Dawn Mitchell

dawn.mitchell@indystar.com

When famed, free-spirited dancer Isadora Duncan took to the stage of the English Theatre in 1908, an Indianapolis News reviewer heaped praise on her artistry, grace and execution. He also commented on how much skin she showed.

"Mention must be made of the fact that Miss Duncan essays her dances in her bare feet, and that her legs, which in some of her dances are draped only to the knee and show from time to time even above the knee in the natural and entirely incidental parting of the draperies (dress), are also bare."

The reviewer also wondered whether the audience attended to appreciate her art — or if they just wanted to see if the dance was as immoral as they had heard.

When Duncan returned to Indianapolis on Nov. 17, 1922, then-Mayor Lewis Shank was prepared for her. He placed four policemen in the wings of the Murat Theatre stage to ensure that she performed in long draperies. If she did not comply with the "ideas of propriety, she would be arrested."

"Neither she nor any others of these aesthetic dancers are going to put on any dances in Indianapolis almost undressed while I am mayor," Shank asserted.

"Say, listen," the mayor said, "I know doggone well that 99 percent of the men who go to see a dancer of that kind don't go to see art."

Duncan, shaken and in tears, caved to his demands. "With all those policemen behind the scenes, I feel rather like Christ before Pilot," Duncan said in a curtain speech to the audience.

She added, scandalously, "When you go home tonight, just do one thing for Isadora. Stand without clothes and throw out your arms like this," stretching her arms above her head, "and dance." The audience applauded and shouted for her to keep dancing.

Shank, who was in the audience at the English Theatre in 1908, described Duncan's dancing as "little better than burlesque."

Oddly, if anyone was an authority on burlesque, it was Lew Shank.

Samuel Lewis "Lew" Shank took to the burlesque stage early in his career. Cast as "Little Eva," he dressed in a golden wig and ascended a ladder to heaven. In between his two terms as mayor, 1910-13 and 1922-26, Shank barnstormed the vaudeville circuit with his humorous monologue on the high cost of living. Shank also served as "impresario and censor" at the Capitol Theater, where "Red Pepper Revue," or "Burlesque DeLux" was performed.

Ironically, Shank and Duncan died 10 days apart. Shank died Sept. 24, 1927 at the age of 55. Duncan died Sept. 14, 1927, in Nice, France. While she was riding in an open car, the silk scarf she was wearing became entangled in the rear axle, and threw her from the vehicle.

Read about former burlesque house, the Empire Theater.

Follow IndyStar photo coordinator Dawn Mitchell on Twitter: @dawn_mitchell61.