The French Quarter of New Orleans and its famous Bourbon Street receive millions of visitors each year and are the subjects of both scholarly study and the popular imagination. Bourbon Street’s history of striptease has largely been untouched by scholars. In the post-World War II period, nightclubs featuring striptease entertainment drew the attention of reform-minded city and police officials, who attempted to purge striptease from the city’s historic district in an effort to whitewash the city’s main tourist area and appeal to potential outside economic industrial opportunities. Through news articles, correspondence, tourism brochures, and published reports, this thesis explores how striptease endured on Bourbon Street despite various reform campaigns against it and shows that striptease was an integral part of the New Orleans tourist economy in the postwar period.