Women Air Force Service Pilots

By: Hella Goode

Although the term usually brings to mind images of pointy-headed individuals, WASP does not always refer to a White Anglo Saxon Protestant, but in this case, something way more exciting. WASP refers to the Women Air force Service Pilots who bravely served their country during World War II. When Rosie the Riveter was queen and women were taking the place of men displaced at war in factories, stores and offices, when supplies of men were drying up the government began looking for domestically licensed women to fill pilot’s seats.

Officially begun in September 1942, the program only lasted about two years. When the men began to return from war, they wanted their jobs back, the ladies were sent packing as if it had never happened. Even the dead were sent off without military monetary compensation for their funerals. Thirty-eight lost their lives in training or piloting orders. Those who survived were forever changed. They had collectively flown 78 different aircrafts and over 60,000,000 miles of flight time.

During their service the WASPs were given menial housework tasks when not occupied flying. They were usually not sent on major missions, but ferried planes back and forth, sometimes tested other planes, and were even used to prove to the men that the B-29 was safe to fly. One would think that men, thinking themselves so brave and strong, would be the ones wanting to prove this to the women, not the women proving it to the men.

Over 1,000 women graduated from the vigorous training of an Air Force Pilot during those two years. Trained in the sizzling heat of Sweetwater, Texas, they were made to be as tough if not tougher than the men.

It was an experience that united women who were from very different ‘walks of life’ who otherwise might not have associated with one another nor had a common springboard to bond. Most of the candidates were single, young women, however there were married women and a few mothers who were selected to apply for the task at hand. Although it would seem obvious that their families would worry, the ladies felt the same sense of duty that their male counterparts did when addressing whether or not they would go to war. To many at that time, each individual had an obligation to serve whether it be in the military, at the workplace, or in the home. Interestingly, although the gender divide was as large as the Grand Canyon in the military, the economic status divide narrowed for prospective WASPs. WASPs included rich heiresses as well as less well-to-do farm girls. Ironically, no matter how much money the heiresses brought forth, they could not have bought the chance to become a WASP. WASPs were recruited from a list of privately licensed female pilots who had a certain amount of flight hours. For once, economic status would not interfere and allow for a truly equal opportunity where all women, at least, were created equal.

They found and lived freely only to be forced to return to the forced roles of standard life in the 1940’s and 1950’s where despite all they had achieved, they were once again limited to the options of housewifery and motherhood. These of course, are not bad choices, but really were not much of a choice as there were no alternatives. They yearned for other opportunities. Some applied to become commercial pilots, but were instead offered positions as stewardesses. It was not their safety records, or lack of flight hours that kept them grounded with the airlines but the simple fact that they were women. What would other pilots or passengers think? Others taught new pilots or became crop dusters in order to be able to keep flying. Still others found their prior roles just as fulfilling in offices and at home. Most of these brave lady soldiers never got the chance to pilot again. It wouldn’t be until the year 1977 when women would get another chance to be invited to fly military aircraft and finally be recognized for it. This, however, was when the WASPs fought back and became known as the first true female military pilots.

Today, when only 316 of the original 1, 074 lady wonders remain, the WASPs and women in general still have many hurdles to overcome. It’s ironic that despite feeling as close to equal as many of us do in this day and age, that it wasn’t until our lifetime that these women were finally recognized by the military for their service. To date, despite even dogs who fought in Vietnam having a memorial monument before the WASP pilots do. Keep in mind these dogs served in a war that dated later than the one fought by the brave women of the WASP unit. One would think that if choosing between the contributions of these heroic women and the also heroic canine units, that women would win the respect of men first. The problem with that statement is that it involves thinking and what reasonably good excuse could there have been to prevent women from doing what the WASP did both before and after World War II? Inequality and discrimination are beyond reason and logic. Thankfully, there have always been those ready to challenge such biased beliefs and try to instill change. What I’m sure women would like is not to take the place of the dog as ‘Man’s Best Friend,’ but instead to become to be seen as his equally brilliant and beautiful counterpart.

What the WASPs do currently have in their honor are two smaller pieces of recognition. In the Arlington National Cemetery, there is a memorial display for the Women in Military Service for America, which features one section about the WASPs. In 1996, the Postal Service created a stamp for the WASPs with the image of one of their founding mothers, Jacqueline Cochran, also known as a Pioneer Pilot. She later became the first female pilot to break the sound barrier. Before 1996, wasn’t that still something worth commemorating?

To learn more about the WASP experience, visit the site of their training in Sweetwater, Texas, home of the WASP Museum, or read up on some of their more personal stories in such books as Flying For Her Country by Amy Goodpaster-Strebe, and Winning My Wings by Marion Stegeman Hodgson. For those who wish to help make a permanent memorial for the WASP, they can make donations to the Memorial Campaign at http://waspmuseum.org/donation-sub-nav-page/.

Editor’s note: Our very own Hella Goode has her very first book out (under her legal name, of course)! We couldn’t be more proud of her! You’ll check it out, won’t you? 101 Mexico City Travel Tips

Legends: Josephine Baker
Story: Hella Goode

When Frida Kahlo painted her double self-portrait, the Two Fridas, she couldn’t possibly have been imagining that she would meet another Frida one day that would enchant her so.

The other ‘Frida’ in the rumored love affair, was actually born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri to Carrie McDonald and drummer Eddie Carson, who hesitated very little in abandoning the new mother and child. She would later choose to go by her middle name, Josephine. After a series of family changes and a few short-lived marriages, she would become the legend known today as Josephine Baker, sometimes called ‘Black Venus,’ ‘Black Pearl,’ or ‘Creole Goddess.’ Josephine was renown worldwide for many of her passions, dancing, singing, mothering a menagerie of unusual pets, rallying for Civil Rights and setting the example for such adoption-happy celebs as Mia Farrow and Angelina Jolie, with her dozen adopted multicultural children which she lovingly referred to as the “Rainbow Tribe.”

One might ask, how did a black woman shoot to such fame and success at a time when racial restraints would not let her so much as sit in the front of the bus in the United States? Josephine mentions, “One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States…A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn’t stand it anymore…I felt liberated in Paris.”

Before departing for Paris, she had performed in the first all-black Broadway musical, Shuffle Along in 1922 at the age of 16 in New York. In 1925, she joined La Revue Nègre in Paris. Her performance with her partner, Joe Alex in the Danse Sauvage made her a star. She then took on La Folie du Jour at the Follies-Bergère Theater. Meanwhile in 1926 she recorded music for the first time ever. She briefly returned to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall, where she never before would have been accepted, but after her success in Europe and social growth in the Civil Rights movement, she was given a standing ovation.

In France, she starred in movies and on stage. Off stage she lead her life the way she saw fit. She became iconic, known for her exotic beauty, although she mocked it, saying her good feature was her legs, and the rest of her body was simply ‘amusing.’ She had presence that few other stars had.

Her films included:
La Sirène des Tropiques (1927)
Josephine plays a tropical beauty who aspires to dance in Paris. She was used to overacting for the live stage and thus gave an exaggerated performance which later haunted her.

Zouzou (1934)
Josephine portrays Zouzou, a circus performer in love with the man who plays her twin brother, but leaves her for another woman.

Princess Tam Tam (1935)
Josephine takes on the role of a primitive woman again, introduced to the French culture by a man.

The French Way (1945)
Josephine plays a cabaret performer named Zazu.

One can speculate as to why, despite being such a proponent of equal rights, she would accept roles as a ’savage,’ however, she made sure that she was not pigeonholed as such. She was civilized in all other aspects of her life, after, her favorite food was spaghetti.

Josephine never left the United States behind completely. She kept vigilant watch over the events going on in the Civil Rights movement while enjoying her success in France. By the time she had amped her popularity in film and on stage in Europe, becoming one of the best if not, the highest paid performer of her time and ranking amongst the most photographed women in the world, she knew she had a new mission, to aid in the fight for Civil Rights in the United States. She was invited to speak at the 1963 march on Washington DC, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s infamous speech still runs shivers down the spines of those who hear it. “Until the March on Washington,” Josephine stated, “I always had this little feeling in my stomach. I was always afraid. I couldn’t meet white American people. I didn’t want to be around them. But now that little gnawing feeling is gone. For the first time in my life I feel free. I know that everything is right now.” Josephine continued to help the cause by refusing to perform or appear in places that did not allow blacks to enter or refused them seating. She was very public about her stance on equality, even when it meant open and public media battles.

How ironic for the spirit of political activism to come from the woman most known for the image of the costume she wore for the Danse Banane. It was nothing more than about a dozen bananas strewn together to make a less than skimpy skirt. Josephine gave new meaning to many things, but she topped the sweet cake by showing us what Chiquita Bananas really meant with this one. She wasn’t recognized for being very modest in her costumes, but often wore revealing and sensual digs, performing and posing topless as well, which was not nearly as scandalous in France in the 1920’s and 1930’s as it was in the United States. It took until the 1950’s in Las Vegas for American girls and venues to accept the daring challenge of having topless showgirls. She lit up the venue no matter what she did, taken over by the thrill of the stage. … “I improvised, crazed by the music… Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone,” she said.

She died at the age of 69 on April 12, 1975 in Paris, France of cerebral hemorrhage, a recognized contributor to the victory of World War II on the French side, earning her a 21-gun salute, an American Civil Rights activist, the cause of the contagious jazz bug in Europe, amongst other achievements including giving hope to those who had none. She was honored with the presence of over 20,000 people in her funeral procession and status as a stage legend, inspiring women of her time and future generations to not let beautiful and bold be determined by the opinion of the masses, but to simply bleed it from the inside out.

For more: http://www.cmgww.com/stars/baker/

By: Hella Goode

Maybe my next piece should be the history of gossip and misconceptions. It appears that Amelia Bloomer is not the inventor of bloomers. I repeat, Amelia Bloomer did not invent Bloomers. A woman named Elizabeth Smith Miller did in the late 1840’s to early 1850’s. So then why does Amelia Bloomer get all the credit?

Amelia Bloomer did not create the first pair of bloomers, but she does get credit for publicizing them and making this free-legged step toward comfortable women’s clothing more available to ladies. Today we choose to wear dresses, but in Bloomer’s time, there was no other choice if one wanted to be considered a lady. Really the only alternative to being a ‘lady’ was to be considered a whore, regardless of a woman’s actual value or virtue. Such scandalous debate on women’s behavior became tied to Amelia’s name, most likely due to her writings for the feminist-reform magazine, Lily, referred to as ‘bloomerism.’ What is interesting is that the most concern was taken for middle-class women. After all, lower class women were a lost cause and upper class women were, well, classy and untouchable, above the influence of such immorality. Or so it was thought.

Stranger also, was that, what today is considered more scandalous, women not wearing any undergarments at all, was the norm before bloomers. They were so covered in ‘overgarments’ that there really was no need for the invention of panties until later.

The first bloomers, full-length puffy pants that were worn under knee-length skirts, were likely inspired by designs of the Eastern world. Women of the Orient were already wearing pants, some of which are similar to belly dancing traditional ‘harem’ pants and other styles out of Turkey. Yet these women were not being pestered for suddenly having the opportunities to move freely in their clothing such as the men, or not carry around 30 or more pounds of extra weight with each day’s dress. It seemed obvious that women’s dress was limiting for a reason, and it was to keep them in their place. 

Although American women everywhere expressed their desires for more rights such as the right to vote, the right to property ownership, and to divorce, they worried that dressing too radically might jeopardize their other battles and be too much of a distraction from their main causes. So, many chose to keep wearing the traditional dress.

In the midst of this fight, bicycles were becoming a popular mode of transportation. This was disturbing to many as it would allow women the ability to find their way around. Who knows where they might end up and under what influence? They also worried that the physicality of the bicycle would lead women to become lesbians or even to masturbate. Many thought they were better off trapped in their dresses.

Whoever would have guessed that the straw that broke the camel’s back (who was wearing harem pants) for resistors would be upper class women who embraced this new fashion in order to be able to use the bicycle, even Queen Victoria herself. Aha, so when royalty does it, it becomes fashionable. Hear this, modern day royalty, give us something new…

By: Hella Goode

Perfumes have been around since the development of recreation and civilization and not just the mere search for food, sex, and shelter. And, thank goodness, we took the time do take care of our odor needs. Over the centuries people have made taking a bath a more frequent activity, but this was not always the case. Imagine au natural smelling au natural….it wouldn’t likely smell pretty.

Surprisingly, it is not the French who began the perfume industry. Perfume, in its most basic form-incense and other natural fragrances have been used since and before Biblical times. Frankincense was even brought to baby Jesus, for Christ’s sake. Since ancient time in the Americas, native cultures have used the fragrant smoke of different herbs and wood to wash and perfume the souls of others.

However, it might surprise you that the Egyptians were the real perfume freaks, even entombing their dead with perfume ready for the afterlife. They used a wide variety of scents, mostly from oils and used decorative bottles to encase them. The Romans picked up on the perfuming habit through their visits to Egypt and brought their discovery back to Europe where it became custom for both Romans and Greeks. They used them both before and after baths. Through trade, war, and recreational travel, the use of perfume spread, wafting behind travelers. Then, an Arab chemist, who caught wind of the new fad, developed a distillation technique for extracting oils from plants and did it so well, that many still use his techniques today.

The French did get hold of perfumes, as we well know, and went a bit crazy with them, especially amongst the upper class. With Louis XV, perfumes were even used on clothing. The French were so crazy about perfumes that they incorporated these scents into their culture and maintain their reputation as one of the world’s top perfume industry leaders.

Today celebrities have taken over the perfume market. Some have done it well and others have just watered down another form of art. For me, just like any other taste (or do I mean smell), it really is what the nose knows.

In the last few years, the US, particularly Texas and California, have taken notice of the Mexican celebration known as Dia de los Muerto, or the Day of the Dead. Cavaleras (or skulls) that are brightly decorated, or skeletons wearing clothing and engaging in activities- playing music, getting married, etc., have become popular imagery for clothing and accessories. Sure, you recognize the fashion trend, but do you understand the origins? Our resident tri-lingual librarian, Hella Goode, enlightens us.

The origins of this awe-inspiring holiday can be traced back a few thousand years or more to the heyday of the Aztec Empire in Central and Southern Mexico. The Aztec religion and gods viewed death as part of the circle of life, and were positive that it was just a step from rebirth. Death was nothing to fear, but to celebrate as a rite of passage. They worshiped the Lady of Death, a goddess called Mictecacihuatl throughout their month-long celebration. They gathered marigolds, as the sweet smell they believed would guide the dead back home, making marigolds the official flower of the celebration.

Of course, when the Spanish arrived, just as they were with most of the indigenous activities, they refused to value this celebration. They were horrified to see death glorified instead of mourned and dedicated themselves to spreading Catholicism throughout the land. The Day of the Dead traditions were so deeply rooted in the Aztec culture, however, that the Spanish found it impossible to get rid of altogether. Instead, they blended their Christian beliefs with the Aztec beliefs. The month-long event became the new three-day celebration that still exists in Mexico and Latin America.

Around this time of year, markets are flooded with Day of the Dead supplies, including popular artist renderings of the Day of the Dead, paper mache or wooden carved figurines of skeletons or “calacas” doing everything from getting married to playing guitar to eating dinner. They are not sad or scary but happy, celebrating their rebirth. They make people laugh. One of the most popular images from this celebration is that of the “Catrina” or the sophisticated lady calaca. She usually wears the fanciest of dresses, a hat, and is often depicted smoking. She was first made by an artist by the name of Jose Guadalupe Posada, born in 1852 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He was originally an illustrator, but enjoyed crafting as well. His image of the sophisticated lady, Catrina, is the first that inspired many today.

Day of the Dead begins on October 31st, what we recognize as Halloween. This is the day that preparations are made for family altars for the dead which are kept in the home. They usually feature a photo of the deceased, marigolds, the deceased’s favorite foods, and typical Day of the Dead adornments such as candy skulls, tamales, or a piece of “pan de los muertos” or “bread of the dead.” Sometimes families also use “papel picado” or tissue paper cut into intricate designs and burn incense.

November first is called “All Saints Day” in honor of children who have passed away. It is said that on this day the spirits of the children, “angelitos” or little angels, return to their families. Then, on November second, the official Day of the Dead is celebrated. It is also known as “All Souls Day.” On this day, families will visit the cemetery of their family members who have passed, and picnic at their grave which has been decorated with candles, marigolds, a photo, and favorite toys or foods. They sing and carry on, feeling the soul of their loved one beside them. They celebrate way into the night and sometimes until the next morning.

Meanwhile, here in the US, kids are still recovering from their sugar hangovers, and haven’t really reflected on anything more deep than the extent their finger will go into a marshmallow or why Ms. King wasn’t afraid of their Friday the 13th mask. Others will appreciate it artistically, using its colorful displays in their own arts and crafts, and begin to reflect on their own life and rebirth. Like it says in the Lion King, “we are all part of the circle of life.”

Resources

Cano, Theresa. Day of the Dead art. http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history3.html

Heinrichs, Ann. Day of the Dead. The Child’s World, 2006.

Story: Divertida Devotchka, Photos: Courtesy of Rick Delaup

Some of the biggest acts in burlesque will be appearing September 11 through the 13 at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival. The festival is the first of its kind in New Orleans since 2001’s Tease-O-Rama, and it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest burlesque happenings of the year. The event is boasting three nights of burlesque shows with live jazz, workshops with burlesque superstars such as Michelle L’amour, Jo Weldon and Catherine D’Lish, and panel discussions with New Orleans burlesque legends Kitty West (Evangeline the Oyster Girl), Wild Cherry, Tee Tee Red and Rita Alexander.

New Orleans burlesque has a very rich history, and I was lucky enough to discuss all of the details with Rick Delaup, the founder of the New Orleans Burlesque Fest and producer and creator of Bustout Burlesque. Delaup has almost 15 years of New Orleans burly-q research under his belt, making him a more than qualified source on the topic.

According to Delaup, the glory days of Bourbon Street burlesque were from the mid-forties to the mid-sixties. “The mid to late 1940s is when you started hearing about big burlesque stars like Stormy, Lilly Christine the Cat Girl and Evangeline the Oyster Girl,” said Delaup. “In the forties there were a lot of dancers who would come in and strip in the style of that time. In the late forties and in the fifties, they got more creative, using props like big oyster shells and champagne glasses. Things got even more imaginative, with more production value and more gimmicky shows.”

Evangeline the Oyster Girl headlined at the Casino Royale on Bourbon Street, rising out of a giant oyster shell and performing a dance with a massive pearl. She eventually dyed her hair green to make it look more like seaweed for her act.

Aside from the grandiosity of the performers, the Bourbon Street venues themselves were apparently quite a sight to behold. The most well-known locales were The Sho Bar, the 500 Club and the Casino Royale, which had raised stages with theatrical-style lighting and balconies from which spectators could watch the shows.

“The 500 Club was on the corner, so they had a great location,” said Delaup. “They could advertise from both sides and they big, tall windows with nearly life-size photos of the dancers in the windows and lots of neon lights. The outsides and entrances of the clubs were very attractive to crowds.”

Of course no discussion of New Orleans burlesque would be complete without mention of the music for which the city is most famous – jazz. According to Delaup, live jazz and burlesque were hand in hand all throughout the Bourbon Street hey-day.

“All the burlesque venues had live jazz. Louis Prima’s brother Leon Prima owned the 500 Club for a long time, and quite a few jazz musicians got started in strip clubs,” said Delaup. Legendary jazz saxophonist Sam Butera, who just recently passed away this June, got his start in Bourbon Street strip clubs when he was just a teen.
New Orleans may have a history of being a playground of debaucherous delights, but its image has changed quite a bit over the years. “It was the burlesque clubs, jazz clubs and shows that made Bourbon Street famous,” said Delaup. “Of course, there’s no semblance of that now; Bourbon Street is very different now.”

The glory days of Bourbon Street burlesque may have faded, but Delaup decided that a throwback to the old days was in order, which is why he created Bustout Burlesque in early 2005. The group consists of an average of 6 to 7 dancers (one of them being this month’s stunning spotlight burlesque performer, Perle Noire).

“We’re trying to give the audience the experience of what New Orleans nightlife was like 50 years ago while still being in the here and now,” said Delaup. “Some people who have attended our shows say they feel as though they’ve stepped back in time.”

Delaup says they’re heralded as the only authentic 1950’s style show because their entire hour and a half long show is performed with the accompaniment of a live band, which is something he decided to include in the New Orleans Burlesque Fest as well.

“It’s going to be a real challenge because all of the performers competing for the Queen of Burlesque title will be performing to live music, and some of them may or may not be accustomed to that,” Delaup said. “It will be very interesting to see how everyone does.”
In addition to the live musical accompaniment, Bustout is pretty serious about authenticity. There’s no neo-burlesque or visible tattoos in their shows. Delaup says there’s nothing wrong with either, but that their goal is to have acts that really look as though they could have come from the era.

“Our acts are very different from the average four minute strip act. They average seven to ten minutes per act, which is much more in line with the classic acts, which some could be as long as 20 minutes,” said Delaup. “A four minute song simply isn’t enough to adequately tease the crowd.”

The caliber of Bustout’s show is pretty astounding considering what they’ve been through during their existence. They premiered in March 2005 and just as things started picking up for them, Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 and laid waste to all of their hard work.

“The show was destroyed,” Delaup said. “We lost all the costumes. The props were ruined. Performers scattered all over the country. Some returned. Some didn’t. It took half a year to restart everything from scratch.”

As soon as they were able to reassemble, they hit the ground running. Bustout Burlesque started back in March of 2006 performed every Saturday night for nine months at Tipitina’s in the French Quarter. They did runs at a cabaret and on Bourbon Street, but they’ve been performing monthly at the House of Blues for the past two and a half years.

As far as the city’s recovery from Katrina, Delaup says there’s still a lot to be done.

“New Orleans is still trying to bounce back from the storm. A lot of tourists probably wouldn’t notice because the French Quarter is rebuilt, so you don’t really see any damage in those areas,” Delaup said. “But we’re definitely not fully recovered.”

Delaup and his associates have been planning the New Orleans Burlesque Festival since October of last year, and we here at Pin Curl are quite confident that his efforts will pay off. If you haven’t already snagged tickets, you better do so quickly, because you’re not going to want to miss the opportunity to see who is crowned the new Queen of Burlesque in one of the most historically risqué cities in the country!

By Hella Goode

The function of a mask can seem obvious-to hide. People use them to hide emotions, to hide their acts, or to hide their identity. Throughout human civilizations, from ancient Africa, long ago Mesopotamia, the Maya and other indigenous groups in the Americas, and Asia, people have used masks for religious ceremonies, theatrical performances, and one must assume that when a mask is covered in jade, for displaying social rank. Egyptian royalty would not have been entombed without their ceremonial masks so that they might be recognized in the afterlife.

What is fascinating then, about the development of masks, is that in a masquerade, masks were used to deceive, but also to liberate. Masquerades, or masked balls, became commonplace in the 1100’s in Venice. The act of wearing masks to these events was necessary so that attendees were free to do as they pleased, regardless of social rank and status including dancing with someone otherwise considered “low class” (strangely the mask of alcohol serves the same purpose today), and even to be able to get away with sexual behavior or partners they would never be allowed to have when showing their face. These balls became so popular that eventually the maskmakers in Venice were recognized as a guild in the 1400’s. Of course, there were many who were not happy about these events, but the Masquerade prevailed. Although not entirely the same, Mardi Gras masks, used since the 17th century, also serve the same purpose.

Why are masks so appreciated today when we don’t have to hide our social class? Or need them on our tombs? Well, masks are fun. You can scare, you can make others laugh, or use them to rob a bank (although I do not encourage this). The reasons we use masks may have changed, but as long as masks have purpose, we will wear masks at every opportunity.

By Hella Goode

I remember as a girl, my mother refusing to leave the house without “putting on her face.” Who would want to see their mother without a face? I waited patiently for her to make herself into her version of beautiful.

Have red lips always been a sexy, fashionable feature? Most of us picture a healthy face as one with rosy pink cheeks and soft, red lips. Subconsciously these tones indicate a young, fertile glow. That’s right-good old animal instincts at it again. So, when did we start to add these alluring traits artificially?

One might be surprised, but it turns out we’ve been staining our silverware and shirt collars for centuries. Ancient murals depict Egyptians as having very colorful faces, thus, leading to the theory that they used makeup, including a primitive lipstick. Many centuries later, Geisha of Japan painted their faces white and made their lips into a small, bright red pout, much like a doll’s mouth in order to show their status above the everyday woman. Elizabethan times called for ladies of class to powder their faces white and then add red to their mouths.

Later, these activities became scandalous and red lips, or what was considered too much make-up became the mask of the undignified woman, or prostitutes.

Historically lipstick was made from fatty oils, dyes, and even insects. Today ingredients have changed for many reasons. Some ingredients of the past involved cruelty to animals or required animal testing to ensure safety before being allowed on market. Many women today want safe products for themselves and animals, and will only wear make-up that has not been tested on animals.

Nonetheless, make-up naysayers, and supporters of cruelty-free make-up still seem to have come to the same conclusion. A little makeup, applied the right way can be just what a girl needs to look her best.

Footnote: Dallasites can learn more about how lipstick is made by visiting the Mary Kay Cosmetics headquarters, museum, and factory located at 1330 Regal Row and I-35 to see how an everyday lady created one of today’s greatest make-up empires and made women all over the country and the world self-sufficient, proud women. Call ahead for tour times 214-638-6750.

 by Hella Goode

“You Can’t Have Everything.” Maybe Gypsy Rose Lee heard this a few times in her life. After all, this Aquarius, born Rose Louise Hovick on Thursday, February 9, 1911 in Seattle, (although later she would claim to have been born three years after in 1914). Circumstances and opportunities for women at the time were scarce. It seemed the stage, however, was the exception. Rose’s mother, also named Rose, got her daughters involved in vaudeville at an early age. For Gypsy Rose Lee, her vaudeville experience got her experienced in other ways as she later gave birth to a daughter, fathered by a vaudeville boy. Many years later she also had a son with director, Otto Preminger.

Her lifetime was spotted with brief marriages such as to Robert Mizzy, Alexander Kirkland, and Julio De Diego. Gypsy Rose Lee was much more successful in entertainment than in love. Like the name of her comedy film debut in 1937, “You Can’t Have Everything,” she learned that there were ways to get close enough to it. She was a wildly famous burlesque dancer at Minsky’s a few years and then went on to pursue writing and acting, appearing in such films as “My Lucky Star and “Ali Baba Goes to Town,” among others. Her novel “The G-string Murders” became an Academy Award nominated movie called “Lady of Burlesque.” She also penned “Mother Finds a Body” and the play, “Doll Face,” and starred in musicals.

She took in her last breath in the entertainment capital, LA, on April 26, 1970, succumbing to cancer, but her work showed women that there is always a way to find what you need and to do it with style.

By Shoshana Portnoy

Instead of repeating what I’ve already said, check out my short, vital history on American pin-up on my site!