Las Vegas Weekly

April 14, 2009 · 9:26 AM

Photo Gallery: Burlesque queen Tempest Storm, 81, praises Bettie Page

By Robin Leach

Tempest Storm.

Photo: Angela Stabile

At 81 years old, burlesque queen Tempest Storm can still turn heads with her flaming red hair and curvy, well-maintained body! She can still shake her assets and flaunt sufficient cleavage and trim legs to make a hard man humble.

With possibly the best name and nickname ever created in burlesque, “The Girl With the Fabulous Front” was born Annie Blanche Banks in Georgia. She ran away from home in her teens, and by the time she was 20 had been married and divorced twice. The Las Vegas resident once had her bust insured for $1 million by Lloyds of London when her exact measurements were 44DD-25-35.

Tempest became a chorus girl, which led to one of the most successful careers in burlesque. She performed many times here and in Reno, and while she retired officially in 1995 at age 67, she has performed occasionally since then.

Tempest has an invitation to the grand red carpet premiere of Peepshow this Saturday at Planet Hollywood to strut her stuff one more time. I met up with her at Bugsy’s Nightclub a few days ago when she hosted an evening tribute to pin-up icon Bettie Page, who died four months ago.

I’d gone there to mark Bettie’s passing because, as viewers from my old TV series Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous remember, I tracked her down to a trailer park in Ventura, Calif. We eventually reunited her with an attorney brother, and, with Hugh Hefner’s assistance, we rescued her from financial struggles and won her many of her old royalties. Hef invited me to The Playboy Mansion when he honored Bettie for the first time there with a special dinner party.

The Bettie Page store at Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile dispatched models with the Bettie Page fashion look in a salute to the legend. Fans turned up in matching Bettie Page outfits, and Tempest recalled the time she worked with Bettie in the 1955 film Teaserama.

“Those were the very early days for her,” Tempest said. “She was just starting out, but I saw something there that said stardom. I remember telling her, ‘You’re going to be a famous pinup model.’ She didn’t believe me, but she became a legend. It’s so nice now to see her memory being kept alive by younger people who want to dress and look like her.

Photo: Courtesy

Hugh Hefner's girls (Crystal Harris and Kristina and Karissa Shannon) at Bettie Page.

“I’m always in and out of the Bettie Page store at Planet Hollywood, and I get a real kick seeing her notoriety living on.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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