The Sensational Blaze Starr: An Adult Entertainment Pioneer

Let’s get to know this TrailBLAZEr!

Hey Fleshbot fans! It’s June 2, so happy International Sex Workers Day! I thought I’d highlight a famous historical sex worker and artist in honor of the day.

Blaze Starr was born Fannie Bell Fleming in 1932 in West Virginia, second eldest of eleven siblings. When she was working in a donut shop as a young woman, she was discovered by her first manager Red Snyder, who gave her her first act as a stripping cowgirl. As she worked her way up, she moved to Baltimore, MD (yours truly’s hometown) and began working at tho Two O’Clock Club, which still exists today, albeit amid a pretty run-down area called The Block, where adult businesses once flourished. I got in trouble for reading the signs out loud when I was younger, driving through the area with family. No wonder I have the occupation I do! Blaze not only danced there, but became the headliner and eventually the owner. Her acts included innovative use of props and staging including a signature move titled “the exploding couch.”

Blaze’s affair with Louisiana governor Earl Kemp Long, detailed in her 1974 memoir, was the basis for a film starring Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich. Blaze even had a cameo in the movie. It’s gone on my list to rent, for sure! Blaze’s life was certainly not all feathers and tassels and jiggles. Her life included traumatic sexual assault at an early age and arrests for lewdness in several localities. Also, she had to be a badass DGAF kinda bitch in an industry that exploited women pretty much openly and didn’t really want women in its upper echelons for that reason. After retiring, Blaze became a gemologist and made jewelry that she sold at her own kiosk in a local mall.

Blaze passed away at age 83 in 2015, but burlesque is still alive and well here in Baltimore, there’s even a burlesque school and an annual festival. Folks of all genders, ages, sizes, races, and ethnicities can now be seen strutting their stuff on the stages of various venues in the area. We have Blaze and many other folks to thank for this artistic freedom.

A local college is having a really cool exhibit of Blaze’s costumes, props, and other things that tell the story of her life. As a slut for material culture and a person with an interest in sex work and burlesque, it was a must-see and it inspired me to tell her story here. “The Hottest Blaze In Town” exhibit will be on view at the Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville campus, until June 15. Check out that link for the hours.