My father was born in Union City, NJ, and lived his first few years in Newark, so that might be a reason why he kept this ad, in addition to the fact Barbara Yung-Ying must have been one of the few Asian burlesque dancers in the 50s. Read more info about Minsky’s.
Most of what I know about her is from Street Swing.
She was born in 1919 in Oakland, CA, and trained in ballet. Started dancing at the Club Shanghai in SF in 1940. Worked the burlesque circuit, and danced in “Pal Joey” in 1957. Married to Eddie Pond, who operated the Kublai Khan club in San Francisco.
It’s not for sale yet, but keep an eye on the store.
Here are a couple more pictures of Barbara.
Barbara Yung passed away in 2016, and Burlesque Bible has a nice memorial page about her.
True Burlesque has some more info, as does South American Sexy Girls.
Contemporary burlesque dancer Sukki Singapora does a striptease wearing an outfit that looks just like Yung Ying’s.
Jerry Lin has compiled a Pinboard of Forbidden City images! The Forbidden City was a famous San Francisco Chinatown night club in the middle of the 20th century.
[…] because there was an Asian person on the bill. This will be for sale in a lot with the Barbara Yung Ying […]