NEWS  12/01/2017

 

Pink Pussycat of Hollywood COLLEGE OF STRIPTEASE®  book is in development.  
 

Excerpt from Chapter 1:  

THE STORY OF THE PINK PUSSYCAT

Bob Hope was at the height of his popularity when he took the stage as master of ceremonies at the gala opening of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It was December 6, 1964, and the event celebrating the new music center named for the matriarch of the family that owned The Los Angeles Times was a special one for the city.

The concert hall was packed with a who’s who of the community, from the old guard and the new emerging society elite to the political establishment and the glamorous leaders of the movie industry. The entertainment for the evening featured Zubin Mehta conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with soloist Jascha Heifetz.

But before the orchestra played Richard Strauss’s “Fanfare” and Heifetz finessed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Hope praised the $19 million music facility with an unforgettable line: “Los Angeles needs culture, and The Pink Pussycat can’t do it alone!”

The Pink Pussycat was indeed a unique part of the culture of Los Angeles in the 1960s and early 1970s. In a decade when reality was only an occasional and accidental state of mind, Hollywood was a dynamic place to be. The Rat Pack was everywhere, and Elizabeth Taylor was at her most famous and most controversial. Studio bosses like Lew Wasserman wielded their power with an iron fist, even as young and independent-minded filmmakers like Warren Beatty were making their marks. On the Sunset Strip, Jim Morrison and The Doors rocked the Whisky A Go-Go, and Lenny Bruce pushed the outside edge of the envelope with his act. Institutions like Frederick’s of Hollywood and The Playboy Club were born.

The Pink Pussycat fit right in. The family-owned burlesque club became a fascinating slice of the city’s entertainment history at a time when gangsters caroused with movie stars, gossip columnists and late night talk show hosts swooned over celebrities, and sexuality came of age. Its strippers were cleverly named after celebrities: Joey Bishop, Peeler Lawford, Samya Davis Jr., Jackie Paar, Dina Martin, Hope Chest, Rockette Hudson, Georgia Raft, and, of course, Fran Sinatra. The strippers had their own stories. Jeannie Davis, known as Athena the Grecian Goddess, met and married Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden when they were both working at the club. The beautiful singer Elaine Brown, who resembled a darker Vanessa Williams, met an influential member of the Black Panther Party; it was the beginning of her ascendancy to party leader.

Regularly plugged by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, the most interesting strip club in America attracted everyone from couples looking for an unforgettable night out in Tinseltown to Hollywood movie stars and Washington politicos in search of something on the risqué side. And during its fifteen-year run, they all came.
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Like so many Hollywood careers, Alice Schiller’s was started by Louis B. Mayer—once removed that is. The legendary studio boss’s sister, Ida Mayer Cummings, met Alice through friends and told the stunning brunette who had just moved to the west coast that that her beauty, smarts and charm were valuable currency. Using them she could meet every important person in town. Ida encouraged her to be active in the community, and Alice soon volunteered for a Mayer family pet charity, the Jewish Home for the Aging……..(continued)…..(for more information contact: ppc@pinkpussycatofhollywood.com)


NEWS  12/01/2017

“In Development: Pink Pussycat of Hollywood: THE MOVIE” and "The TV Show"

Actively Pitching TV and Movie based on the College of Striptease, The Pink Pussycat of Hollywood, and the life of its founder and dean Alice Schiller ((For more information contact: ppc@pinkpussycatofhollywood.com)

“…..Located near the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, the club was a popular destination of tourists and locals alike, known for its glittering stage shows and equally glittering celebrity clientele. It was a favorite watering hole of the Rat Pack, and for good reason. Mrs. Schiller shrewdly gave her dancers stage names like Fran Sinatra, Samya Davis Jr., Deena Martin and Peeler Lawford, and the originals soon showed up to inspect their namesakes….”
--New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/arts/dance/26schiller.html