At the end of April, we held one of the last Vintage Vivants that will be for quite some time – at least until Austin’s hot weather season is over (but more on that later!). In attendance: Titanic survivors, wild Krakens, drowned sailors, an Angler Fish, and mermaids of all sorts. Thanks so much to Devaki Knowles of Fun Loving Photos for these amazing shots! The full set is up on Flickr, and you can contact her if you’d like to purchase prints!

Candice Johnson blew us all out of the water with her incredible mermaid ensemble!

Our delightful hostess Amelia made a marvelous mer-maiden!

Hostess Angeliska as a sassy sea-siren in a 1940′s inspired teal pantsuit and Coco Coquette curls!

Gina + Kitty sadly died in the icy waters. It was extremely romantical!

Unfortunately, most of the servants drowned also.

Lifeboats were reserved for first-class passengers only! This fine gentleman allowed his wife’s maid to perish at sea. The lady of the house seems quite unperturbed.

Jane Clarke of Amelia’s Retrovogue and Sarah Peltonen of True Blue Tattoo and Body Piercing were among those first-class passengers who survived the disaster. Thank goodness!

This way to the lifeboats, ladies!

Alas, some of the fine ladies met their end when the ghosts of the drowned servants had their revenge!

Hunter Lohse (aka. The Dapper Tramp), and Jon Ryan Parker with Whitney F. Jardine as a fabulous iceberg princess. Who’s that other gorgeous blonde? We haven’t met yet – but we hope to soon!

Anna Fugate is one of our favorite makeup artists in town – she did the fabulous airbrushed mermaid tails! The sailors rocked amazing hoar-frosted beards – their secret? Elmer’s Glue and kosher salt! Brilliant!

Our fave sea-faring babes Allyson Garro of Coco Coquette and Shari Gerstenberger of Charm School Vintage with dear Hunter and Jon Ryan – all looking amazing!

Can you handle the fabulousness? We cannot!

Becky VanZandt + Cristina Fisher = magical iceberg goddesses! You can’t see it in this photo, but these ladies were glowing!

It was Colin‘s birthday, and we celebrated him in fine style under the sea – he has real barnacles glued to his face!

Sea witches, cast your spells on us!

Celeste Bliss and Xochitl Sosa of Duo Volee performed a mind-blowing trapeze act for us! Video coming soon!

Amazing ladies! Cirque du Soleil, watch out!

Sapphire sirens of the seven seas!

Hailey Tuck and Amelia Foxtrot cuttin’ up in the middle of the ocean…

Rose Russogle + Iana Wickham are shipwrecked!

Addam C. Reagan and the Unsinkable Frannie Brown! Video of Frannie’s scandalous Celine Dion-inspired burlesque coming soon – stay tuned to this channel!

Chad Schaefer + Dana Bordwell – we love these hepcats! Chad does amazing analog vintage photography, and shoots often at Vintage Vivant. Dana’s alter-ego is Miss Mostess, and she has brought her signature party-magic to V.V. for our Hawaiian Holiday party, as well as providing incredible decor from her personal collection for the Titanic Ball! Too sweet! We are so lucky to know these two gems.

Maria and Jurgen Engler, two of our favorite (Russian and German, respectively!) immigrants were traveling in steerage and also probably died.

Jen Godsey and Annick Masseteau – such pretty salty tarts!

Francesca and Colin were forced to dine on the severed limbs of their fellow passengers to survive… Waaaaait a second…. They’re sea-zombies! Nevermind!

Dominique Vyborny + Jen Vu are maybe the cutest girls in the whole world. Did I say maybe? I meant definitely!

Zeke Brill and Jen Vu – that’s some hat, Mr. Lionfish!

Kim Quan and her handsome date looking fly in fishnet.

Our high-class passengers hob-nobbing with the Captain (who elected not to go down with his ship!)

Get a load of these fancies! Incredible Edwardian ensembles, ladies!

The lovely Shan Té and our beloved Asen Lorien flank Candice Johnson, in all her mermaid glory!

Beware of sea-zombies and drowned empresses!

Not to mention classy cads and sly dames who might swindle you out of your last dime!

Miss Naomi, Sailor Chri, and darling Jackie!

Cynthia Netting, Alex Amponsah, and a cutie we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet!

What a sweet couple these two are…

Our beloved Swan Dive bartenders!

Camille Labry and her beau.

Dennis Campa – whatta catch, man!

She takes fishnet to a whole new level…!

Sweet, sweet Rose…

Alas!

Another beauty perished at sea!

Whatever you do – NOT tease the Kraken….

Or Drew releases its wrath!

Shit got a little crazy towards the end of the night!

Raaarrr!

Whose fault was this catatstrophe, anyway?

What an amazing time we had! Thank you all for coming and supporting Vintage Vivant! We love you so!

Our very own “Hot Girls of Weimar Berlin” were provided by Coco Coquette and Charm School Vintage!
Helga, Tati und Ulrike here (aka. Erin Freeman, Hailey Tuck & Tracey Abrahams)
worked that stage like nobody’s business!

Silky Shoemaker set the stage on fire with her uncommonly magnetic allure
and incredible garter/suspender magic contraption!

Well deserved beatings were administered by Frau Mistress Ilse (aka. Blakesley King)

Mistress Stephanie and her Melodic Cat wrote and performed a very special ditty just for this very
special night, entitled “Weimar Vivant!” The full lyrics are quoted below, for your pleasure…

Blue Angels in the front
Foxtrots in the back
the bon vivants are here tonight,
there’s nothing that we lack!
A most distinctive vintage
so please hold your applause -
this singer needs to linger
a little while because….

Weimar Vivant we want you
to keep this act repeating!
Why mar a perfect evening,
now that the drums are beating…?

Here’s to good livers wasting
their livers no need to play it right,
so sing along, dance along, play how you want,
it’s Weimar Vivant tonight!

Weimar Vivant we want you
to va va va voom our night
why march along in goose step
when these boots were made for two-step?
Here’s to good livers wasting their livers
no need to play it right, so sing along, dance along,
play how you want it’s Weimar Vivant tonight!

Achtung! Hotness ahead!

Miss Allyson of Coco Coquette was joined by local danceuse darlings Lise + Raven
to perform “Mein Herr” from Cabaret! The video is below, and it’s amazing – so do go enjoy!

Kitty and the Gorilla her dreams! Miss Kitty also performed a fabulous burlesque for us!
Video of that is below as well, do take a peek…

Shari of Charm School Vintage, baby vamp extraordinaire!

Norah + Drew, two hot dames in the coatcheck!

Oh, what cuties!

Lise (aka. Hipnaughtica) did a wonderful rendition of
Madeline Kahn’s number “I’m Tired” from Blazing Saddles!

On of our very favorite photographers and dear friends, Miss Darla Teagarden came dressed
in the most buttery soft lederhosen as an Otto Dixian nightmare madchen, and stole our hearts
with her impromptu rendition of “Maybe This Time” that had us all shaking our jazz hands at the moon…

Encore, Darla!

Mistress Stephanie does not mess around when it comes to giving it her all!
(& boy do we mean alllll!) The woman is an amazonian powerhouse made of
lungs, lace, whiskey and wicked, wicked intentions! She is utterly irresistible!

Don’t say you weren’t warned! It was THAT kind of night…

Shari + Amelia say goodnight… For now!

Please enjoy these videos of some of the wonderful performances at Weimar Vivant!:

The Kit-Kat Dancers doing “Mein Herr” from Cabaret!

Miss Kitty performs a scandalous Max Raabe version of “Oops…I Did It Again!”

Küssi + tschüssi!

A rare photo of Berber at her most beautiful.

“She wore heavy dancer’s make-up, which on the black-and-white photos and films of the time came across as jet black lipstick painted across the heart-shaped part of her skinny lips, and charcoaled eyes.”

“Her performances broke boundaries with their androgyny and total nudity, but it was her public appearances that really challenged taboos. Berber’s overt drug addiction and bisexuality were matters of public chatter. She could often be seen in Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos; she would walk around naked except for a sable fur, carrying a pet monkey and a silver brooch full of cocaine, while flaunting her lesbian lovers—removing the barrier between performance and normal life. In addition to her addiction to cocaine, opium and morphine, one of Berber’s favourites was chloroform and ether mixed in a bowl. This would be stirred with a white rose, the petals of which she would then eat.”

One dances hunger and hysteria, fear and greed, panic and horror…Anita Berber—her face frozen into a garish mask under the frightening locks of the scarlet coiffure—dances the coitus.

— Klaus Mann

Anarchists of Style: Anita Berber, Part 2

 
Sebastian Droste (occasional husband and dance partner of Anita Berber), in 1923.

Her hair was cut fashionably into a short bob and was frequently bright red, as in 1925 when the German painter Otto Dix painted a portrait of her, titled “The Dancer Anita Berber”. Her dancer friend and sometime lover Sebastian Droste, who performed in the film Algol (1920), was skinny and had black hair with gelled up curls much like sideburns. Neither of them wore much more than lowslung loincloths and Anita occasionally a corsage worn well below her small breasts.

“By 1928, at age 29, diagnosed with tuberculosis and her body shot by years of drug use, her last days were spent in the hospital. “She had the mask of a mad old hag” recalled friend Leo Lania. She died on November 10, 1928 and was buried in a pauper’s grave.”

Berlin – Metropolis of Vice

Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless inspired make-up

Directed by: Annie Sperling – Created & Written by: Michelle Carr

Want to know more about the life of Anita Berber? Read Mel Gordon’s book – The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin’s Priestess of Debauchery

Goddess of the night – a fantastic article on Berber from Strange Flowers

Brigitte Helm was a German actress, and perhaps best known as the Maschinenmensch (machine-human) from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). At first, I wanted to concentrate on images of Helm just from the film, but I found so many incredible studio shots not to share!

I love these curls! She looks like a marble statue.

Ukulele Lady, 1925

ukulele sweeties in 1926!

Buster Keaton with uke & wooden statue

The Boswell Sisters

Johnny Marvin sings “Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes,” a song about how he hates his neighbor’s ukulele playing.

This is one of my most favorite songs, and favorite performances ever! Watch for the musical saw!

Shirley Temple and ukulele about to board the good ship lollipop!

Cliff Edwards, a.k.a. Ukulele Ike, a.k.a. the voice of Jiminy Cricket!

From ‘The Hollywood Revue of 1929′, This short clip features the talented musical stylings of Cliff Edwards, (Ukulele Ike) performing “Nobody But You.”

Cliff Edwards and Annette Hanshaw perform “Singing in the Rain,” 1929

Some more ukulele songs, just for fun.

You know this one, it’s from “The Jerk!”

Janet Klein shows us how to play “Tonight you Belong to me”

Portishead, “Deep Water,” 2008

Amanda Palmer covers Radiohead’s “Idioteque” on ukulele

Ukulele Orchestra playing “Ride of the Valkyries”

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as performed by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole

Cab Calloway – Reefer Man

Fats Waller – Viper’s Drag

Harlem Hamfats – Weed Smoker’s Dream

White Ghost Shivers – Weed Smoker’s Dream

The other 99% of the population was so adversely affected by this horrid drug, that it sent good girls bad and stable boys mad.

This month we’re harkening back to a bygone era, when illicit substances flowed more freely –
the jazz clubs were hazy with smoke, and everyone was hopped up, or laid low.
Prepare to enter into a den of feverishly lush iniquity – the seamy underbelly of Vintage Vivant awaits you…
Do you dare? Here’s a mix of some of our favorite reefer-inspired tunes to get you going! If you’re a viper!

“Say anything about me, darling, as long as it isn’t boring.” “My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine.”

“Here’s a rule I recommend: Never practice two vices at once”

“”I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic. And the others give me either stiff neck or lockjaw”"

“I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education”

“Cocaine isn’t habit forming. I should know – I’ve been using it for years”

“It’s the good girls that keep diaries. Bad girls never have the time.”

One last tidbit about Ms. Bankhead: Her larger-than-life charismatic personality inspired voice actress Betty Lou Gerson’s work on the character Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.