That all changed when the stage show format arrived to America.
Though New York was the hub for the live shows in America, Hollywood played a major role in the proliferation of the genre.
Today stars like Dita Von Teese have made the idea of burlesque cool and sexy again, playing in the fashion and film arenas once more.
In some possible foreshadowing of his eventual doom at the end of the decade, the New York Times notes that he 15.