019s licensing commission tried to pull Minsky\u2019s license, but the State Court of Appeals refused to do so without a criminal conviction. In 1937, the mayor and the citizen\u2019s groups finally got the break they\u2019d been waiting for when they discovered a stripper at Minsky\u2019s working without her G-string. That was enough for criminal charges to be filed, and they revoked Abe Minsky\u2019s license. New licensing regulations would allow the burlesque houses to remain in business, if they didn\u2019t employ strippers! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burlesque gigs in New York dried up. In May 1938, Betty and her troupe opened in Los Angeles at the Follies Theater. It was supposed to be a limited engagement, but Los Angeles audiences loved Betty. She continued to perform at the Follies for most of her long and successful career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met Betty a few times several years ago. I found her soft-spoken, charming, and a natural storyteller with a wicked sense of humor. Betty graciously answered my many questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here I am with the wonderful Betty Rowland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I asked her about the dispute over Barbara Stanwyck\u2019s costume in the 1941 film, \u201cBALL OF FIRE.\u201d She chuckled and told me the dispute was a publicity ploy. Stanwyck\u2019s costume is a knock-off of one of Betty\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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