Stella (Bette Midler) is a feisty single good time gal working in a
bar when she meets and falls for the suave charms of the young Dr. Steve
Dallas (Stephen Collins ). Although from opposite ends of the social
spectrum they start an affair resulting in Stella becoming pregnant.
After he proposes half heartedly she rejects him and embarks upon
raising their child Jenny as a single mother but is always helped and
encouraged by her stalwart friend, a local good natured barfly, Ed Munn
(John Goodman). Stella is fiercely independent and proud and is
determined to do well by this child and take on whatever jobs she must
to raise her daughter properly. When Jenny is 4 years old her father
suddenly re appears on the scene and is determined to get to know his
daughter. At first reluctant to allow this Stella is persuaded to allow
contact and a happy bond develops between the father and daughter. As
Jenny ( Trini Alvarado) grows up she becomes torn between her fathers
rich and well connected background and her loyalty and love for her
mother who is poor and crass and vulgar but devoted to her daughter. She
also despises the perceived relationship she sees developing between
Stella and Ed Munn who is now a broken alcoholic. Jenny eventually meets
and falls for a boy from her fathers 'world' and Stella realizes that
now the disparities in her own and and Jennys father's backgrounds might
jeopardize her daughters future happiness. So she makes a heart rending
decision played out in the last 10 minutes of the film to ensure that
this is not going to happen.
Audrey Landers is an accomplished actress, singer, writer, composer
and producer. She is best known to fans all over the world for her
memorable role as Afton Cooper for eight years on ‘Dallas’, her
controversial Playboy pictorial, with her clothes on, and hundreds of
television gigs in the 1980s and 1990s. However, she has been somewhat
under the radar in the United States over the past few years, raising
her teenage twin boys, managing and producing her son Daniel Landers’
music career and continuing to be a record-breaking singer/songwriter in
Europe, recording and performing in several languages. Audrey began her acting career at the age of 9, when she starred in
her first community theater musical, and continued acting and singing in
community theater shows in New York State. Music was always a passion,
and Landers began writing poetry and songs at a very young age. Landers
was first noticed with a country song that she wrote and performed at
the age of twelve, which led to a Nashville recording contract with Epic
Records, a performance on ‘The Merv Griffin Show,’ and a year-long role
on the daytime drama,’The Secret Storm.’ As a singer and composer, Landers has earned 10 gold singles, 4 gold
albums and 2 platinum albums. Most are pop and disco records. Some of
her biggest hits are "Manuel Goodbye", "Playa Blanca", and "Jim, Jeff
& Johnny". Her multilingual, mostly German, world records include
duets with renowned German singer Bernhard Brink, ‘Heute Habe Ich an
Dich Gedacht’ and ‘Mi Amor’ with Camilo Sesto. Her albums released in
Europe from 2006 through 2011 are also in several languages. Audrey has
been guiding the career of her teenage son, Daniel Landers, who, is
already an accomplished songwriter, singer and performer.
Now she is back in the United States spotlight, successfully building
a fashion business. Keeping it all in the family, her mother Ruth
Landers has managed and produced Audrey's career for over 30 years and
continuing their long-standing business partnership. Audrey and Ruth
have co-created Landers STAR Collection, a line of glamorous fashion and
accessories. As a teen, Audrey studied music at the Juilliard School in
New York while majoring in psychology at Columbia University and
starring in the daytime drama 'Somerset’. She literally grew up in front
of the camera and on stage. Throughout her career, she has continued to perform live shows in
Europe, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, headlining with Billy Crystal and
Rich Little, among many others. While working in the United States, she
was breaking records in Europe as a singer and composer. She has earned
10 gold singles, four gold albums and two platinum albums. Her most
recent album was released in Europe in September 2010. In 1995 with
toddler boys at home, Audrey wrote 47 episodes, 250 original songs and
performed in the children's series, ‘Huggabug Club’, produced by Ruth,
which aired on PBS for five years and continues to run on other
stations. In 2006, Audrey co-wrote and directed ‘Circus Island’, a full-length
feature film, produced by Ruth Landers. It was a family adventure in
more ways than one! Landers has been married to businessman Donald
Berkowitz since 1988 and they have twin teenage boys. Their family also
includes two dogs rescued from shelters.
AM: Audrey, before we talk about anything else can you share a little about Larry Hagman? AL: We are all so sad about Larry's passing. Larry had a way of
making the world see him as, somehow, invincible. He will be missed, but
he will be in our hearts forever. He was always bigger than life and
now his spirit will live on. I have wonderful memories of working with
him, and I am so fortunate to have been a part of a show that is pop
culture history and ‘Dallas’ is legendary because of Larry's iconic JR
Ewing. I found this photo from a couple of years ago. It's my son,
Daniel; Larry; my mom, Ruth; and me. I'm so happy that my son had the
opportunity to meet Larry, and to spend some time with him. I know it is
an experience he will treasure.
photo courtesy of Audrey Landers
AM: That’s a beautiful tribute. Speaking of Daniel, I know you left
Los Angeles when your boys were about six years old. Was that so you
could raise them in a more normal environment? AL: I was fortunate that I grew up with a small town upbringing,
even though it was outside of New York City. I still had more home-spun
values with a slower paced childhood. I really wanted that for my
boys. I had been in show business since I was a child and I felt this
was a really important chapter of my life and I really wanted to devote
myself to it. So my sister and Mom and I all sold our houses in Beverly
Hills and bought three new houses in Florida. AM: Did you want to live in Florida? AL: I have to tell you that Florida was not even in my vocabulary.
I thought it was a retirement center! At the time we were doing the
children television series ‘Huggabug Club.’ My Mom produced it. We did
fifty half hours and I wrote 250 original songs. I even edited the
series! AM: The show is available for download at amazon.com AL: Oddly enough, even though we were living in LA we filmed the
show on the west coast of Florida. It was because of an arrangement we
made with the public television station there. AM: Did you fall in love with the area and want to move there? AL: I did not fall in love with living there, but a couple years
later we produced a Live Children’s Show that toured the States.
Sarasota has a big performing Arts Center and asked if we would come do
the show there, so we did. As soon as we got there, we fell in love
with it. Within three months we all moved. AM: Your husband moved there too? AL: My husband and I have been together for a lot of years, but his
business in is New York and it always has been. The LA, New York thing
was difficult, but we did it for many years. Florida is at least the
same time zone and only a two and a half hour flight. Although I grew
up in the New York area, it wasn’t something I wanted to go back to. It
works for us.
AM: Do you go see him more or does he come see you? AL: When the kids started school he made the effort to come down
every weekend. We would go there for every vacation and for the three
months in the summer. We really have two homes. It’s like having the
best of both worlds. AM: When did you meet your husband? AL: We met in 1983 when I started 'Dallas,’ so it’s going on a long time. AM: ‘Dallas’ is probably how most people know you best isn’t it? AL: Yes it seems to be. AM: Now the new version wants to bring you back, don’t they? AL: Yes, it’s official now. TNT will make the announcement when
they are ready. We have been talking. I don’t know the extent of how
much I will be doing. The original cast isn’t as involved with this
show. AM: I really want to see you on there. The fans want you back too! AL: It will be awesome. The subject is crazy on twitter. One of
the young characters on the show is named Rebecca and the diehard fans
were asking if it was the little girl that Afton had named Pamela
Rebecca. Is this the same character? On the last show of the first
season we found out that Cliff Barnes is her father, so everyone figured
it out that Afton must be the mother. The producers confirmed that
Afton is the mother! They are in touch with my agent. It’s very
exciting for me. AM: I love how the producers of the original show overheard you
playing piano and singing on a break one day so Afton got to be a
singer. How perfect was that? AL: It was perfect! It was amazing because I had been writing music and recording since my early teens.
AM: You even went to Juilliard music school, didn’t you? AL: I did, I went to Barnard Columbia and I studied music at Juilliard. AM: That means you have real talent. You don’t just go to Juilliard. AL: No and you know what’s really exciting in this new chapter of my
life is my son Daniel is going to the University of Miami in the Frost
School of Music, which is a very prestigious music school. They’ve
asked me to come and do a lecture series that I’m starting in a couple
of weeks. AM: You write most of your music don’t you? AL: I do, most of the original songs I record I have written or co-written. AM: You’re an amazing songwriter! AL: I was writing and singing since I was a young teenager and I was
on soap operas in New York and then the big one, ‘Dallas’ and I played a
singer in all the shows. One day I got the script and saw that I was
singing and playing a guitar in two days. My Mom said I guess we better
get you a guitar. So then I had to learn two chords and write a song.
On ‘Dallas’ I wrote all the songs that Afton sang. AM: I know you wrote the songs as if you were the character of
Afton. Is there a difference in writing from a character point of view
than if you were writing as you? AL: There is a difference. I had guidelines. I knew the songs
would have to have a Country flavor. I would write based on whatever
the character was going through. AM: You’ve had great success in Europe, particularly Germany, with
your romantic pop songs. Why do you think the Europeans like your music
so much? AL: When I was on ‘Dallas’ this German producer named Jack White
was living in LA. He had just had a monster hit with Laura Branigan
called 'Gloria.’ He enticed me to record for the European market. I
got signed to a German record label. We worked over the phone mostly.
He told me he wanted me to write a song called ‘Manuel Good-bye’ and I
thought, “WHAT!?!” This was my first experience with European music.
Then he told me it should be about a boy saying good-bye to his father
as he goes on a fishing trip! Then I told him I couldn’t write that
because I can’t sing it from my heart. I don’t want to tell a story
about a fisherman. So he told me to write about what I wanted, just
make that the title so I wrote 'Manuel Good-bye’ about saying good-bye
to a lover, within the guidelines he gave me. We recorded it and it
became a smash hit selling six million copies. AM: Did you know it was going to be a hit? AL: The style was always what was commercially viable for those
markets. The record label was very specific because they knew what
they were doing and they were right. I couldn’t really argue with them
but there comes a point as an artist when you say to yourself, “Wait a
minute, I’m an artist.” AM: Did you write songs you couldn’t relate to that well? AL: I didn’t always have my heart in those songs. I was happy to do
them because it was such a challenge to write within those guidelines.
It was an amazing career and a tremendous learning experience. The
record company was so happy and telling me how great my songs were. I
got these platinum albums, but from an American point of view it they
never seemed that great to me. AM: Do you perform these days? AL: I really don’t except when I go to Europe which is quite often.
I’ll go and perform at a gigantic New Year’s Eve Special that will be
televised in nine countries. AM: I saw you and Daniel performing 'One Star’ together on Youtube. AL: That was a German hit that I wrote English lyrics for. It was a
great experience for Daniel but it’s not his genre. While I appreciate
all the compliments about my songwriting, he is an amazing songwriter.
He started writing about the same age that I did and I groomed him and
became a harsh critic along the way. I’ve helped him to hone his skills
and now at age nineteen there’s not much else I can do. I can’t help
him anymore. He’s at a whole other level. AM: You must be so proud of him. AL: I am. I’m very close to both my boys and I relate to each one
of them very deeply, but in very different parts of their beings. Adam
is the scholar and athlete. I was an academic nut as well. Both of my
boys are, but I relate to Adam on other levels. I understand Daniel’s
passion for his creativity. I understand his need to create and perform
and have people hear his songs. That is a part of the soul that you
just can’t change. I tried. (laughter) I moved away from LA so my kids
would not be near show business and it didn’t work. I remember when we
were doing the ‘Huggabug Club’ and Daniel was four years old backstage
with my Mom, while I had the cast of kids that are like twelve years old
on the stage. Daniel ran on stage and knew every word to every song
and every step to the choreography. I said to myself, “Well I guess I
have to let him be in this show.” I didn’t have a choice. He learned
everything. He knew that’s what he needed to do. AM: What a blessing. AL: I had both of my boys there and afterward I gave Adam the same opportunity to be on stage. It was not his thing.
AM: Let’s talk about the ‘A Chorus Line’ movie! I remember when
they announced you in the cast. I was so excited! You have the best
part in the whole show! If you don’t remember anything else about the
movie, you remember your part! AL: (laughter) Oh thank you. It was pretty risqué. AM: I wondered how you felt about that since you’re not the most risqué person. AL: No I’m not. There’s one F word in the whole movie and I get to
say it. I had to stand in front of the mirror and say it and say it and
say it so it would come out naturally on camera. Of course having kids
now it comes out a lot more easily! (much laughter) But anyway when
‘A Chorus Line’ was first casting they were not considering me. The
director Richard Attenborough wanted to keep the original concept of no
one person standing out from the chorus line. AM: That makes sense. AL: It was filmed during the time I was on ‘Dallas’ so people knew
who I was. I was in Europe with my Mom every two weeks since I had the
recording career going on over there. AM: Every two weeks!?! AL: We would get on a plane every other Friday night and fly to
Munich or Paris or wherever we had to go for eleven hours straight and
arrive at the airport in the morning to do press and videos and I’d have
to rehearse for a TV show I was doing that night and the next day do a
concert and fly back the next day. One weekend I had a show at the Palm
Beach Casino in Cannes, France. Afterwards we were whisked away to a
gold record presentation in a castle. It was a different world. AM: I can’t even imagine... AL: Mom and I didn’t sleep all night and the next day we got on the
Concord to New York and from there I would head back to LA since Mom’s
office was in New York. I had a four hour layover and Mom checked her
messages when we heard they wanted me to audition. AM: Had you seen the show on Broadway? AL: I was probably the only person who had never seen ‘A Chorus
Line.’ We found the cassette at a kiosk in the airport so I listened to
the music in the car on the way to the audition. I sang the song for
Sir Richard Attenborough and he thought it was great. Then he told me
he had the seventeen finest dancers in the world and for me to meet the
choreographer. I told him I was so honored but I am not a dancer on
that level. So thank you so much, but I have a plane to catch. He
still wanted me to meet the choreographer. So I walked the few blocks
to the rehearsal studio and there was the cast, in the line with a space
where Val would be. They had been rehearsing for two months already.
The choreographer called a break and they all sat in a corner smoking
and giving me the evil eye. Again I told the choreographer that I was
not that kind of dancer. AM: You had done a little dancing hadn’t you? AL: I can dance a little. I had a Vegas act and did a show in
Atlantic City but whenever I danced I just did what I could do. He
asked me to do my interpretation of the song so I did it the way I
thought she would and that is almost exactly what you see on the screen.
I was so relieved when I was done. I left as quickly as I could and
got in the car to go back to the airport. I called my Mom and told her I
was making it back to the airport in time for my flight and she asked
if I had gotten any of the messages she left for me. Remember there
were no cell phones back then. When I told her, “No” She said, “You got
the part. Don’t get on that plane.” AM: What did you do? AL: I stayed in New York for the next five months. On the first day
of rehearsal Attenborough told me he understood how I felt and he would
get me a double. I said, “What!?! I’m in the ultimate dance movie and
you want me to have a double? I don’t think so!”
AM: Did you have to rehearse all the time? AL: Dance rehearsal for the cast went from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm every
day. I came in at 6:00 am with a private coach until 9:00 and then
danced all day took a break from 5:00 to 6:00 and then rehearsed some
more until 9:00 pm with another coach so that I could get up to speed or
at least blend in. I was really proud of what I did. AM: Aren’t you just thrilled to be in that film? AL: I am now. I really am. It was a hard film to make. Especially
then. It was the first of it’s kind. Even then it had a cult
following from the Broadway show. Some people were against making this
Broadway show into a film. Since then we have ‘Chicago’ and some
others. AM: You got great reviews. AL: I was very excited about it. I was so proud to have been a part of all that. AM: Audrey your relationship with your Mom is legendary. Have you always gotten along? AL: My Mom and I are really friends. My sister and I are friends
too. We were much closer when we were younger and first starting in the
business. Now she has two daughters and her life is very busy with the
girls. We all live within a mile of each other. My Mom and I have
several businesses together. We have a fashion collection we started in
2008. AM: So you pulled back from show business on purpose. AL: I did. AM: Now you want to return. AL: I do. AM: I think you will be welcomed back. AL: I hope so but if not at least I am happy. I do a lot of things
and I’m fortunate that I don’t “need” it. I love the creativity but I
have other outlets. AM: So you’ve never had a life of leisure. AL: I don’t know how to do that. That was the idea when we moved to
Florida but it didn’t happen. The first thing we did was fall in love
with a peaceful lifestyle. Then Mom and I thought nobody has ever shot a
film here. Mom had produced some films in LA and I had written some.
So we quickly went to work and wrote a screenplay called 'Circus
Island.’ It’s a cute, wonderful family film. It didn’t get the
recognition it could have but it was an exciting little film. So that
was our first foray into retirement! AM: Somehow I don’t think you will ever know retirement.
AL: It’s because we love what we do. Also Mom and I started a real
estate business when the market was really depressed so we bought condos
that were on foreclosure and we completely refurbished and redesigned
them for rent. AM: Who is stronger at business? AL: My Mom is the business person. She is my inspiration. She
wakes up at 4:30 every morning and studies the world market. She does
all her financial trades the moment the morning bell rings. She’s
almost like a gambler in a casino, except she does all the research and
she has a number she wants to hit every day. She makes money every
single day. She’s the most brilliant business woman. I don’t
understand how she does it. She studies what is happened the night
before and uses her intuition.
AM: How did you end up in ‘Bachelor Party 2?’ AL: I took Daniel to meet this casting director in Miami that I knew
from a long time ago and she asked me if I would consider being in a
little film she was casting. I read the script and it was so raunchy!
I thought I have never played a character like this in my life. She is
a pill popping, martini slugging, potty mouthed socialite. It’s a
really silly movie. I asked my boys how they would feel if they see me
saying all these words on camera. I didn’t want to embarrass them.
They said, “Go for it!” So I did and it was a ton of fun! At the end
of the shoot the producers told me their series ‘Burn Notice’ was picked
up and asked if I would like to be in it? So they wrote a little part
for me in a few episodes. I hadn’t been trying for anything and they
handed me this part on a little silver tray. I said, “Thank you!” It
was fun and close to home. It was a nice experience. AM: I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from you again Audrey! AL: A few years ago people started asking me when I was going to
release the songs I sang on ‘Dallas’ and I said I have to do that so now
I’m going to finally do it and add some new songs. AM: So this will be a recording for the United States! AL: Yes, I am not focusing so much on Europe, though if it’s a hit
over there, then great! I’m trying to lure my son who is so talented to
do the tracks for me. AM: I think we’ll be seeing a lot of Daniel too. AL: Me too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. He’s working very hard.
She is the most talked about person on the planet. He is a fashion icon
and the cult presenter of "Eurotrash". She is the artist who claims the
right to be different. He is the first designer who launched non
standard models. They both are nonconformist and free artists. Lady Gaga
and Jean Paul Gaultier have so much in common value and career wise.
They admire each other but have never met. The Popstar has decided to
confide in the designer. They will be face to face in an enriching and
unforgettable interview to happen at Jean Paul Gaultier's fabulous
atelier in Paris. Lady Gaga will reminisce about her fulgurant career
and unveils secret backstage details : her particular relationship with
her fans, the absolute control she exercises on her image and business,
how deliberate provocation can become a marketing tool, her passionate
love for fashion and contemporary art, her ultimate ambition, meetings
that marked her life, her social and political commitments, etc. These
revelations will be illustrated by great archive footage on Lady gaga's
personal and intimate life, her first steps in New Yok's cabarets and
obviously her amazing performances in concert and shows around the
world. Gaga by Gaultier, the creator unveils the creature.
Regarded
as a burlesque icon, it has been said that no one has done more to
preserve the history and art of burlesque than Dixie Evans.
Dubbed "The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque" by Harold Minsky, Evans has
performed throughout the continent, including a successful run at the
Place Pigalle in Miami Beach from 1953-1968. She also appeared in the
Academy Award winning movie "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952.
Evans helped care for burlesque pioneer Jennie Lee, and moved out to
the desert to run the operations of the Exotic World museum. In 1991,
as a way to draw publicity to the museum, Dixie created the Miss Exotic
World pageant, now known as the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend.
Dixie currently resides in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. She is starting
a brand new venture with the "Dixie Evans Burlesque Show" this June,
incorporating the roots of burlesque in comedy, variety, and sexy
striptease.
She was born as Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky. Her grandparents, the Klarquists, reared her and her two show business sisters, Dardy Orlando and Barbara Moffett.
Having taken ballet lessons throughout her youth, she began to dance
professionally as a chorus line girl in Hollywood. Unlike other women
who have stroke-of-luck stories about being plucked from the chorus line
and selected for a feature role, St. Cyr had to beg her manager at the
club to let her do a solo act. From her self-choreographed act she
eventually landed a bit part at a club called the Music Box in San
Francisco, with an act called the Duncan Sisters.
It was here that she found a dancer's salary was only a small fraction
of what the featured star's salary was. The difference was that the
featured star was nude.
From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, St. Cyr with Gypsy Rose Lee and Ann Corio were the most recognized acts in striptease. St. Cyr's stage name is a patronymic of the French aristocracy, which she first used when booked as a nude performer in Las Vegas.
Although more obscure toward the end of her life, her name popped-up
regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over
her, and her attempted suicides.
St. Cyr was married six times. Her best-known husbands were the motorcycle speedway rider Cordy Milne, musical-comedy actor and former ballet dancer Paul Valentine, restaurateur Armando Orsini, and actor Ted Jordan.
Career
St. Cyr started her professional career as a chorus line dancer at the Florentine Gardens, in Hollywood.
Two years later, her stripping debut was at the Music Box, in an Ivan
Fehnova production. The producer had not even seen her perform—her
striking looks were what won him over. The act was a disaster. Instead
of firing her, Fehnova reconsidered and put together a new act. At the
end of the dance, a stagehand would pull a fishing rod attached to St.
Cyr's G-string. It would fly into the balcony and the lights would go
dim. This famous act was known as "The Flying G", and such creative
shows would be St. Cyr's trademark. Over the ensuing years and in a variety of different venues, many of
St. Cyr's acts were memorable, with names like "The Wolf Woman",
"Afternoon of a Faun", "The Ballet Dancer", "In a Persian Harem", "The
Chinese Virgin",
as well as "Suicide" (where she tried to woo a straying lover by
revealing her body), and "Jungle Goddess" (in which she appeared to make
love to a parrot).
Montreal
Lili St. Cyr received the title of the most famous woman in Montreal throughout the late 1940s into the 1950s.
However, Quebec's Catholic clergy condemned her act, declaring that
whenever she dances "the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of
sexual frenzy."
The clergy's outcry was echoed by the Public Morality Committee. St.
Cyr was arrested and charged with behavior that was "immoral, obscene
and indecent." She was acquitted but the public authorities eventually
closed down the Gayety Theatre where she performed.
In the 1980s, St. Cyr wrote a French autobiography, "Ma Vie de
Stripteaseuse." In the book, she declared her appreciation for the
Gayety Theatre and her love for the city of Montreal.
Hollywood: nightclubs, films and photographs
While performing at Ciro's in Hollywood (billed as the "Anatomic
Bomb"), St. Cyr was taken to court by a customer who considered her act
lewd and lascivious. In court, St. Cyr insisted to the jury that her act was refined and
elegant. As St. Cyr pointed out, what she did was slip off her dress,
try on a hat, slip off her brassiere (there was another underneath),
slip into a négligée. Then, undressing discreetly behind her maid, she
stepped into a bubble bath, splashed around, and emerged, more or less
dressed. After her appearance as a witness, as a newspaper account of
the time put it, "The defense rested, as did everyone else." St. Cyr was acquitted.
While St. Cyr starred in several movies, an acting career never really materialized. In 1955, with the help of Howard Hughes, St. Cyr landed her first acting job in a major motion picture in the Son of Sinbad. The film, described by one critic as "a voyeur's delight", has St. Cyr as a principal member of a Baghdad harem populated with dozens of nubile starlets. The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. St. Cyr also had a role in the movie version of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead in 1958.
In this film, St. Cyr plays 'Jersey Lili', a stripper in a Honolulu
night-club and girlfriend of a soldier who boasts to his pals that he
has her picture painted inside his groundsheet.
Regrettably, heavy edits of St. Cyr's night-club routine by censors
result in some choppy editing in an otherwise finely crafted film. But
St. Cyr's movie career was short lived, and typically she settled for
playing a secondary role as a stripper, or playing herself. Her dancing
is featured prominently in two Irving Klaw films, Varietease and Teaserama.
St. Cyr was also known for her pin-up photography, especially for photos taken by Bruno Bernard,
known professionally as "Bernard of Hollywood", a premier glamor
photographer of Hollywood's Golden Era. Bernard said that she was his
favorite model and referred to her as his muse.
Retirement
When St. Cyr retired from the stage she began a lingerie business in
which she would retain an interest until her death. Similar to Frederick's of Hollywood,
the "Undie World of Lili St. Cyr" designs offered costuming for
strippers, and excitement for ordinary women. Her catalogs featured
photos or drawings of her modeling each article, lavishly detailed
descriptions, and hand-selected fabrics. Her marketing for
"Scantie-Panties" advertised them as "perfect for street wear, stage or
photography." St. Cyr spent her final years in obscurity and in seclusion, tending to her cats.
Death
She died January 29, 1999 in Los Angeles under her birth name, "Willis Marie VanSchaack". She had borne no children in any of her marriages.
Legacy
After St. Cyr's death, with a renewed interest in burlesque, and especially in Bettie Page, legions of new fans began rediscovering some of the dancers in Irving Klaw's photos and movies. During this time, A&E devoted a special to burlesque in 2001 which included a piece on St. Cyr.
Influences and cultural references
St. Cyr is famously referenced in two different songs that were both
stage and movie musicals. In the song "Zip" from the 1940 musical Pal Joey by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart,
the singer (reporter/would-be stripper Melba Snyder) rhetorically asks
at the climax of the song "Who the hell is Lili St. Cyr?" [I.e., what
has she got that I don't have?]. Meanwhile, in the 1975 musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the final line of the song "Don't Dream It" (sung by the character Janet Weiss, as played by Susan Sarandon) is "God bless Lili St. Cyr!"
In 1981, actress Cassandra Peterson became famous for her character Elvira, who achieved her trademark cleavage wearing a Lili St. Cyr deep plunge bra.
In 1989, one of St. Cyr's husbands, Ted Jordan, wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe entitled Norma Jean: My Secret Life with Marilyn Monroe (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989), in which Jordan claims that St. Cyr and Monroe had a lesbian affair.
The claim is widely disparaged by Monroe biographers. Liza Dawson,
editor for William Morrow, publisher of the Jordan book, makes a more
credible claim in an interview with Newsday
in 1989. Dawson stated that "Marilyn very much patterned herself on
Lili St. Cyr—her way of dressing, of talking, her whole persona. Norma
Jean was a mousy, brown-haired girl with a high squeaky voice, and it
was from Lili St. Cyr that she learned how to become a sex goddess."
The song, "Lily Sincere" on the 2009 Kristeen Young album, Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker is an homage to Lili St. Cyr.
In 2010, Elvis Costello's title track of his album National Ransom mentions "And Millicent St. Cyr" in its introduction.
Filmography
Love Moods (1952)
Bedroom Fantasy (1953)
Striporama (1953)
Varietease (1954)
Teaserama (1955)
Son of Sinbad (1955)
Buxom Beautease (1956)
The Naked and the Dead (1958)
I, Mobster (1958)
Runaway Girl (1962)