“The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque,” Fannie Belle Fleming, d/b/a burlesque performer Blaze Starr, has passed away, reports AP Online. She was 83.
Starr was known for a few things, aside from her performances: an alleged affair with former Louisiana governor Earl K. Long; her influence on the culture of the cities of Baltimore and New Orleans; and, interestingly, her influence on filmmaker John Waters, who said he used to watch her shows as a teenager.
“She would lie on this bench and papier-mache flames would shoot up between her legs. Other boys my age were at football games and the Orioles and the Colts, but I was thinking about Blaze Starr, and not in an erotic way, either,” Waters told The Associated Press on Monday. “Just from a showbiz point of view, I respected her deeply.”
He said she was “never tawdry” and was able to build a diverse fan base.
“She had a sense of humor, and she turned what was once thought of as a negative career, being a stripper, into a class act in a weird way,” Waters said. “No one looked down on Blaze Starr.”
I uncovered vintage footage of one of Starr’s performances from the 50s—according to AP Online’s report, she was also involved in comedy later in her career—which you can watch below.
