With more than a dozen theaters that featured bodacious babes in barely-there costumes, New York was the epicenter of burlesque - at least until prudish city officials banned the shows in the late 1930s.

With the neo-burlesque movement back en vogue in New York - and with Christina Aguilera and Cher co-starring in the new movie, "Burlesque" - here's a fond look back at burlesque's heyday.