In search of higher cultural endeavors, this post is on author, dancer,
advice columnist and recording artist Libby Jones. We can start with her
real name. Adlyn Morris. An honor student from the University of
Washington. Libby (according to dead, questionably murdered game show
player and scandal columnist Dorothy Kilgallen) lectured on "the
sociological and psychological aspects of strip-teasing."
Her
name pops up in all the crap columns of the 1950s. Earl Wilson (midget
showbiz smut-hound and hanger-on) and Leonard Lyons, the "gentle gossip"
and proprietor of "The Lyons Den" column both reported on her at least
once...anywhere her presumably equally sleazy publicist could place her
name in a daily sheet. Libby was a
serious lecturer, and I'm not kidding. While stripping at a club in
Anytown, USA at night, she would lecture during the day at local
fraternal organization luncheons and such. At one lunchtime gig in Royal
Oak Michigan, she struck a blow for woman's rights by proclaiming "Up
to date it has never been suggested to me that a man could do my job
better than I" and this was in 1959. Take THAT early feminists. She
also tried to organize a union for strippers. This COULD be a joke, but
it was to be called B.A.R.E for "Benevolent Association of Revealing
Entertainers"
The entertainer's bust was reported as 36" in 1959 and 41" in 1967...so she never stopped growing as an entertainer. Libby
wrote two books, "Striptease: The One How To Book No Woman Should Be
Without" in 1967 and "How to Undress in Front of Your Husband" a year
later. One of them was translated into French (!) as "Guide Du
Strip-Tease Chez Sol" which almost pays them back for all the smut they
sent us. I suppose her greatest
accomplishment was playing a stripper (no stretch) in the landmark Lenny
Burtman film "Satan in High Heels." At least she was consistent. She
had other stirring film performances. "The Case of the Stripping Wives"
(1966) "Key-Hole Varieties" (1954) and a documentary titled "Tijuana
after Midnight" in which she played someone playing herself as someone
else...or herself. In other words, a stripper. Her
non-nominated Grammy long playing record is a masterpiece of purple
cover. Appearing on the extra low-prestige STRAND label (for which the
term "cut-out" could have been designed) the dead on arrival vinyl stiff
included strip standards like "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "A Pretty
Girl is Like A Melody" among others. A rare record indeed, you can buy
it for less than ten dollars on Ebay. Of
course, like all good strippers, Libby had a nickname or two. Like The
Florida Hurricane and The Park Avenue Playgirl.
Jim Linderman, author of TIMES SQUARE SMUT now available from Blurb.com in ebook and paperback.
PRAISE
Anita Ventura, the streaked-hair model with the most beautiful breasts
in history. Questionable? Nope. Anita Ventura. I need one too. We
all need a Ventura, and now more than ever.
The only woman
with the most beautiful breasts in history who was arrested in a topless
batgirl costume. TWICE! Anita was courageous, unflinching, liberated
and shameless in her curves. Anita was a pin up with the power to
reach right out of the folded paper, grab you by the tie, pull you
close and whisper "see anything you like, chump?" before dropping you
into a pile of your own perspiration.
Anita's figure
made Bettie Page look like a victim. Anita made Tura Santana look like
she needed a good meal…and Dita Von Teese? Please.
Anita
looked incredible in clam-diggers, but in a corset? Life was worth
living until your time was up and you brought the memory of her to St. Peter
for a free pass.
One of Leonard Burtman's favorite models. She would delight in wearing, or NOT wearing…anything. Fortunately, God
perfected color film during Anita's career. If your shaking hands
could thread the developing can sprockets, one would stay in the darkroom all day.
When emerging, your fingers wrinkled by a chemical bath and nasal
passages burned by acid fumes, you would believe alchemy came with a 24
karat swatch of hair.
God made women, but he kept
practicing. Anita Ventura resulted. Five-foot 8inches of power, and
when she became engaged to "Tun Tun" the great Mexican dancer (who was
only Three-foot 9 inches tall) no one even noticed him. All eyes on
Anita, a full two feet taller than Tun Tun and twice as fun.
Anita
would bathe in a bikini in the pool on Park Avenue just because she
could. Once at a POLICEMAN'S BALL a burglar snuck in the dressing room
and stole Anita's lace panties.
Anita performed a belly dance
under the slogan "SEX SATIONAL DANCE OF THE DRUMS" but no one heard
them. The percussion was on Anita. Star of the films Teenie Tulip and
Orgy at Lil's Place.
CONTINUED...
EXCERPT FROM THE FORTHCOMING BOOK TIMES SQUARE SMUT © by Jim Linderman All rights reserved.
Books and affordable Ebooks by Jim Linderman available HERE
