Is Cincinnati the home of striptease? More than one historian of burlesque has suggested exactly that. While there are any number of theories out there on just how striptease originated, a handful of historians have pointed to Cincinnati and, in particular at a publicity-hungry dancer named Millie De Leon and her manager, James Fennessy.

Millie De Leon was what was known around 1900 as a “cooch” dancer. Cooch (or cootch or hootchy-kootchy) was a style of belly dancing popularized at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1892-93. There were several women who built profitable stage careers by cooch dancing, the most famous being “Little Egypt.”

Millie De Leon was brought to Cincinnati by James Fennessy, manager of Hubert Heuck’s People’s Theater, as part of a resident company of burlesque performers who would entertain between the headline acts. Robert Heuck, son of the theater owner, in a 1958 memoir, described Fennessy as

“a pistol-packing colonel from the South, an extrovert, a real showman, a spotlight seeker, and father’s front man and manager. He made all the announcements before the audience, made all the public appearances, and held the public eye.”

Fennessy was, indeed, a publicity hound. As manager of Heuck’s Opera House and the Lyceum in addition to the People’s, Fennessy was mentioned in the papers a lot, and quite often for pushing the boundaries of accepted good taste.

When Millie De Leon arrived in Cincinnati, she was almost 30 years old and already known as “The Girl In Blue.” At that time, “blue” had a risqué connotation, the same sense that later applied to “blue movies.” Fennessy saw potential, and recognized Millie’s thirst for fame or infamy, whichever arrived first. All Millie needed, as Anne Fliotsos described it in her Journal of American Culture article, “Gotta Get A Gimmick,” was exactly that - a gimmick. For Millie De Leon, the gimmick was a garter - actually a half-dozen garters.

As Millie performed her act, she unclasped a series of garters from her legs and tossed them into the audience. The crowds went wild, especially because Millie conveniently “forgot” to wear her stage tights. The sight of a bare leg was the height of obscenity at the time, and Millie found herself hauled off to the hoosegow in cities across America. Each arrest garnered headlines - and bigger ticket sales at the next stop.

James Fennessy realized he had created a phenomenon beyond his control one night in November 1901. A group of 75 young men in Over-the-Rhine had organized themselves as a social club named “the Micks.” To mark their first anniversary, the Micks planned a midnight dinner with a special entertainment - the “Girl In Blue” herself.

Millie De Leon agreed to present a very exclusive show for $35 - darn close to $1,000 in today’s money. The Cincinnati cops showed up, but Millie was spirited away. Once the police were gone, she was smuggled back into the building. In the basement, Millie

“carried out her part of the programme to the letter. It was long after midnight when the performance was finished, and the statement was made yesterday that everybody went away satisfied ‘that he had got his money’s worth.”

Fennessy was apoplectic.

“I explicitly contracted that the 'Girl In Blue’ should appear at no stag entertainments and I want her to keep that agreement.”

Millie went on to stardom regardless - mostly on the circuit managed by Fennessy for the Heucks - titillating audiences well into her mid-forties while earning $4,000 a week. She died in 1922, around 50 years of age, in New York City.

In his book, Burleycue: An Underground History of Burlesque Days, author Bernard Sobel speculates that the “willful removal of one’s clothes” on stage began with Millie’s Cincinnati garter-tossing.

Rachel Shtier, author of Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show, notes Millie’s pioneering act and specifically credits Fennessy:

“Although her name is French (Millie looks suspiciously like Mlle.), she built her early career in Cincinnati and was first tutored by western circuit manager James Fennessey [sic].”

She was extolled as “the first real queen of American Burlesque” and “burlesque’s first truly national sex symbol” by Robert C. Toll in his book, On with the Show: The First Century of Show Business in America.“

A description of her scandalous dance is recorded in detail by the Philadelphia North American in 1914. After removing her outer clothing and tossing several garters, Millie began to "cooch.”

“From knee to neck she was convulsive. Every muscle became eloquent of primitive emotion. Amid groans, cat calls, and howls of approval from the audience, she stopped. Standing suddenly erect, with a deft movement she revealed her nude right leg from knee almost to waist… Streaked and sweaty, her face took on the aspect of epilepsy. She bit her lips, rolled her eyes, pulled fiercely at great handfuls of her black, curly hair. Indescribable noises and loud suggestions mingled in the hot breath of the audience. Men in the orchestra rose with shouts. A woman-one of six present- hissed. Laughter became uproarious. And then, sensing her climax, Millie De Leon gave a little cry that was more of a yelp, and ceased.”

While there is a Burlesque Hall of Fame in (of course) Las Vegas, there does not seem to be a Striptease Hall of Fame. New addition to Over-the-Rhine?