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."