"There was a war before this one. It was meant to end all wars. I lost my son in that war, my only son, Alec. He was 21. He perished from poison gas I believe, in a field in France.
After...sometime after, I went to his room to air his things and I found the most amazing thing what I believe you call a French postcard. A photograph of a naked woman. He’d been hiding it. And I
realized that he had probably gone to his death without ever seeing a naked woman in real life.
Well, I thought that was the most awful thing...
...Years later when my husband had died I bought a theater and put on a nude review so boys like Alec would never be in the same predicament. As long as the Windmill exists, there’s no need for a sad little
postcard stashed underneath the bed, is there?"
- Judi Dench as Laura Henderson in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" 2005. Meet my new hero. Heroine, actually.
Laura Henderson was a real person and she really owned a London theater called The Windmill. The Windmill was located in the West End and initially, Mrs. Henderson, recently widowed and in her seventies, bought the place as a venue for plays. When that didn’t work out, she hired a new manager named Vivian van Damm and The Windmill began to present a continuos vaudeville/variety show titled "Revudeville". Five shows a day worked for a while but then The Windmill lost its audience to West End copycats.
Vivian van Damm had a brilliant idea. Nude girls. If you have seen the Hollywood movie mentioned in the opening quote, Mrs. Henderson suggested the idea to add naked women to the shows. Regardless, the old broad knew what was going on in her theater and apparently approved. Did I mention this happened in the 1930’s?
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"When a man (who likes women) dies without ever seeing a naked one, that is awful. If a person is old enough to vote, drink and die for their country, they have the right to see adult entertainment too." |
Henderson and Damm borrowed the idea from 1930’s France where showgirl nudies were very popular. The way The Windmill eluded lewdness charges was genius. There was an ordinance against performing nude in London theaters. Van Damm simply posed his naked women in tableaux still as statues. As long as the ladies didn’t move, they weren’t technically performing, they were art. The Windmill was finally a success.
The ladies became known as The Windmill Girls and the theater acquired the motto: "We Never Closed." The Windmill remained open until 1964. The reputation as
'Never Closed' sort of referenced the five-shows-a-day format. The main reason was because Mrs. Henderson kept the place open during the Blitz bombings of London in WWII. The Windmill Theater was below ground level. During the worst of the Blitz, from 1940-41, Windmill Girls, actresses, actors, singers, dancers, comedians, technicians, and costumers slept at the theater for safety.
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Laura Henderson was a hell of an old lady. The film portrays her as a playful, aged widow with a pot of money and an open mind. There’s a photograph of Mrs. Henderson within the pages of an authentic program from The Windmill. Dame Judy Dench was a glamorous choice to portray her. The real Mrs. Henderson was a total grandma.
Laura Henderson may be my new, favorite heroine but I’m no romantic. Today, The Windmill is nothing but a lap-dancing strip bar. The nudity remains but the art is long gone. Mrs. Henderson was probably motivated more by money than by promoting a sex-positive society. Who knows what she would have done with her husband’s money if she were around today? Would Mrs. Henderson open a paysite?
I confess I’m really digging Mrs. Laura Henderson because of the speech from the film. The words hit home. Not so much the stuff about war but rather the stuff about people that die without ever having known joy or the promise of joy. When a man (who likes women) dies without ever seeing a naked one, that is awful. If a person is old enough to vote, drink and die for their country, they have the right to see adult entertainment too. Porn movie makers, sex shop owners and adult webmasters, all give a little bit of joy to the shy, the unattractive, the poor, the curious, the question and the courageous all over the world.
And as the old bag said in the flick:
"And if along the way, we cause too many people to congregate in the street...who gives a fiddler’s fuck!"