Vintage Photos of Chorus Girls in Dress Room Backstage From Between the 1940s and 1950s

According to literature, it is hard to exactly define the starting point of the common “chorus girl” dancer. It may have been traced back to the Ballet Russes, or perhaps it goes back further to the late 1800s days of the cancan dancers. Some even date them back to any ladies who acted as backup actors/dancers on stage during the great opera performances of the Baroque era. Whatever, their origins, one asks how you define, a “chorus girl”?

For the purposes of vintage vernacular jazz dance, when we hear the term “chorus girl”, we often associate it with such imagery of the Ziegfeld Follies, and later the Goldwyn Girls. Many a famous female icon started out as a backup dancing chorus girls, either in film or on stage in vaudeville, including Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers, Josephine Baker, Joan Crawford, and many more.

Here are the backstage pictures showing the life of chorus girls in dress room in the 1940s and 1950s.

(L-R) Chorus girls Diane Van Alst, Mara Williams & Mary Mullens in the dressing room backstage at the Copacabana nightclub. Photo by Eileen Darby/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

Chorus girl Hope Chandler, 16, in dressing room backstage at the Paradise cabaret restaurant. Photo by Peter Stackpole, New York City, 1937.

Chorus girl of the Bluebell Girls checking her costume in the dressing room of the Stardust hotel & casino before a performance, Las Vegas. Photo by Ralph Crane, 1959

Riviera chorus girls, Las Vegas. Photo by Nina Leen, August 1952.

Riviera chorus girls, Las Vegas. Photo by Nina Leen, August 1952.

Riviera chorus girls, Las Vegas. Photo by Nina Leen, August 1952.

Riviera chorus girls, Las Vegas. Photo by Nina Leen, August 1952.

A prop slot machine backstage at the Royal Nevada Hotel and Casino. Photo by Loomis Dean, Las Vegas, 1955.

Dancing twins, Alice and Ellen Kessler, backstage at the Lido, Paris, 1959. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

The Kessler twins backstage at the Lido, Paris, 1959. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

Chorus girls in dressing room backstage at La Scala opera house in Milan. Photo by Slim Aarons, November 1948.

A chorus girl in full costume at the Paris Lido, Paris, France, 1964. Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images.

Two showgirls of Mike Todd's revue called "Michael Todd's Peep Show", running at the Winter Garden Theatre, from June 28, 1950 to February 24, 1951, for a total of 278 performances. Photo by Philippe Halsman, 1950.

Dancers/chorus girls, Rita Powers, Patty Hurdy, Louisa Lewis and Joan Wynn. Photo by Sam Shaw, mid 1940s.