LEGENDS
New Orleans was a burlesque hot-spot from the 1940s through the 1960s. Many striptease superstars called New Orleans home, while headlining nightclubs up and down Bourbon Street. Since 1994, Producer Rick Delaup has been extensively researching the exotic dancers who performed in the New Orleans French Quarter. Do you have something to contribute? Contact us!

Evangeline,
the Oyster Girl (Kitty West)
headlined Bourbon Street clubs in the late 1940s and '50s. Born into a poor Mississippi family, she was one of six children. Her father was a minister, and her mother was a cousin of Elvis Presley's father, Vernon. In 1947, at the age of sixteen, she left home and moved to New Orleans where she got work as a stripper. She headlined the Casino Royale as the Oyster Girl, an act in which she rose out of a giant oyster shell and danced with an oversized pearl. In 1949, she made the pages of LIFE Magazine for an impromptu catfight with Divena, the Aqua Tease. Kitty was promptly arrested. Taking her act one step further, she dyed her hair green to represent seaweed. In 2005, Kitty West's Bay St. Louis, Mississippi home was completely destroyed in Hurricane Katina. She is currently planning to re-create the Oyster Girl act with a new dancer.

Wild Cherry
was raised on the carnival circuit. With little education and limited opportunities, she began dancing in the girlie shows. While living in Tampa, Florida, she became fascinated by "The City That Never Sleeps" while listening to radio shows broadcast from New Orleans. Stories about the French Quarter, jazz music, and Mardi Gras enticed Cherry to move there in 1958. She got her first dancing job at the Mardi Gras Lounge. The club owner, Sid Davilla, gave her the stage name, "Torchy," after a character in the movie Mardi Gras, which was released that same year. Her main dance style was "oriental," which went into Afro-Cuban. Wild Cherry received her stage name because of her temperament and penchant for fighting and arguing. Cherry danced in clubs all over the French Quarter until her mid-forties when she decided to quit the business. She was married three times, twice to the same man. Today, she can be seen performing a comedic bit and signing autographs at the Bustout Burlesque show!



Kalantan,
the Heavenly Body
was the toast of New Orleans and Las Vegas nightclubs in the 1950s. She performed exotic interpretations of Afro-Cuban dance. Known for her "movements and sensational postures, both in facial expressions and love torturing designs," Kalantan performed in the Howard Hughes film, Son of Sinbad. Night Spot Magazine labeled her the "Most Photogenic Body of 1955." She was a feature at the 500 Club on Bourbon Street.


Tee Tee Red
began stripping at 17 after winning an amateur striptease contest. She became the protege of famous 1940s stripper Zorita. Tee Tee Red appeared briefly in the Jerry Lewis film, The Bellboy. Her character was a stripper named, Rock Candy. She spent three years performing on Bourbon Street at the 500 Club and Sho Bar. She called herself an acrobatic comedienne-contortionist. The red-headed rival of Blaze Starr, Tee Tee also caught the eye of Governor Earl Long, which Blaze mentioned in her 1974 autobiography. Tee Tee threw in the g-string one week shy of her 50 th birthday. She currently resides in the Miami area.


Tajmah,
Jewel of the Orient
began exotic dancing as a young teenager in 1956. Her mother was a cocktail waitress in the club. Tajmah's main style of dance was what was called at the time "interpretive oriental." At Ciro's nightclub, she also did a "Spider and the Virgin" act, which was touted in club ads as "the most unusual stage production ever seen." The Ciro's ad described the act thus: "monstrous spider casts a hypnotic spell over a bayou beauty." At 24, she married the club's drummer who was 17 years her senior. They had two children. In 2005, Tajmah's New Orleans home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and she relocated to Texas.





Lilly Christine,
the Cat Girl
was the top attraction on Bourbon Street beginning in the late 1940s. An incredibly talented beauty, she performed original routines such as the "cat dance," the "voodoo dance" and "harem heat" to the hypnotic beat of jungle drums. Christine appeared on the cover of hundreds of girlie magazines, and appeared in a few b-movies. She made a splash performing on Broadway in the 1950 Bert Lahr show Burlesque, followed by a featured role in Mike Todd's Peep Show and the 1956 show Strip For Action. Little is known about the enigmatic superstar of burlesque. She died mysteriously in 1965.

Linda Brigette, the Cupid Doll
was the last great Bourbon Street stripper from the glory days of burlesque. Born in Winnsboro, Louisiana, she wed at 13 and had a child at 14. Inspired by a Candy Barr performance in Baton Rouge, Linda became a stripper herself. In the late 1950s, she married a Bourbon Street club owner. After the death of Lilly Christine, Brigette took her spot as the featured attraction at the 500 Club. She was billed as "the Cupid Doll" and "America's Most Beautiful Exotic." Her act consisted of a striptease ending with seductive moves on a settee. At just under five feet tall, she was most noted for her enhanced breasts and big platinum blonde hair. Brigette's other acts included dancing in an oversized champagne glass, fire-eating, and using live animals (a monkey and a python) as props. In 1966, Brigette was busted on obscenity charges while performing "Dance of a Lover's Dream." Brigette made headlines when Governor John McKeithen granted her a pardon. In the late 1960s, Brigette married for a third time to her spotlight man in what was publicized as the first nude wedding ceremony. Her maid-of-honor was Morganna, a stripper who later became known as "The Kissing Bandit." Brigette was married for 18 years. Ravaged by alcoholism, she died penniless in 2004.

Jezebel (Suzanne Robbins)
originally from North Carolina, ran away to New Orleans at sixteen. During the 1950s and early 1960s, she was a featured attraction, dancing under the name Wildcat Frenchie and then Jezebel. As Jezebel, she headlined the Poodle's Patio, a club that was named after her pet poodles, which she dyed in different colors. Jezebel also claimed to be friendly with Governor Earl Long. Robbins lived in the French Quarter for 40 years until marrying a wealthy man, relocating to Tacoma, Washington and traveling the world. She passed away in 2006.