“L.A.’s sexiest and most talented Broadway-trained dancers will strip and tease to raise money for L.A.’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS,” read headlines when AHF announced partnering with the scintillating burlesque event Broadway Bares to fundraise for AHF’s healthcare services in May 1997.
Broadway Bares gathered over seventy-five professional dancers in “various states of undress” on the stage at Hollywood’s iconic nightclub, then-named The Palace, from evening until midnight. Hosted by renowned actor Martin Short and Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell, the performance drew crowds “hooting and hollering” as 100% of the sales went to AHF and BC/EFA, and as Broadway Bares built on its legacy of raising 1 million dollars to fight AIDS since 1991.
AHF’s co-recipient, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, was the nation’s largest industry-based organization addressing AIDS at the time, complementing AHF’s title as the nation’s largest private provider of HIV medical care. Nearly twenty years later, AHF is the largest healthcare non-profit in the world and hosts its own burlesque shows, including Ohh Mamma! Burlesque to raise awareness about International Condom Day.
Broadway Bares’ 1997 show was timely, taking place during AHF’s $2.5 million “Treatment = Life” fundraising campaign, of which a main goal was to provide access to the life-saving drug cocktail to all patients regardless of ability to pay. That night’s eye-catching performance fueled the treatment of people living with HIV and inspired advocacy that only kept reaching new heights.
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