Description
Maria Adios. What a name. I haven’t been able to uncover much of anything about the woman herself, but the back of this photograph gives us a wonderful lead. It is stamped “Property of G & S Film Co.” at 6253 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and identified in pencil as “MARIA ADIOS 671.” Other surviving G & S photographs identify women including Orchid Lane, Torchy Forest, Robin Jewel and Sue Snow as burlesque and showgirl performers, strongly suggesting that G & S was producing and distributing photographs within that same mid-century entertainment world.
And Maria certainly looks the part: black lace costume, fishnets and heels, photographed in a wonderfully ordinary mid-century room complete with patterned wallpaper, modern furniture and a little tabletop radio. Rather than a generic cheesecake model, my suspicion is that Maria Adios was a working showgirl or burlesque performer and that this was her stage name—although until another piece of evidence turns up, I’ll leave that as an informed possibility rather than fact. Whoever Maria Adios was, G & S thought enough of her to photograph her, number the image and put her name on the back. Seventy-some years later, this may be one of the few traces of her that remains.
A terrific original piece of Los Angeles burlesque and girlie photography—with a stage name that’s almost too good to be true.
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