Burlesque vs. Strip-Tease—any Difference? Who was “Tempest Storm?”

I can hear my critics now, “Themer, what a topic about which to write! What made you think of those terms?”

My answer is that I heard of the “passing” of “Tempest Storm” and thought the name “rang a bell.” And, I was correct. She was legendary in the performance of burlesque and is/ was said to have blazed the modern path for strip-tease dancers for half a century or so and is a member of the Burlesque Hall of Fame. (I saw her on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was a boy!)

Burlesque defined…..“an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody; a variety show (including strip-tease)…..It is derived from the Italian word, burlesco, which is derived from the Italian, burla, which means a joke, ridicule, or mockery—overlapping in meaning with caricature, parody, and travesty and in a theatrical sense, an extravaganza.”

Strip-tease defined…..“an erotic or exotic act or dance, in which a person gradually removes his/her clothing piece-by-piece in a seductive or provocative manner, especially to the accompaniment of music.”

The debate persists concerning whether or not these are two differing things actually or just by connotation! Burlesque dancers insisted that what they did was artistic, skillful, and true entertainment, while they considered striptease dancers as merely performing to titillate!

Tempest Storm is/was one of the last of an important age, the Age of Burlesque, one of the bestknown and most highly regarded and an active part of the “burlesque community.”

Born 1928 in Georgia: She grew up “fast and hard” and at an early age quit school, married a couple of times, and was working as a cocktail waitress when (supposedly) an admiring customer told her that she would make a fabulous “strip-tease performer.”

She took his advice, changed her name from Annie Blanche Banks to Tempest Storm (legally), and became a very well-known and popular figure locally and even internationally. (pun intended)

1956: She was the most highly paid burlesque performer in history, holding a ten-year contract for an unheard of $100,000.00 per year. (In 1973, public school teachers in Texas were paid $6,000.00 per year.)

1987: She was still “headlining” in Las Vegas on the “Strip” at age 59. Storm “ran around” with such stars as Russ Meyer, Irving Klaw, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin— and even dated ELVIS! One of his “handlers” later told Tempest that Elvis should have remained with her, for then he would have lived longer, since she never smoke, drank alcohol, or took drugs (attributing her longevity to clean living) on or off the stage!

I could go on with more “old details” of this “class of her day” STAR, but suffice it to say that she was considered to have “that certain something” when she went up onto the stage. She was 93 when she “passed on.”