Most people will remember the character of Blaze Starr
from the 1989 Paul Newman film Blazebased,
in part, by the real life of Starr. The story is that of
the stripper, played by Lolita Davidovich, and the eccentric
governor who falls for her. It's an intriguing look at how society looked
at burlesque performers and how the golden age of stripping changed from
the bump-and-grind of the 50's to the go-go 60's.
Starr, herself, was born in
West Virginia and was discovered while working as a hat check girl in Baltimore.
Starr,
like most in the pantheon of classic strippers, had a meteoric rise with
a act that consisted of her playing a jungle drum set and doing a exotic
dance to go with it.
She spent most of her career working on the
east coast and earned the nickname "the Hottest Blaze in Burlesque." She
photographed with famed fetish photographer Irving Klaw and
could be found frequently in the pages of men's magazines. She also starred
in one of the most popular nudie-cutie flicks ever, the 1960 "Blaze
Starr Goes Nudist."
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