Sherry Britton-Fordham Class of 1982-An Adult Learner

  Sherry Britton (Fordham Lincolm Center) Class of 1982-An Adult Learner. College enrollment will begin to decline in the next few years. Around the year 2026, the number of high school graduates in the United States is expected to drop significantly (and for maybe as long as a decade). 
What are some of the tactics the institutions of higher learning are taking to combat these enrollment and revenue deficits? 
  • Schools have lobbied the government for the use of Pell Grants which, starting this year, will expand the eligibility of people in prison (750,000+) to receive college educations. 
  •  In 2020, New York joined other states in relaxing the definition of the term "University". It is hoped this will make it easier to market to foreign students who often viewed the term “college” as simply a 2-year or junior college. 
  • Some of the major for-profit universities have been sold to major private schools to provide turn-key operations for encouraging on-line learners. 
  • Another important area, built into these business models is the adult learner. 
Here is the story of The Great Britton or Stripeasaurus Sex

Here we look back at Fordham's Sherry Britton. During the late 1970s & early 1980s, she was an adult learner on the Fordham Lincoln Center campus. Perhaps, she might have been a little older than this first photo; Okay, OKAY, O-K-A-Y! Perhaps, she might have been a lot older than this photo.
















(Dec. 9, 1945 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly)


She was born in 1918 as Edith Zack; she was a Fordham Lincoln Center Class of 1982 graduate.  After fleeing an adolescence marred with domestic violence, foster homes and an abusive first husband, Sherry Britton started stripping at the age of fifteen at the People's Theater on The Bowery in Lower Manhattan. She received ten cents a performance. She was also a trained belly dancer and acted on Broadway.-IMDb Mini Biography By: Jane Margaret Laight 

SHE WAS NAMED AN HONORARY BRIGADIER GENERAL BY PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT FOR ENTERTAINING OUR TROOPS DURING WORLD WAR II. 

  She Married Her Millionaire In 1971, Britton, who had been married twice previously, and who once said she'd been engaged "14 times," married wealthy businessman Robert Gross. Gross urged her to attend Fordham University. Although Ms. Britton had never attended high school, she was admitted to the Lincoln Center campus as an undergraduate where she majored in courses “appropriate for pre-law students”. Gifted with a very high IQ, she graduated magna cum laude in 1982, at the age of 63. 

  Perhaps A Little Too “Tradeschoolish” For A Serious University?  Attending a burlesque show is not like going to a strip club. “Burlesque is a form of variety theater.” said Edward Bristow, PhD the former Dean at Fordham College Lincoln Center who has served at the Director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program: ”It includes both dance and singing. It was most popular in the late 19th century and early 20th Century.” Bristow added, “I don’t think there is any formal training in stripetease.”

Doctor Barry Goldberg, who has been at Fordham since 1975 and has a specialization in 20th Century social history, recalled teaching Ms. Britton during her time as a student. When he heard that she did these dances, he would only say: “That made sense. She had a certain look about her.” 

Note: Unlike the striptease performer, you should not necessarily expect nudity on a burlesque stage. Dancers at a burlesque show plan their routines carefully and do a lot of training, just like ‘exotic dancers’ do.




(L-R) Sherry Britton, unidentified actress, and Tom Poston in the stage revue The Best of Burlesque NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS Behind the Burly Q (2010) 










Sherry is seen in archive footage in the Leslie Zemeckis directed film documentary that attempted to examine the golden age of American burlesque in the first half of the 20th century. It takes a behind-the-velvet-curtain peek at the golden age of burlesque, meeting the women and men who pushed the envelope of social propriety. The Legitimate Theatre Too. She appeared on Broadway in the 1958 three act comedy, Drink To Me Only. At the George Abbott Theatre on 154 West 54th Street. She played a character named Princess Alexandria for 77 performances. (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway) 

 After Robert Gross died in 1990, Britton lived a life of retirement. She died of natural causes on April 1, 2008, in New York City. 




 Also interviewed in Behind the Burly Q, was Alan Alda (Fordham Class of 1956). His father, Robert Alda (right), had worked as a burlesque singer and straightman.
                                                                   (IMDb.co) 

  End Notes 
1.https://www.forbes.com/.../one-way-colleges-can.../... 
2.https://thehill.com/.../4073299-around-30000-prisoners.../ 
3.https://www.news10.com/.../nys-board-of-regents-changes.../ University of Phoenix being bought by the University of Idaho (estimated price is $550 million). 4.https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2023/05/18/sale-of-university-of-phoenix-nears-after-deal-with-university-of-idaho-550-million/70234256007/ 
5. Kaplan University bought by Purdue University for $1.00 (share revenue over next 30 years.) 6.https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-04-27-purdue-buys-for-profit-kaplan-university-for-1-to-create-new-kind-of-public-university 
7. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2000509/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm 
8. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/sherry-britton-100411 
9. Hevesi, Dennis (3 April 2008). "Sherry Britton, 89, a S 
10. https://www.1923lv.com/what-to-expect-from-a-burlesque-show/ 
11. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/drink-to-me-only-2696 
12. Hevesi, Dennis (3 April 2008). "Sherry Britton, 89, a Star of the Burlesque Stage, Dies". The New York Times. 
13. Freeman, William M. (September 10, 1975). "John McGiver, Actor, 62, Dies. Did TV, Film Character Roles" (PDF). New York Times. 
14. Gelt, Jessica (6 July 2013). "'Behind the Burly Q' a revealing portrait of burlesque's stars". Los Angeles Times.

#sherrybritton #alanalda #robertalda #johnmcGiver #lesliezemeckis #tomposton #burlesque #pellgrants #fdr #fordhamuniversity #georgeabbotttheatre 

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