www.exoticworldthemovie.com EXOTIC WORLD AND THE BURLESQUE REVIVAL A DOCUMENTARY BY RED TREMMEL The Past During the late 1950s, burlesque dancer Jennie Lee, “The Bazoom Girl,” founded the first labor union for burlesque dancers. As burlesque faded in the following decades, Jennie Lee gathered dancers together for reunions, collecting photos, stories, costumes, props, and other significant artifacts from her fellow dancers, hoping to one day build a museum and retirement home for retired strippers. During the 1980s, out in the middle of the Mojave Desert, Jennie’s dream started to materialize on a small goat ranch off Route 66. There, she and her husband Charlie Arroyo intended to build the world’s first museum dedicated to the art of the striptease and its performers. Over many months dancers gathered at the remote ranch and fantasized about a future museum, retirement community, waterfalls, and an American tourist public seeking to learn about their past. “Us girls knew who we were, and we knew we were part of an industry that wasn’t recognized, so we just decided to recognize it ourselves.” –Dixie Evans, The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque Diagnosed with breast cancer, Jennie Lee enlisted Dixie Evans, the postwar era “Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque,” to move to the goat ranch, take over renovations, and keep their dreams alive. The women nailed costumes, photos, and other artifacts to the walls, dubbed the museum “Exotic World,” and waited for the tourists to come. In 1990 …