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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to