Beverly Solomon

Papa's Burlesque House: Growing Up in a Burlesque Theater Beverly Solomon

Presented in the "as-told-to" fashion, PAPA'S BURLESQUE HOUSE deals with the un-barmitzvahed son of a Jewish family in Baltimore during the Depression who grows up in the world of sleazy burlesque at the theatre his father's forced to operate to keep knishes on the table. Livingston fondly recalls The Block, notorious area of Baltimore where numerous operators operated, grindhouses grind and tattoo parlors tattooed. He rings into this somewhat circumspect family scene the characters who populate the area while telling the tale of his weak father and his mistress, his mother who understands, the brother who is the first Jew to study medicine at Johns Hopkins, the other brother who is studying psychology to become what was then called an alienist. Main character pursues sexual pleasures with the strippers, an education through the One Hundred Great Books and a career in law only to revenge himself against the father who disrupted the family unit by bringing his mistress to mama's afternoon poker game. The book is a character study of youth under unusual circumstances. It's both charming and sensational, but above all it is a perceptive and entertaining bit of writing.