Ann Corio

Ann Corio, born Ann Coiro on November 29, 1909, in Hartford, Connecticut, was an American burlesque performer, actress, and writer who became one of the most recognized figures in the history of American burlesque entertainment. She died on March 1, 1999, at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of 89, having been a resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey. One of twelve children born to Italian immigrant parents, she adopted the stage surname Corio partly because certain family members objected to her chosen profession.

Corio entered show business as a teenager, her physical appearance earning her showgirl roles that eventually led to a career as a featured striptease artist. She began rising to prominence on the Mutual burlesque circuit in 1925 and subsequently performed at Minsky's Burlesque in New York City and at Boston's Old Howard Theatre. When Mayor Fiorello La Guardia shuttered New York City's burlesque houses in 1939, Corio relocated to Los Angeles, where between 1941 and 1944 she appeared in several Hollywood B-pictures that showcased her in minimal costuming. Her film work during this period included Swamp Woman in 1941, Jungle Siren opposite Buster Crabbe in 1942, and both Call of the Jungle and Sarong Girl in 1944.

During the Second World War, Corio contributed to the war effort as a volunteer pin-up for YANK, the U.S. Army weekly publication, appearing in its September 3, 1943, issue. She also visited the USS Yorktown, where a radio technician named Edward Hoegerman later recalled her visit to the radio shack as a memorable wartime experience. Her radio appearances during this era included a guest role as armchair detective on The Adventures of Ellery Queen on January 7, in an episode titled "The Adventure of the Singing Rat," and a role in "The Ghost in the Sea Blue Dress," the January 23, 1955, episode of NBC's Adventures of the Archers.

In 1962, Corio assembled and directed the nostalgic off-Broadway production This Was Burlesque, in which she also performed. The show became the defining project of her later career. She expanded on its subject matter in 1968 by writing a book of the same title. Throughout the 1970s, while in her sixties, she brought the production to the summer stock circuit for multiple seasons and made two guest appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1981, This Was Burlesque reached Broadway, playing the Princess Theatre, the former Latin Quarter, where it ran in the same era as Sugar Babies, which was playing nearby. A 1985 mounting at the Variety Arts Theatre in downtown Los Angeles did not perform well, and a subsequent engagement at a Florida dinner theatre marked the production's final run.

Corio's Broadway career spanned from 1965 to 1981, with This Was Burlesque representing her primary stage credit. She is a member of the Hall of Fame at the Exotic World Burlesque Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.