Born 1932 as Fannie Belle Fleming in rural Wayne County, West Virginia, American stripper and burlesque star Blaze Starr began performing at the Two O’Clock Club nightclub in 1950. She eventually became its headliner. She rose to national renown after she was profiled in a February 1954 Esquire magazine article, “B-Belles of Burlesque: You Get Strip Tease With Your Beer in Baltimore”.
Starr’s striking red hair, voluptuous figure and on-stage enthusiasm were a large part of her appeal. The theatrical flourishes and unique gimmicks she used in her stage show went beyond established burlesque routines like the fan dance and balloon dance. She often performed with dangerous cats, including a baby black panther.
In 1968, Starr bought the Two O’Clock Club on The Block in Baltimore, Maryland, which at the time was valued at 65,000 dollars. She continued to perform in the club. In the early 1980s, Starr made an appearance at the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theatre in San Francisco.
In the late 1950s, while briefly working at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Starr began a long-term affair with then-governor Earl Long. Starr was in the process of divorcing her husband, club owner Carroll Glorioso, and Long was married to the state’s first lady, known colloquially as “Miz Blanche”.
Semi-retired since 1975, Starr finally retired from stripping for good in 1983 to become a full-time gemologist, an occupation in which she had dabbled in part-time since 1975 and had spent several holiday seasons selling hand-crafted jewelry at the Carrolltowne Mall in Eldersburg, near Baltimore. She died in 2015, aged 83.
Take a look at these stunning photos to see the beauty of young Blaze Starr in the 1950s and 1960s.
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