There was a time when the back-end
of the midway was mostly Shows…
Many carnivals carried one or more “Girl
Shows”…
They featured mostly girls…
Girl Shows came in several
flavors…
The “Jig Show” was a shadowy inferno of
action. Acts included Feature Dancers and Strippers, a
chorus of dusky lovelies, scat dialect comics, a live jazz
band, and more…
During the “Jim Crowe” era of
segregation, blacks were not permitted in the all white
Revue, however, whites were often seen in the “Jig Show”…
The “Drag Show” was a collection of
transgender imposters who often managed to create the
appearance of being the loveliest ladies on the lot. The
true nature of the entertainers in this type of show was
kept a secret from the unsuspecting public…
The mightiest midways carried elaborate
productions involving huge tents with countless seats, and
long banner lines, many people, a chorus of dancers, feature
acts, a comic, novelty turns,
production numbers, pitch items, and more…
These were called “Revues”…
The Carnival Revue is a holdover from
before the days of Burlesque. Broadway giants like Billy
Rose and Florence Zigfield created lavish productions based
on men’s interest in scantily clad (if at all) females.
Traveling Showmen soon imitated these popular productions.
These giant racy variety shows were a mark of prestige
amongst major fairs. It is an accepted fact among historians
that these productions sold a fortune in tickets for the
management…
They also carried booking clout. More
than one big fair was contracted on the merits of the
entertainment…
The last big Carnival Revue closed in the
eighties on the Strates Shows…
Not all carnival companies were able to
carry the nut
for one of these spectacular extravaganzas…
Some had to settle for a bombastic revue…
The Hootchie Kootchie Show gave
the boys exactly what they wanted…
The last Kootch show I encountered was
with the Drew Exposition in the late seventies…
These generally consisted of a box truck
with a folding show front featuring scantily clad pin-up
style paintings of calendar girls in alluring poses…
These trucks had a bally platform on one
side and a stage on the other. The inside stage was usually
covered by some relic of a canvas top dating back to the
crusades...
There was always a talker, a ticket
seller, a ticket taker, a sidewall man, and at least one
showgirl...
Sometimes more than one showgirl…
What went on inside, I shall
leave to the imagination…
This story is about the business…
…And how they give it to you…
The ticket sellers often had a “drop
counter box” which was essentially a magic trick that made a
portion of your change disappear…
Those who didn’t have a drop counter
probably didn’t need it because the “fast count” or the
“shuffle count” could accomplish the same thing…
The big money on the small kootch
shows was made with the Key…
These kootch shows cultivated “regulars”…
When the ticket seller “Peeked his poke”,
the poor unfortunate thrill seeker was made the mark of an
elaborate game, which was performed wholesale, like an
assembly line, on many marks simultaneously…
As the mark waits in the pig pen,
the crew has noticed that this is not his first visit. The
ticket taker engages the mark in conversation and determines
which girl is the object of the mark’s desire. During the
performance, the girl throws him a few winks and the trap is
baited…
At some point the mark is approached, by
one of the staff, with a secret message from the Showgirl,
which indicates that the attraction to one another’s assets
is mutual…
An assignation is arranged, usually
Saturday evening, with the hotel key being the collateral.
The ticket taker discreetly collects the stipulated fee, and
the Showgirl’s hotel key is delivered to the mark. Along
with the key, comes a stern admonition to not arrive at the
hotel a minute before one on Sunday morning. This being the
hour at which the Showgirl’s muscular boyfriend is sure to
be occupied tearing down the tilt-a-whirl at the
fairgrounds…
Many of these lust-maddened lecherous
Lotharios have bumped into one another, while stumbling down
hotel hallways, finding that none of the keys fit any of the
locks…
I have seen the irate victims pull on to
the lot only to find, that some local wobblies, supervised
by a grizzled roughie, are tearing down the show, and that
the cast and management have long departed for parts
unknown…
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