From show girl to burlesque queen

Opens on a dressing room set with a mirror, dressing table, and chair center stage and a folded dressing screen on the left. A smiling, dark-haired woman enters through the door on stage right, unbuttoning a full-length polka-dot costume. As she undresses, she frequently looks directly at the camera and smiles. She removes her sash or cummerbund, the top with its trailing sleeves, and her skirt, leaving her clothed only in a sleeveless chemise. Smiling directly at the camera, she mischievously slips a strap of the garment off one shoulder, then ducks behind the screen. After the chemise is thrown over the top of the screen, her arm furtively reaches out from behind the screen and grabs a slight garment from the back of the chair and some items from the dressing table. She then emerges wearing a risqué, decorated costume with cap sleeves and a very short skirt, gathered at the waist. Her legs appear to be bare. The woman brandishes a sword, grabbed from under the discarded dress, and strikes a seductive pose as the viewer glimpses a costumed man entering the room.
H35629 U.S. Copyright Office
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 12Sept1903; H35629.
Original main title lacking.
Camera, A.E. Weed.
Duration: 1:02 at 14 fps.
Materials listed originate from the paper print chosen best copy of two for digitization; for other holdings on this title, see the M/B/RS Paper Print database.
Catalog no. 2528.
NCN046316; From show girl to burlesque queen.
Filmed August 25, 1903 in the Biograph New York City studio.
Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Niver, K.R. Early motion pictures, 1985; AFI cat.: film beginnings, 1893-1910, 1995.
Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
Received: 11/25/94 from LC film lab; ref print; preservation; Paper Print Collection.
Received: 8/5/94 from LC film lab; dupe neg; preservation; Paper Print Collection.
Received: 9/12/03; paper pos; copyright deposit; Paper Print Collection.