Tempest Storm is fuming. Her fingers tremble with frustration. They are aged, knotted by arthritis and speckled with purple spots under paper skin.
But the manicure of orange polish is new and flawless — and matches her signature tousled mane.
She brushes orange curls out of her face as she explains how she’s been slighted.
PHOTO: AP
She is the headliner, you know, a star. She is classy.
“I don’t just get up there and rip my clothes off,” she says.
Indeed, the 80-year-old burlesque queen takes off her clothes very slowly.
More than 50 years ago she was dubbed the “Girl with the Fabulous Front,” the “Best Two Props in Hollywood.”
Since then, Storm has seen the art that made her famous on the brink of extinction. Her contemporaries — Blaze Starr, Bettie Page, Lili St. Cyr — have died or hung up the pasties.
But not Storm. She kept performing. Las Vegas, Reno, Palm Springs, Miami, Carnegie Hall.
Her act is a time capsule, with her prop of choice a boa. It takes four numbers, she says adamantly, to get it all off right. To do it classy.
But the producers of tonight’s show, just kids, want it faster.
She gets just seven minutes.
“I did seven minutes when I started,” she complains.
They gave her trouble last year, too — cutting her music before she finished. Is it really time to quit, she wonders, but then quickly adds: “No, no. I’m not ready to hang up my G-string, yet. I’ve got too many fans that would be disappointed.”
Stardom and fandom feature prominently in Tempest Storm’s life — and in her neat, two-bedroom Las Vegas apartment.
Visitors are greeted by photos of a young Elvis Presley, her favorite rock ’n’ roller and, she says, a former lover.
The relationship ended after about a year because Elvis’ manager didn’t approve of him dating a stripper, she says. But she couldn’t change who she was. Stripping made her famous, put her on the same stage as Hollywood’s heavyweights — singers like Frank Sinatra, comedians like Mickey Rooney.
She dated some, just danced for others. The evidence is framed and displayed on tables and the living room wall: Storm and 1950s crooner Vic Damone; Storm teaching TV news anchor Walter Cronkite to dance; Storm and her fourth and last husband, Herb Jefferies, a star of black cowboy films who swept her off her feet in 1957 when such unions were instant scandals — they divorced in 1970.
“When I look at this picture I say, ‘What the hell happened between this gorgeous couple?’” Storm says.
The moment is brief.
Storm is rarely wistful. She has no doubt she still is what she once was. Although she performs just a few times a year, she would do more — if asked. She chides those who think age takes a toll on sex appeal.
“Ridiculous,” she says.
There are recent photos in the room, too: Storm and her daughter, a nurse in Indiana. Storm and her fiance, who died a few years ago.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
RSS