They’re shooting another movie in Cleveland, but this time there’s no Captain America or that guy from Lost in sight.
The movie is called Retro and it appears to be a look at the golden days of burlesque.
Details about the movie are kinda sketchy: It’s apparently subtitled “The Katerina Jones Story,” but we have no idea who she is.
We’re thinking maybe a black burlesque star, considering the ad copy we’ve seen and a casting call looking for an “African-American ‘Brickhouse’ for lead and star role.”
Either way, they’re interviewing people for cast and crew on April 1 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. for the shoot, which happens on June 1 through June 21.
The casting call is at Brothers Lounge, and they’re advising hopefuls to dress “in period [late 1940’s, if possible, fingerwaves – no weaves!].”
The movie is being directed by Mark Gargiulo, who, as Marc Breed, is called an “American fetish photography legend” in the casting call we saw.
And it co-stars Dita von Teese, who’s best known for dating Marilyn Manson and dressing like this.
Which is exactly why we know what we’ll be doing on April 1. —Michael Gallucci
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2012.
Interesting.
Burlesque is back anyone know of any shows here in town?
Is the Roxy of 1940’s a part of the setting? I could be one of those funny old fucks who told corny jokes and had a half dressed young lady keeping the audiences focus on sex, bio and strange and somewhat dingy lighting with lots of smoke in the air..cigaretts, cigars..the musicians smoking pot in the back alley in between acts….silly fuckers getting thrown out for polishing their rockets…
April 7th Musica Akron Ohio “Tease” April 26th The Beachland Ballroom Tavern “The Strip” Jason!
Is there anyway to submit a portfolio and a virtual interview? I will be in N.Y.C until the 2nd…. :/
I will be there! 🙂
RETRO
Burlesque Show
A stage entertainment established in the United States, that came to be designed for male patronage, consisting of comedians, chorus numbers, and solo dances. Billed as “daring” or “sensational” in their female nudity.
Introduced in 1868 by a company of English chorus girls, Lydia Thompson’s British Blondes.
Stars created by this venue include Gypsy Rose Lee.
By the early 20th century two national circuits of burlesque shows, as well as resident companies in areas which today are either metropolitan or long-standing tourist [i.e. the Catskills, NY, & Lake Geneva, WI] cities. Belly dancing was introduced [in 1893] into United States at these venues, as well as many early screen and television comedians.
Censorship and motion pictures led to the decline of burlesque, and by 1960 few houses remained. The image of an air of defeatism, and impatience until the next display of female anatomy, were accurate. The death of burlesque arrived in the early 1970’s with the introduction of topless & bottomless strip-tease clubs.
Cleveland in the 1940’s was the fifth largest city in America. It was a close second, only to New York in their theatre district. In fact, the oldest continuing African-American theatre, Karamu, lives on in Cleveland today.
And with the end of World War II, America faced its’ largest economic boom. Assembly-line factories operated at an all-time high.
Cleveland again was second [to Chicago] in its’ migration of southern black family migrations to meet these labor demands. [Making it the only major city to boast a 50% black populace.]
But the city was well segregated. And while many men had decent factory jobs, their pay had to extend and support large extended families.
Because women flooded to the work place during the war, these women were now in direct competition for these union jobs. So most women, and especially single mothers worked as domestics, for these two-income white families. Their chores included; cooking, cleaning, laundry, babysitting, and the serving of meals. Typically earning $20. a week.
Katrina Jones was such a single-mother and domestic, living in Cleveland, with her mother. She is described as having possessed a ‘very-large bust & behind’. Her thoughts of supplementation of income were derided as ‘unrealistic, as she was of a chocolate completion, and not ‘high yellow’ or passing as white (women of that description, were hired by; department store cosmetic counters, and clubs, routinely now).
With only a best friend’s [and fellow domestic’s] knowledge ‘Kat’ decided to audition at the city’s pre-eminent burlesque house.
She only changed the perception of female beauty in America. This film is intended to celebrate ‘a shift in consciousness’ that everyone had reason to forget.
Our Director, Mark Gargiulo, was in the very first companies of Male Exotic Dancers in America, in the early 1970’s [Top Deck East, Lake Geneva, WI]. He was lead cameraman of the highest grossing adult film of all-time; ‘The Erotic Adventures of Candy’. He worked at David Heavener Productions, and became art director at several Madison Avenue ad agencies. But, he is best known as fetish photographer, Marc Breed [see Wikipedia, for his inclusion as one of three living American fetish photography ‘masters’-*ArtForum on-line, Winter 2010]. Mark has been a Cleveland resident for the last twelve years.
Meh…
Miss Von Teese says she won’t be in this (from her Facebook )
Kevin McGovern seems to be correct. There is no sign of Miss Von Tesse being attached to this project on IMDB Pro or on Studio System. Also, the other actors listed on the casting call one-sheet are not listed on IMDB Pro as being attached. I also could not find any company, UK or domestic, called Canal4. There’s a Canal+ and a Studio Canal, but even both of those do not list any connection to either a) a movie about a burlesque dancer or b) a movie being shot in Cleveland as being in any stage of preproduction. I also wonder why none of the local or national unions know about this project. This whole project sounds….
“Even in a metropolis of three million, he stands out as strange. Yet, somehow compelling. His genius, is undeniable. That he is criminally-insane, also worthy of debate. And we excuse him; because we are so infrequently accessing that part of our brains which manifests as ‘fascinating’.
That he will not end-up well; we see coming from a mile off.
That the apex of anyone’s career, come as early as fifteen. In that most iconic of American imagery, the tie-dyed Peace symbol. His masterwork.
The artworld is catching on to the name we now know locally, as simply ‘Breed’.”
Dr. Stanley Workman
Art Historian
Professor Emeritus