The Troc Burlesque Theater operated in Philadelphia from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. During it’s glory years, all of the top burlesque acts performed there including Tempest Storm, Gypsy Rose Lee, Blaze Starr, Lili St. Cyr and Dixie Evans. By the 1970’s however, burlesque was in decline and the strippers who traveled from city to city were performing to dwindling audiences.

In 1974, Robert Adler was given unprecedented access to the theater and photographed the dancers both on and off stage, documenting the last days of burlesque.