Dancing up a Storm

By Jerry Fink

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 | 5:32 a.m.

Burlesque queen and pinup star Tempest Storm is 76 years old and still stripping.

"Gravity hasn't gotten me yet," Storm, who is busy writing her autobiography and working on a movie about her life, said during a recent telephone interview from her home near Palm Springs, Calif.

The icon of the '50s and '60s burlesque circuit notes that she weighs 105 pounds and is a 38D (down slightly from 38DD in her younger years).

Storm (who legally changed her name from Annie Blanche Banks in 1957) was a frequent Vegas headliner during the heyday of her career. In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Sun, she said she is planning to move to Las Vegas in the near future so that she can "be where the action is."

She says she would like to find a showroom here where she can once again be a major attraction.

Storm will be in inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame at the Tropicana at 2 p.m. today, along with Debbie Reynolds, Ben Vereen, Jack Jones, Patti Page and Sheena Easton.

Las Vegas Sun: Where does your story begin?

Tempest Storm: I was born in Eastman, Ga., into a dirt-poor sharecropper family. It was very tough. I had an abusive stepfather. When I was 13 I was raped by a sheriff's son and four other boys. I didn't know if I was going to be killed or what.

I had one friend, but my parents thought she was not a nice girl. They thought she was a wayward girl, so Mom didn't want me to socialize with her.

I was so overdeveloped that when I got up in front of the class to talk the kids laughed at me. I was pretty large. It was embarrassing. I used to get these special bras to hold me down, so it wouldn't be so obvious, but there was not much you could do about it.

I didn't realize then that the size was going to be my best weapon.

Anyway, I decided I had to get out of that place, so I ran away from home when I was 14. I only went to the seventh grade.

Sun: What was your plan?

TS: I had this idea that I wanted to be in show business. There was a small theater in Eastman and I used to go to the movies a lot. From the movies, I decided I wanted to be in show business.

Sun: When you ran away, where did you go?

TS: I got a job as a waitress in Eastman and lived in a rooming house. A woman who lived above the cafe said she had a son coming home on furlough and she introduced me. He was 30. I was only 14. We got married almost immediately, but it only lasted one night. The marriage was annulled and I went back home for a few days and then worked my way up to Macon, Ga., doing waitress jobs.

I worked there for awhile, then moved to Columbus, Ga. -- always working my way up to bigger cities. I was working my way up to get to California. In Columbus (Ohio) I went to work in a hosiery mill, inspecting nylons. One of my friends said she had a brother who was a paratrooper who was going to be home on leave. We started going out and pretty soon got married. The marriage only lasted two weeks.

Sun: Why?

TS: I decided it wasn't going to get me into show business. I still had this dream.

I quit the job at the mill and went back to being a waitress. I was 16 by now. I met a gentleman, a very good-looking man, who said he was going to California and asked me to go with him.

We never had a relationship. When we got to California he dropped me off at his parents' house and then he had to go back to Georgia on business.

I got a job at Simon's Drive-In restaurant. After work, late at night, I used to go out with the boss and a couple of girls to a coffee shop to chat for a couple of hours. One night I didn't get home until 4 in the morning and this man who brought me to California came back unexpectedly from Georgia. He accused me of sleeping with a lot of men and threw me on the bed and tried to shove his fist down my throat.

I knew he had a gun so when he said, "I'm going to kill you," I got up enough strength to kick him off me and run out the door. As I was running I heard the gun click -- it misfired.

Sun: What did you do then?

TS: I started working as a cocktail waitress at Huntington Park, Calif., until one day this gentleman came in and said, "You should be in show business." He knew Lillian Hunter, who managed the Folies Theater, a burlesque house, and he told me to go down and meet her because she was hiring some new strippers.

I said I didn't think I could take off my clothes in front of a lot of men and I got cold feet. But he told me to start in the chorus line.

So I started in the chorus line making $40 a week. Strippers were making $60 a week, so a month later I started stripping. But it was not really exposing yourself. It was risque, sexy and sensuous, but not vulgar. If we did what the girls do today, we'd be tarred and feathered.

Sun: How did you learn the trade?

TS: Lillian Hunter taught me everything she knew, but then she said, "I can give you a routine, but you have to develop it."

And she gave me a good piece of advice. She said, "If you want to become a big star you can't go carousing at night and drinking and doing drugs. None of that mixes with a career. It's your choice."

I was too hung up on getting my career started, so I wasn't that much of a party girl. I worked hard.

Sun: What launched your career?

TS: In 1951 the Academy Awards were getting stuffy and so a writer with the Los Angeles Mirror by the name of Dick Williams decided to make fun of the ceremony with a mock one at Barney's Beanery. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis escorted me. The next day there was a picture of me between Dean and Jerry on the front page of the paper -- that started my career.

Sun: Where did you go from the Folies?

TS: Lillian sent me to the El Rey Theatre in Oakland, Calif., as the headliner. (San Francisco columnist) Herb Caen wrote about me. He was really an angel. He helped me way up the ladder. I got quite a bit of publicity.

Sun: After El Rey, where did you go?

TS: Then I started touring the burlesque circuit. There were a lot of theaters back in the early '50s. I traveled all over.

I was living the glamorous life. All my dreams came true. The first time my mother saw me perform was at a nightclub in Atlanta. She thought it was beautiful. She thought it was very classy.

Sun: When did you first perform in Vegas?

TS: In 1951, at the Embassy, a small club in North Las Vegas. I didn't have a big name at that time. The boss said all the girls had to mix with the customers, but I refused. He didn't fire me, and from then on I always put it in my contracts that I didn't mix with the customers.

The first time I played a major Vegas hotel was at the Dunes in '57 in the "Minsky Follies." I headlined that show two or three different times. It was absolutely great. I remember Las Vegas before it became another New York City. I have many fond memories -- many love affairs started there, many ended there.

Sun: How do you keep busy these days?

TS: I'm still out there performing.

Sun: Where?

TS: A couple of years ago I was at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco. They have different rooms there -- one special room they put me in.

Sun: How do you do it?

TS: I have not abused my body. Some of the girls who started when I did can't believe it. I have a great attitude about life. I don't think about it, I don't worry about it. I see myself as still the way I was.

I weigh myself every morning. I walk a lot and I have an exercise routine. I watch everything that goes in my mouth -- no sweets, white bread or pasta. Only steamed vegetables and fish or chicken.

Sun: Any regrets?

TS: I don't have any regrets -- except that I regret a lot of things I didn't do. I've been fortunate, blessed. Luck kisses some people, and I've had a whole lot of kisses in my life.