Burlesque queen Sherry Britton has died. Until burlesque was banned by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia she "peeled off chiffon evening gowns to the strains of Tchaikovsky [and] sometimes she balanced glasses of water on her breasts." She later performed in 39 plays, including 14 musicals, sang in nightclubs and made numerous television appearances. She entertained troops during World War II and, in 1944, was named an honorary brigadier general by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. According to her obituary in The New York Times, in an unpublished memoir that she titled The Stripper, by the Hon. Brigadier General Sherry Britton, she wrote: “There seemed to be two of me. One, onstage, undressing. The other saying, ‘What are you doing, taking your clothes off for those morons?’“
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