08/03/2026
💄🖤😻
Born on this day (28 January 1948): demigoddess of burlesque, carnival and cult cinema, Georgette Dante! “Georgette Dante has been a midget stripper, exotic dancer, fire dancer, actress, clown, magician, carnival geek, gangster’s moll, costume designer, hat maker – and probably ten other things I’m forgetting,” showbiz historian and biographer Jimmy McDonough summarizes. “She is entirely self-made, having pulled herself out of abject poverty and a grim family dynamic to rise to the top of an old-school showbiz world that often goes undocumented – state fairs, carnivals, nightclubs, casinos.” I know Dante best for her wild appearance in 1968 exploitation flick The Exotic Ones (aka The Monster and the Stripper). The titular swamp monster is played by hulking 6’5” rockabilly musician Sleepy LaBeef (with glue-on werewolf eyebrows, novelty shop teeth, a fright wig and a caveman loincloth), but he’s arguably upstaged by sullen young bad girl Dante as vicious fire-eating, tassel-twirling nightclub performer Titania. With her hostile Dawn Davenport energy, snarling delivery and striking appearance (drag queen eyebrows, spectacular beehive hairdo), Dante suggests baby Divine-meets-Tura Satana in Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (In fact, Dante’s hairstyle and eyebrows here anticipate Divine as Babs Johnson in Pink Flamingos). And her semi-naked “strong woman” routine is fierce. (As an awe-struck observer comments watching her rehearse: “Ain’t she somethin’?”). How did Dante’s performance not make her a b-movie deity? Read McDonough’s incredible full profile of Dante here: http://tinyurl.com/54uy6s3p Read my reflections on The Exotic Ones here: http://tinyurl.com/y39327tu