ent001673-027

This item has not been digitized in its entirety. The original item is available for research and handling at the UNLV University Libraries. Additional digitization is available upon request. Please contact Special Collections to request additional digitization or with any questions regarding access at special.collections@unlv.edu. requirements. And then I look for grace, personality. I look to see that they?╟╓re in good physical shape, slim, not too well-endowed, because we don?╟╓t want that to be the main purpose.?╟╓?╟╓ , Early in this century, when the original Folies Bergere dared to uncover its showgirls for the first time, the ideal of beauty was a small, flat chest, typified by the Gibson Girl and later by the flappers of the Roaring ?╟╓20s. ?╟úSo the way they measured a showgirl, if her breasts fit into a champagne glass, she got the job,?╟Ñ says Jackson. ?╟úIf her breasts were too big for a champagne glass, she didn?╟╓t get the job.?╟Ñ In Las Vegas, in the freewheeling days of the ?╟ 60s and early ?╟ 70s, a somewhat less objective standard prevailed. Susan Tobey remembers her Tote audition: ?╟úI was hired by Charlie Agosto, Joe?╟╓s son. I had to take my shirt off. He looked at me. He said, ?╟ You?╟╓re fine.?╟╓ That was it.?╟Ñ These days, newcomers are accorded a bit more sensitivity. ?╟úWe get a couple of girls that are already in the show to stand with them in their G-strings so they don?╟╓t feel so uncomfortable,?╟Ñ says Karen Raider. Although hex Jubilee! audition was the occasion for her first examination, Sabina says it entailed no embarrassment at all. ?╟úAll they said was, ?╟ Who would like to go topless??╟╓ And if you raised your hand [Fluff] took us over to the side, over to the other room to the side of the stage so we weren?╟╓t in front of everyone, and said she just wanted to see us, just to make sure we didn?╟╓t have tattoos or, you know, something completely wrong with us. I don?╟╓t think she wanted big-chested girls, like real big-chested, but I don?╟╓t really know what her requirements were. Most of the girls I dance with are pretty small. So I was like, OK... put my shirt back on, leotard back on. It wasn?╟╓t a big deal.?╟Ñ 3) own the long 5000 wing of the Tropicana Hotel tower is a couple of unprepossessing offices, rather shopworn, that house the staff of three that make up the resort?╟╓s entertainment department. A weight scale like the kind you?╟╓d see in a doctor?╟╓s office is tucked between some old steel filing cabinets. Around the corner is a door with a brass plate that says: SHOWGIRLS MALE PERFORMERS PLEASE KNOCK BEFORE ENTERING It?╟╓s an odd display of modesty, considering that in about two hours the dressing room?╟╓s 12 occupants will be topless in front of several hundred strangers. Or perhaps it?╟╓s a reminder of how sharply now showgirls divide their public personae from their private lives. The dressing room is a close, carpeted area lined on three walls with mirrors and wood drawers with Formica counter tops. Each girl has her own chair, her ?╟úspot.?╟Ñ All around them looms a jungle of spangles, sequins and plumes of every imaginable glint and color. Velvet gloves hang from nails over the mirrors. Wigs droop from skullcaps like moss. Hooks line the three walls for the girls to hang their various G-strings (the only item of clothing that is not interchangeable; the inside lining of each is scrawled with the name of its owner). The room is divided in half by 30 garish and expensive gowns hanging from a pole that reaches almost to the ceiling. In every nook and comer there are shelves stuffed with elaborate headdresses, like an aviary screaming with plump, exotic birds. Piled on the floor beneath one of the hat shelves lie bolts of crocheted cloth. ?╟ It relaxes them,?╟Ñ Tropicana publicist Kimberly McGee says of the crocheting. ?╟úIt?╟╓s something to do between shows. And it kind of bonds them, too. It?╟╓s something that brings them together and gives them more in common besides the show, because they all come from different places and lifestyles. They all came to the show in different ways.?╟Ñ There is a crocheted cover over the back of every showgirl?╟╓s chair. They?╟╓ve been purchasing their own handiwork to raise money for one Of the dancers who had to leave the show recently with a heart ailment. They?╟╓ve also collected candies, 6 4 APRIL $ ?·9 9 8