Blaze Starr - the red-haired queen of striptease and scandals

The secret of stripper Blaze Starr's popularity was her bright red hair, spectacular figure, inexhaustible enthusiasm and unique tricks on stage that no one could repeat. She was accused of vulgarity more than once and was even arrested for violating moral standards, but this only made the artist more popular.

Blaze Starr, whose real name was Fannie Belle Fleming, was born on April 10, 1932, in rural Wayne County, West Virginia. She was the second oldest of 11 children in a large farming family. We know little about the future striptease and burlesque star's early years, and most of what we know comes from Blaze herself.

Starr said that at 14, she dropped out of school and left home. The reason was a gang rape in the company of her peers and the subsequent bullying. Blaze settled in the city of Logan, West Virginia. She lived there for two years, changing several professions - from a waitress to a taxi driver.

Starr's life changed dramatically after moving to Washington. She was working as a saleswoman at a doughnut shop when she was spotted by promoter Red Snider. At the time, the girl was barely 16 years old and grew up in a strict Christian family. It is not surprising that she initially took Snider's offer to try herself in show business with hostility.

But the experienced promoter quickly found a way to approach the obstinate provincial. Starr later described her conversation with Snyder as follows:

In the end, Snyder held a casting, forcing the girl to play the guitar in a cowboy costume. Then he asked her to dance a striptease. Blaze didn’t know what it was, but after explanations, she did it. At first, she was very shy, even when she went out on the big stage. The dancer recalled that she constantly tried to cover herself with a cowboy hat, which irritated the audience.

Having started her career in Washington, Starr moved to Baltimore in 1950. There she was offered a job at the Two O'Clock Club, a strip club that became her second home for many years. At the same time, she never refused to perform at other establishments. Blaze Starr became widely known in 1954, when an article about her was published in Esquire magazine.

With her bright red hair, curvy figure, and incredible energy on stage, Starr was a real star. Her acts went far beyond traditional burlesque: she wasn’t limited to dancing with a fan or a balloon, but added theatricality and unique tricks to her performances. For example, she often performed with exotic animals, including a black panther cub, which made her show even more spectacular and memorable.

Her signature act was the "exploding sofa." In a 1989 press interview, Starr described it this way:

Blaze's work was not universally appreciated. She was arrested and fined many times for "indecent behavior." One such incident occurred in Philadelphia, where a young police officer named Frank Rizzo took her right off the stage. Interestingly, he later became the police commissioner and then the mayor of Philadelphia.

Blaze Starr's business was so successful that in 1968 she bought the Two O'Clock Club on The Block in Baltimore, Maryland. She paid a considerable sum for the establishment at that time - $65,000. At the same time, she did not give up the stage: Blaze skillfully combined the management of the club with her own performances.

Blaze Starr became famous not only for her performances, but also for her scandalous affairs with influential people. In the late 1950s, while 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. The star 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."

In her memoirs, Starr recalled without embarrassment the 20 minutes she spent in John Kennedy's company. True, the president did not see her. Blaze was hiding in a closet in her hotel room. This happened in 1960 at the New Orleans Hilton. At that time, a gala reception was taking place in the next room, which was organized in honor of the president by her lover, Louisiana Governor Earl Long. Kennedy suddenly entered Long's room when Starr was there, and she had to hide.

Based on Starr's memoirs about her scandalous affairs with politicians, the biographical film Blaze (1989) was based. The main roles were played by Lolita Davidovich and Paul Newman. The stripper also became the heroine of the documentaries Buxom Beautease (1956) and Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962). The photographs of Blaze Starr taken by the iconic photographer of the 20th century Diane Arbus also went down in history.

Starr died on June 15, 2015, at her home in Wilsondale, West Virginia. She was 83. She had been worried about the health of her elderly dog, which she had adopted from a shelter. The animal was said to have kept her from being hospitalized, which hastened her end. One of her sisters said stress, as well as a “severe heart condition,” killed her. Her dog died hours later.

Blaze Starr's life was full of bright events, bold decisions and scandalous stories that only fueled the public's interest. She went from a donut seller to one of the most famous strippers of her time, causing admiration and condemnation at the same time. Do you think that today such outrageous artists could achieve the same popularity, or have times changed and the public expects something different? Share your opinion in the comments!