A Swallow Press Book
By Erin O’Brien and Bob Perkoski
Foreword by Mike Olszewski
A Swallow Press Book
By Erin O’Brien and Bob Perkoski
Foreword by Mike Olszewski
“This is no eat-your-vegetables history book. Scholarship and entertainment go hand in hand to make the most of a fun, racy topic. O’Brien does a brilliant job of illuminating the past and introducing readers to the the current crop of entertainers, and Perkoski’s photos knock it out of the park.”
Michael Heaton, “Minister of Culture” columnist, The Plain Dealer
The performance art of burlesque, once a faded form, has made a comeback in the twenty-first century, and it has shimmied back to life with a vengeance in Cleveland. Thanks to fans and entrepreneurs, neo-burlesque has taken the stage—and it’s more inclusive, less seedy, and emphatically fun.
Rust Belt Burlesque traces the history of burlesque in Cleveland from the mid-1800s to the present day, while also telling the story of Bella Sin, a Mexican immigrant who largely drove Northeast Ohio’s neo-burlesque comeback. The historical center of Cleveland burlesque was the iconic Roxy Theater on East Ninth Street. Here, in its twentieth-century heyday, famed dancers like Blaze Starr and comics like Red Skelton and Abbott and Costello entertained both regulars and celebrity guests.
Erin O’Brien’s lively storytelling and Bob Perkoski’s color photos give readers a peek into the raucous Ohio Burlesque Festival that packs the house at the Beachland Ballroom every year. Today’s burlies come in all shapes, ethnicities, and orientations, drawing a legion of adoring fans. This is a show you won’t want to miss.
Erin O’Brien’s eclectic features and essays have appeared in a host of national and local publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Plain Dealer, and others. She is also the author of The Irish Hungarian Guide to the Domestic Arts.
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Bob Perkoski is a Cleveland-based freelance photographer, managing photographer for FreshWater Cleveland, and the official photographer for Cleveland Burlesque. His work is featured in two other books, LGBTQ Cleveland and Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology. Find him at www.perkoski.com. More info →
“Bella Sin Helps OSU Build Burlesque Archives,” Library Journal, January 2022
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Paperback
978-0-8040-1219-5
Retail price: $24.95,
T.
Release date: July 2019
134 illus.
·
196 pages
·
8 × 10 in.
Rights: World
Electronic
978-0-8040-4101-0
Release date: July 2019
134 illus.
·
196 pages
Rights: World
Comic Shop
The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture
By Dan Gearino
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Foreword by Tom Spurgeon
Award-winning business journalist Dan Gearino leads a tour through the world of comic shops, telling the story of the direct market from its 1970s origins to today. Includes profiles of forty notable shops in the U.S. and Canada, and a close look at The Laughing Ogre in Columbus.
Comics and Graphic Novel Culture · Business and Economics · Trade Nonfiction
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cleveland’s Free Stamp
By Edward J. Olszewski
In 1985, the Sohio oil company commissioned Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to design and construct a large outdoor sculpture for its new corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The result was Free Stamp, a bold and distinctive installation that captured both a Pop Art sensibility and a connection to the city’s industrial past. Sohio executives approved the design, and work was already underway, when British Petroleum acquired the company.
Ohio in Photographs
A Portrait of the Buckeye State
By Ian Adams and Randall Lee Schieber
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Introduction by John Fleischman
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Foreword by John R. Kasich
Ohio in Photographs is a collection of stunning images that capture the texture of life in the Buckeye State. Two of the region’s’s leading landscape photographers, Ian Adams and Randall Lee Schieber, present a rich array of places and people from each of Ohio’s eighty-eight counties.
Photography | Subjects & Themes | Regional · Ohio · Ohio and Regional · Travel | Pictorials
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