Zorita Burlesque Stripper ~ Wedding of the Snake Dance Video ~ Vintage Photos

Presenting the exotic ZORITA.

Zorita's big promo poster.

Zorita's history is no mystery. 

Just Google Zorita, and you'll find plenty of links to tons of photos, bio info, memories, and articles. Below, I am just sharing a few.

Google Images search screen shots

Well, maybe there's some mystery... 

• Her real name was Kathryn Boyd (1915-2001), according to Streetswing's 'Burlesque History' page on Zorita. 

• Or was it? According to Arrested in Toledo Ohio, her name Ada Brockett.

• Zorita died in 2001 at age 85. 

Zorita's Show Bar, Miami

She toured the country, but finally made Florida her home. She was in the news there alot -- read this.  In her later years she owned a few bars in Florida.

• More bio details and great photos here on Playful Promises / Zorita.
• Zorita is interviewed at length in the film "Pretty Things," by Liz Goldwyn, a documentary with many of the Legends of burlesque. [Also a book on Amazon]

• And Liz Goldwyn HAD a great interview with Zorita on the Velvet Hammer site, which is not there any more -- but you can find it courtesy of the wonderful WAYBACK MACHINE -- http://web.archive.org/web/20060521052115/http://www.velvethammerburlesque.com/home_the_shows_artist/interview_04/zorita/zorita_1.html

• See several more photos here on Partial Coverage.
• The Burlesque Factory's pretty Burlesque history page has a pic and note crediting Zorita's influence on modern Burlesque routines.
• Zorita's IMDB page with full filmography.
• Lots and lots of vintage Zorita photos on Burleskateer.

• Her routines would contain the use of snakes (Pythons & Boa Constrictors) as a gimmick with her most remembered routine being called "the consummation of the wedding of the snake". 
• Fined for Indecency in Baltimore -- here.

• She was also known for her 1/2-n-1/2 dance -- half man, half woman.

• Zorita was in 1949's I MARRIED A SAVAGE -- here's an excerpt from the film synopsis on the Turner Classic Movie site  Alas, no copy for sale, but see the You tube video below -- weird wild stuff!!!
  

  "... Zorita is trying to avoid marriage to a tribal chief, but after she performs a sacred marriage dance with a python, she and Morgan realize that they love each other and escape from the village. On a beach, they build a fire, which is seen by a passing freighter. After the freighter picks them up, they are married by the ship's captain. However, Zorita has insisted on bringing her sacred snake along and, as the captain will not permit it in the cabin, she spends most of her honeymoon keeping the snake company in the ship's hold. When they arrive in New York, Morgan has trouble finding a place to stay because of the python and starts drinking. Eventually, an ex-circus performer, who does not mind snakes, lets them stay in his rooming house. Zorita warns Morgan, who has a deep-rooted fear of snakes, that if any harm should befall the sacred snake, they will suffer a horrible fate. Morgan visits a theatrical agent who is unable to find work for him, but offers to book Zorita and her snake dance at fifteen hundred dollars per week. Morgan gets drunk and returns to Zorita with the news, but she refuses to perform their sacred, ritual love dance for other people, saying that it is like asking her to go with other men. Zorita then runs away and Morgan searches for her. Later in the apartment, Morgan finds Zorita dead, her body ravaged by knife wounds. Back in the prison, Morgan tells the reporter that he vaguely remembers a policeman yanking a knife out of his hand but states that he is puzzled by what had transpired. He swears that he thought he was killing the snake as it was destroying his marriage, but when the room was searched there was no sign of it. ..."

  
  
 

 Buy Zorita gift items here: http://www.zazzle.com/burlesquebabes/zorita+gifts

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New York's Harmony Theatre aka Melody Burlesk Theater ~ Burlesque History

The Harmony Theatre

New York's Harmony Theatre, (previously known as the Melody Burlesk) was considered one of the greatest and most titillating burlesque theaters of its time. Located at Broadway and 48th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s and early '90s, the Harmony Theatre paid tribute to the old traditions of striptease.

From its Times Square location, featuring a T-shaped runway, complete nudity, and well known strippers and porn stars headlining each show, the Harmony was the essence of burlesque, where exotic dancing combined golden era burlesque with more sexually explicit routines.

The Harmony Theatre entertained, enchanted, and excited patrons from all over New York City. One of the longest-running strip establishments in the area, it was closed down in the early 90s during Mayor Giuliani's raid against sex in Times Square.

The Harmony Theatre lives on in the collections of Museum of Sex, where a number of artifacts that include raunchy and provocative photographs, original signage and promotional materials, as well as costumes literally drenched with the sweat of the dancers, are included in the collection.

[Please note: The Harmony Theatre Collection is not currently on view.]

I could not for the life of me find a photo online of the old Harmony or Melody Burlesk theatres.

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Burlesque Stripper Miss White Fury and Her Twin 44s ~ aka Patti Kelly / Patti Moses ~ Vintage Photos

Miss White Fury ~ tassel twirling was her specialty!

 THE CYCLONE OF MOTION
 WHITE FURY AND HER TWIN 44s!

• According to BURLESQUEHISTORY.COM:

"Miss White Fury— aka Patti Kelly, but she was usually billed as “Miss White Fury and her Twin 44’s.” Her parents, Rusty and Dusty Farnham worked in Vaudeville and early radio. “Miss White Fury” performed all over the country in theaters and clubs from 1953 to 1983. Coralie Jr. was her agent, and tassel twirling was her specialty."

• See her today: Miss White Fury appears in the new Burlesque history documentary film Behind the Burly Q. 

Interviewees include: "White Fury – who painted herself with buckets of paint and lit her tassels on fire." [Source]

"Miss White Fury, camera shy Blaze Starr (Governor Earl Long's mistress) and Tempest Storm (“Teaserama.” 1955 with Bettie Page) contribute poignant stories of life on the road. Economic hardships of the depression motivated many of these performance pioneers, in an era  before Woman's Lib." [Source]

“White Fury, The Girl With the Twin .44s” did a flaming tassel dance that, in one ill-starred rehearsal, burned off her eyebrows. [Source]

• See more promo photos on the Burleskateer blog, where the author tells us Miss White Fury was also known as Patti Moses.

There She Is -- On the Cover!

She's profiled in, and on the cover of, Jane Briggeman's Burlesque: A Living History [Amazon]

I remember, in the late 50s, all those burlesque joints down there. Big neon signs “Appearing Now! White Fury and Her Twin 44s!” And there’s a twenty foot high cardboard blonde with huge breasts staring down at you. -- Tom Russell

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Lady Zorro Sexy Burlesque Stripper Vintage Photos

Her real name was Sheila Alberta Bowater.

Get by with a little help from my friends...

A reader kindly posted a helpful comment to my original bio-less Lady Zorro post.


Here's the comment that led me to find out a little about Lady Zorro's hard life. On October 11, 2009, Alex wrote:

"... John Waters mentions a dancer named Zorro on page 75 of his book, Crackpot. He writes,"She'd stomp around the stage naked after removing her cape and mast, sneer at the audience with pure contempt, and snarl, 'What are you lookin' at?'
Could it be the same lady? ..."

John Waters goes on to compare Lady Zorro's looks to ruggedly-handsome actor Victor Mature. After seeing their photos side-by-side, I'd have to say he's right -- and that there must have been only one Lady Zorro!

Here are some quotes from John Water's book, CRACKPOT, which was reissued in 2003 with updates from the author. Sadly, he informs us that Lady Zorro is no longer with us. I hope her daughter does write the book that John encouraged her to write.

You can read some pages of CRACKPOT on google-books here.

In the NY Times review of John Water's 2010 memoir ROLE MODELS, Tom Carson writes:

An initially sprightly tour of Baltimore’s dive bars (“the good ones have no irony about them”) sets up reminiscences of two local legends: a lesbian stripper who styled herself Lady Zorro and a Native American named Esther Martin, who ran a derelicts’ bar called the Wigwam “like an iron-fisted Elaine’s.” But then both women’s grown children tell him about their upbringings, packed with hair-­raising episodes of selfishness, booze, abuse and neglect.

From reviews for the John Waters book ROLE MODELS:

Waters also talks about personalities from his hometown of Baltimore. One of them was the stripper known as Lady Zorro, whom he describes as "[having] a real rage she brought to the stage, which added a demented hostile sex appeal. An angry stripper with a history of physical and sexual abuse with a great body and the face of a man. Now there's a lethal combination...Zorro was so butch, so scary, so Johnny Cash. No actual stripping for her at that point [at the end of her burlesque career]; she just came out nude and snarled at her fans, 'What the f*** are you looking at?'".

You can find the book on Amazon -- be sure to click the Look Inside link to read the chapter on Lady Zorro (page screen shots below). -- Role Models / Amazon

She's been around the block...

Here's Lady Zorro's obituary, from the Baltimore Sun, 2-08-2001:

Sheila A. Bowater, 63, dancer on The Block

Sheila Alberta Bowater, who danced at clubs on The Block, died Feb. 1 of cancer at her daughter's home in Tigard, Ore. She was 63 and had lived in Charles Village for nearly 40 years until moving to Oregon in 1999.

Appearing as Lady Zorro and attired in a mask, cape and a wide-brimmed hat, she danced at the Oasis and the Two O'Clock Club on The Block beginning in the early 1960s.

"She was the friend of the great names on The Block -- Blaze Starr, Pam Gail and Julius Salisbury," said her daughter, Eileen Carrico Murche. "All the people on The Block knew her. When the clubs closed, her friends came back to our house to continue the party."

Before retiring in the 1970s, Miss Bowater appeared in Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., and in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and London.

In retirement, she and friends followed the Maryland thoroughbred racing circuit. She also prepared meals for elderly neighbors in the 300 block of E. 28th St., where she resided.

More info tidbits from John Waters including a bizarre photo of Lady Zorro in her later years.

More memories of Baltimore's The Block -- here -- and here.

THE BLOCK, circa 1961 [Source]

Baltimore's Gaiety Burlesk sign with the kicking girl. 

See some great Lady Zorro gifts in my Burlesque Babes Zazzle shop. 

[Note: You need to set Zazzle's content filter to OFF to see these adult themed items. The link for that is in the left hand navigation column of my Zazzle store.]

The Burlesque Babes Blog is published by burlesquebabesshop.com

Bubbles Darlene - The Burlesque Stripper Dancer Who Even Shocked Havana

She was billed as the World's Most Exciting Body.

Streetswing's page on Bubbles says:

• Bubbles started her career at Chicago's Rialto Theatre ... she was also billed as "The Dancer That Shocked Havana".
• She also performed as Vikina and Sheri Darlene.

• Bubbles had photo spreads in several men's magazines.
• Pix from my archives.

Javas Bachelor Pad has this great essay up on their page:

• "The Off-Stage Shenanigans of Strippers" by Franklin L. Thistle from AdamVol. 3 No. 8, February 1959
• It tells about Bubbles' Havana escapade that made her "The Dancer That Shocked Havana":

"Bubbles casually strolled along busy downtown Prado boulevard wearing only a transparent raincoat. Police booked her on the charge of indecent exposure... That evening when Bubbles showed up for work, the club was jammed and people were lined up for blocks waiting to get in."

She's also pictured in the book Pictorial History of Burlesque from A to Z.

• Received this email from a fan of Bubbles Darlene who knew her 'back in the day' - thanks Harold, for writing in and sharing your memory:

"... my name is harold / age 79 / time span-1944 to 1950- lived at 18th and maple-louisville,ky-across the street was the club neon - during that time various burlesque appeared - one was bubbles darlene - she visited our store daily for cokes snick snack.  i was 16, my three brothers, what a thrill see bubbles every day and she was wonderful to us ..."

"... we visited cuba 12/05 and we learned on the famous dance-brought back good me memories, a most wonderful summer-like a movie... i had heard that bubbles is deceased - if not is there a current name and address - it would bewonderfull to tell somone what a beautiful-gracious lady was to us." regards harold

Check out these fun Burlesque-themed books and videos available thru Amazon. Also find Burlesque Kindle E-Books.