Preserving Our Legacy

Where did the idea of The Legend Archives come from? 

I believe the idea bloomed in everyone, we all talk about a place to hear legends’ stories, to preserve their legacies and to revisit their history. Many people in the burlesque industry discuss how we can further support legends, both financially and including them in decision-making roles.

In the past, BurlyCon invited a Burlesque Legend of Honor every year to teach and mingle with attendees. One of the classes BurlyCon asks legends to teach is a “My Life” class, 

where legends discuss their careers, hobbies and life and attendees have the opportunity to ask the legend questions. 

The thing is, BurlyCon didn’t record those stories so they only live in the time they were shared. Also, BurlyCon can financially support inviting ONE legend at the conference every year, which means we’ve only had the opportunity to learn from a dozen or so legends at BurlyCon. We are changing that in 2022 with these documentary-style legend interviews.

Why did you decide to incorporate the Legends Archive as part of the virtual programming?

In 2020, the pandemic forced BurlyCon to build a virtual education platform. The benefits of this platform is the ability to bring together and share knowledge and experience within the global burlesque community and industry unlike we’ve ever had a chance to do before. 

Our current platform gives the global burlesque community the opportunity to learn more about our burlesque legends through virtual live stream classes, interviews and round tables. 

The Legend Archives will provide not only the global burlesque community, but also the world, with the history of burlesque as told by the performers who lead the way. Our Legends Team hopes to license The Legend Archives to universities, museums, and other educational institutions who would want to hear first-hand accounts of burlesque history.

The legends are paid for their interview time and receive payment every time their interview is rented or licensed. BurlyCon manages the platform, customer service, marketing and licensing agreements.

What would you say to someone who was on the fence about donating to the Legends Archive program?

We only have so much time with our burlesque legends. The time and opportunity to record their history on camera is now.

Now is the time to spend time with them on their interview, listen to them, and help document their lives.

Your sponsorship puts money directly into our legends’ pockets, provides them with additional passive income and gives the world the gift of the history of burlesque directly from the voice, face, intelligence, lives lived and sass of our living legends.