Millie DeLeon 1873(?) - 1922
To be sure, there are many names from Burlesque that pop up while researching the form, but perhaps none quite so interesting - and relevant to our purposes - as "The Girl in Blue" Millie DeLeon. The lion's share of this information comes from an excellent article by Anne Fliotsos in The Journal Of American Culture (Winter 1998)
"Gotta Get A Gimmick: The Burlesque Career of Millie DeLeon". Its a fascinating look at not only Millie the individual, but the culture of public scandal and celebrity of which Mille DeLeon was a willing participant.
Arrested numerous times from 1903 to 1915, Mlle. De Leon was a master of stirring public scandal and thereby gaining free publicity at a time when newspapers were clamoring for sensational stories. Over seventy-five newspaper clippings at the Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library (NYPL) chronicle De Leon's success at attracting both the press and an audience with her controversial behavior inside and outside of the theatre.
Fliotsos, Anne
The Journal of American Culture
Interestingly enough, Ms. DeLeon, who frequently used the title Mademoiselle DeLeon, appears to have undergone a reinvention in her career. Early publicity pictures show her fully dressed to her ankle and looking quite demure. Apparently this look wasn't good for the box office, and sometime around 1908 her pictures started showing bare midriffs and legs thrusting toward the camera. (Oy!) Also around this time she began to finish her act by throwing her garters into the audience - provocative indeed in 1908. A recounting of one of many of Ms. DeLeon's arrests states:
...an officer "arrested Mlle. De Leon in a spectacular manner, rushing from the wings on to the stage, grabbing her by the neck and dragging her off stage" just before she threw her garters to the audience, a maneuver that was to become her decadent trademark.
It was during this time that Millie DeLeon hit the peak of her fame. Its worth noting for our purposes just how efficiently scandal and controversy propelled her career, and how completely Millie played her part as the "Scandaleuse", determined to keep her name in the papers. Clearly CHICAGO is much less a work of fiction than we can imagine.
One of many Theatres where Millie DeLeon was arrested for public indecency.
Surprisingly well-spoken, Millie was quoted in the New York Telegraph as saying:
Aren't we Americans just a little inconsistent about our morals? Don't you think our modern standards of good and bad values possess a smattering of the "false gods" idea? Can every self-appointed censor determine just what is moral and immoral for his fellow man?
Millie DeLeon - 1908
In the concluding section of her article, Anne Fliotsos suggests why Millie DeLeon and her mastery of the press deserves a place in our consciousness as we begin to rehearse CHICAGO:
....but there was one thing that Millie De Leon clearly was: a shrewd business woman who used gimmicks, such as her famous garters, to entice men to the stage to take part in her vice. By employing gimmicks within her act, she got arrested, thereby insuring the ultimate gimmick: free press, and plenty of it.
Anne Fliotsos (ibid)
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