US burlesque originated in guest performances of British and French
travesty shows from the second half of the 19th century. Women performed in trousers, which had a provocative effect. Otherwise, women almost exclusively wore long skirts in everyday life (compare
trousers roll). The dancer
Lydia Thompson excelled in leotards and short skirts in burlesque, and from 1868 she became a celebrated star in
New York City.
Modern burlesque as a stage show emerged under the influence of the great Parisian
variety theatres such as
Moulin Rouge or
Folies Bergère, which were imitated by the
Ziegfeld Follies in the early 20th century. Burlesque picked up motifs from the
sideshows of the
circuses and developed into a distinct genre of entertainment theatre as the popularity of the US vaudeville waned in the late 1920s.
Burlesque gained popularity as inexpensive erotic entertainment through those traveling circuses that offered the implied striptease, garnished with naughty sayings, as a supporting act in their sideshows (“carny shows”). These shows were aimed at a simple audience and offered no self-contained storyline, just a pretty girl taking her clothes off and some
glamour and amusement. An important element of burlesque was interludes by well-known
comedians, while the acrobatic acts that excelled in
silent film became less important Source .
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque 
