Sherry Britton
brains, beauty, business n' boobs
Of all my burlesque queen subjects, the one that I got asked about the most by the old timer guys I knew (my father’s contemporaries) was Sherry Britton. She had been their pre-teen crush back in the day and they all wanted to know if she was still hot.
Women and fellow burlesque queens also found Sherry’s sex appeal undeniable. Zorita claims to have made a conquest of Sherry Britton the first time they met. It was in 1936 backstage at a theater in San Francisco where they were both slotted to perform. Zorita, told me that she “banged that broad [Sherry] on the dressing room floor—she liked it and stuck around for more.”
Sherry tells the story a little differently. Below the paywall I’ve included a scene from Pretty Things of Sherry and Zorita each telling me their version of whether or not they hooked up back in the day.
Sherry viewed her career in burlesque without nostalgia. She said that she was discriminated against when people found out she was a stripteaser, and that the word carried a dirty connotation. She told me, “I was at the wedding of a friend. And most of the people at the wedding knew me, and they sat me down at this table with a dowager. And she said, ‘What did you say your name was?’ I said, ‘Sherry Britton.’ She said, ‘My dear, you ought to change your name.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘There’s a strip teaser by that name.’ And of course, everybody howled. I spent the rest of the evening placating the old doll. And she got to like me in spite of herself.”
Below the paywall are stories from Pretty Things featuring the late great Sherry Britton that you can’t see anywhere else discussing… masturbating men in the audience, disassociating while stripping, and an exclusive film clip of Sherry and Zorita on their alleged affair. Not to be shared or reproduced. Copyright Liz Goldwyn Films, thanks and xoxo