Not all Hollywood female dancers were of the Ginger Rogers-Cyd Charisse type, oh no. Especially during the early years of the movies — notably in the silent era — there was a huge demand for “classical” or “exotic” dancers, usually as backdrop during the swords ‘n sandals genre.
Maybe the best known of these was Joyzelle Joyner, who appeared (often un-credited) in dozens of them.
In The Sign Of The Cross, her dance sequence was cut because of its “lesbian overtones”:
She’s also reputed to have done studio modeling, although not too many of those have survived (and nor have most of her movies, sadly):
, as it did last week.
