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ACTRESSES AND THE MISE EN SCÈNE had a similar function to idealize nudity by smoothing over cellulite, monochromatizing hairiness, and encasing padding Padding perfected form, enhancing the aesthetic effect but not the erotic desirability of women In the erotic novel Crissie, the living statuaries in the scene of Cleopatra’s garden are especially obscene and titillating because they not wear any padding; the separate masses of their buttocks are clearly distinguishable, and belly, breasts, and pubis bulge naturally.60 This is the kernel of erotic fantasies involving clothed nudity: the beauty must be real to be desirable The greater the reality, the greater the effect Live performance—though encouraging of imaginative fantasy—provided an arena for verification Like erotic zones of the body, physical proportions are transient fashions In 1871, a cartoon stage manager displayed the new model leg to the opera bouffe chorus, explaining: The thin French leg is played out, ladies Prussia has been victorious [in war], and we must have Dutch-built extremities Make up your legs after this style in future More robust, ladies, more robust!’61 By 1904, the custom was disgraced: a cartoon in Das Kleine Witzblatt deconstructs the image of a gorgeous principal boy to its component parts (padded tights, padded corset, and wig), revealing the emaciated specimen in her dressing room.62 Whereas the first example joins in the fun of artificiality, the later example reflects disbelief and distrust in stage illusion and the pretences of costume conventions Aesthetic preferences were revised, and new standards of authenticity coinciding with the widespread introduction of electric light demanded changes in stage practice This is clearly reflected in the Palace Theatre of Varieties’ 1893 innovation in the costuming conventions of tableaux vivants The Palace was built after the formation of the LCC’s Theatres and Music Halls Licensing Committee, and so it did not receive planning authority to build a promenade (the place where gorgeously dressed prostitutes traditionally strolled) When it was converted from the home of English opera to a high-class variety hall, shareholders and managers pressed again for a promenade, and were again refused Recognizing that without a promenade the Palace would be uncompetitive with the nearby Alhambra, Empire, Oxford, and Tivoli, the management considered how it could attract a regular clientele while maintaining the pretence of clean ‘family’ entertainment A solution was found in the costuming of the living picture models Instead of covering women with ‘classical’ drapery or adding a short tutu around the midriff, they faithfully copied their nineteenth-century art sources even if it meant wearing only maillots Customers were enticed in 127