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 Nomi-esque 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.

Natalie from Agent Ribbons and Amelia!

Siamese dancer twins

Katzen, real life tiger lady!

Sad Clown gets his fortune told

Whimsical Goat Girl

In love with the chicken lady

Agent Ribbons and Strongman Unicorn

Hello lovlies!

Drew was our in-house balloonist

Bearded burlesque!

The bearded ladies of Apophenia

Big cats are dangerous, but a little pussy never hurt anyone!

Love!!

A clown, a showpony, a tiger, and a gaggle of cuties walk into a bar…

Kitty’s outfit is actually a clown costume from the 20s!

Show pony (aka Coco Coquette!) and rider

Wind Up Doll collision

You guys REALLY turned it out for this theme!






Jeremiah Newton, swattin’ bottoms!

Stay tuned to our second post about the fashions of this Vintage Vivant! There’s too many for one post!

Freaks from 1932, a preCode classic directed by Tod Browning.

Fan-made movie trailer for the film.

The limbless Prince Randian (aka “The Human Worm”) lights a cigarette.

This clip stars conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton