In 1976, Gabriele Basilico was in Rimini for a job on the Grand Hotel. It was there that he met some artists performing at the Lady Godiva, the adjacent nightclub. Intrigued, he took some photographs and was struck by the artists' willingness to pose. Meanwhile, the world of vaudeville was waning, while many of those venues had been transformed into "red-light" cinemas. Perhaps to bear witness to that endangered world, perhaps because he was struck by the humanity of the artists (strippers, magicians, clowns), Basilico began photographing Milanese theaters and nightclubs. There was a plan to make a book about it, but it never materialized and was forgotten. In 2020, that box was rediscovered, a previously unpublished work that adds a new dimension to the Milanese photographer's oeuvre. In these black-and-white shots, Basilico confirms his status as a master photographer in a field that is not his own. There is no melancholy in the reportage, but rather the pride, freedom and joy of a group of artists at work.