About the Teacher - Scarlett Letter

Scarlett Letter has been dazzling the world since 2004 and stunning them even longer. A long time fixture of the Los Angeles Burlesque scene, Scarlett has graced stages across North America and Europe and has won several awards along the way. Also a costumer and producer, Scarlett is known for a dark cold beauty reminiscent of Hollywood Noir and the classic Hitchock heroine. 

 

"With 4 feet of red hair and miles of bad intentions"

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About the Panelist - Bella Blue

Born and raised in New Orleans, Bella Blue started dancing at the age of 3 studying extensively in ballet and modern into adulthood. In 2007 she traded in her pointe shoes for pasties and hasn’t looked back since! Her style can be best described as unpredictable! Bella can offer everything from classic fan dances and reverse stripteases to androgynous, neo, and controversial pieces. But no matter what, expect to be entertained! She has become one of the most recognized burlesque performers in New Orleans and across America. Bella performs predominantly in New Orleans but has also performed in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Las Vegas, North Carolina, Virginia, Minneapolis, and Switzerland. She is also a regular on the stages of New York, visiting every 3 months. In 2014, she headlined the Virginia Americana Burlesque and Sideshow Festival and the Caput Mundi Burlesque Award Festival in Rome, Italy. She also made her Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend debut in June 2014 where she was invited to perform in the “Movers, Shakers, Innovators Showcase.” Bella’s pride and joy is The New Orleans School of Burlesque, where she has reigned as the headmistress since 2008 and hosts New Orleans’ only weekly running of burlesque classes. She has taught the art of the tease to hundreds of women from New Orleans and beyond and the number continues to grow. The New Orleans School of Burlesque is also host to a number of guest teachers from across the country and specialty workshops. She is deeply entrenched in preserving burlesque in New Orleans (which is rich in burlesque history) and can often be seen performing in other local productions and fundraisers making sure that as many people as possible get to experience just how incredible burlesque is. In addition to running the school, she is one of the leading show producers in New Orleans. She is the Artistic Director of “The Dirty Dime Peepshow,” “The NOSB Student Showcase,” and one half of Bellamour Productions. She also is the producer of “The Blue Book Cabaret” at Lucky Pierre’s which is held six nights a week and is the first time New Orleans as has consecutive nights of burlesque entertainment on Bourbon Street since the 1960′s.    Website

About the Panelist - Kitten Natividad

I was born Francesca Natividad on February 13, 1948, in Juarez, Mexico just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. I am the oldest of nine siblings, though only my sister Eva Garcia and I share the same parents. Yes Natividad is my real last name. I’m a Latin gal! Mom gave birth to me when she was just 16, at home, with my grandmother as midwife. The summer before my high school senior year, I worked for Stella Stevens at her Coldwater Canyon home, scrubbing and cleaning, and learning how to cook. At her big parties, my duties expanded to greeting guests at the door, including Warren Beatty and Linda Evans, wearing a white uniform. I remember watching the guests mingle by the pool, noting their elegance and glamour, and thought to myself, “This is fun. I want to be a movie star.” During that senior year, I fell in love for the first time. My family always insisted on chaperones, so it was difficult for my boyfriend and I to get intimate. It wasn’t until he spent the night at my home, though in a different room, that we made love for the first time. He slipped in through the window and into my bed. God, it was fabulous! Soon after we eloped but our marriage didn't last long. I went back to work for Stella for about a year before enrolling in a trade school course, ultimately landing a job at IBM as a key punch operator. Making very little money and looking for other options, I discovered that a neighbor’s sister earned $300 a week as a stripper - twice as much as I made. I took off my clothes, looked at myself in the mirror and said, “Well, I have a great body.” It was 1969 and soon after an introduction to the owner of a Pasadena-based club called Gianone’s, I made my dancing debut. Very nervous, I concentrated on my dancing while oblivious to everything going on around me. When I finished, the crowd clapped and howled, while throwing money on the stage. The roar would grow so load, it could be heard two blocks away! And I liked it! Before long I was working a couple of clubs a night, making $600-700 a week including tips. The money was great but boy were the hours long. To promote my new career, I signed up with an agency. They advised me to adopt a stage name. Shyer than the other girls, I was given the name Kitten. My big breakthrough came in 1973 when I was age 25. I was working at a club in Pasadena called the High Light where I met Morganna (the Kissing Bandit) and her agent Sparky Blain. Sparky thought that I had a great body and asked me to enter the Miss Nude Universe pageant, held in San Bernardino, California. I wasn't sure I had the confidence to compete with the other forty-five or so contestants, most of whom were several years younger, but Sparky did. It was because of his unwavering faith I was able to walk out onstage and feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. But even with my newfound confidence, I still felt it necessary to lie about my age when I learned that the judges preferred younger women. In the end, I strutted away with the title Miss Nude Universe. I went crazy! My next career decision was a permanent switch from go-go dancing to stripping. Sparky had me doing all sorts of publicity stunts: special appearances at clubs, college campus fraternities, other beauty contests; bikini walks in central business districts; and nude press conferences all across the country from New York to Los Angeles - all centered around club performances. Though the reigning Miss Nude Universe, performing alone as a headline stripper was very new to me. Again unsure of myself, I picked up nuances from the other dancers, making them my own. During each performance I made sure to give individual attention and to put out a lot of energy. When a customer laid down a dollar bill, I went to him and gyrated as much as I could. It was hard work but this was my schooling to become a good stripper. By the mid 70s I was on top of the stripping scene but my next step was at hand. I had a girlfriend named Shari Eubanks, a star in one of Russ Meyer’s greatest hits, Supervixens. Sherry and I worked at the Classic Cat on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and she told Russ that because of my big tits, I would be a great Russ Meyer girl. As it happened, he was looking for a girl to narrate his new film “Up!.” When we met at the club, I found him quite attractive and turned on the charm full tilt, landing me the part. Though Russ Meyer films are typically tangled in story, Up! was perhaps his weirdest film. I’ll skip over the plot which had something to do with Hitler’s daughter and sadomasochism. The film starts with me perched in a tree, nude. A dubbed voice announces me as the film’s guide, the incarnation of the body, cutting back to me every ten minutes, often with close-ups on my breasts and other parts of my anatomy, so I could explain what was going on. Russ was very tough on me, and after the endless takes, I was exhausted, and sometimes in tears. But when I realized that his perfectionism brought out qualities I didn't know I had, I learned to trust his direction. Released in October 1976, Up! was not as successful as Supervixens. Six months into filming, I left George and moved in with Russ, embarking on an affair that lasted 12 years. Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens was Russ Meyer’s next film. He initially planned to use the blonde stripper Ann Marie, a real life Little Annie Fanny - whose humongous 67 bust line made her a top Meyer Girl candidate. But after I tested for the lead role of sultry Lola Langusta, I was chosen for my acting, work ethic and willingness to remain nude. Together with his friend and collaborator Roger Ebert, they reworked the script so I could play both Lola, and the character named Lavonia. Though Russ had already decided to cast me, I had to lose my heavy accent before shooting began (this was not a slant on my heritage, only a means for the audience to better understand my words). Dialect coach Robert Easton was hired and taught me to speak with a Southern drawl. The process could be very frustrating, and tiring (we often worked in eight-hour stretches), but it all paid off. Ultravixens had all the makings for a hit, but met with poor distribution. That may have been a blessing in disguise, for Russ discovered he could make more money in video sales than ticket sales. While the film shifted from film to video, my modeling career took off. At clubs, I modeled between dance sets for eager photographers, picking up quick, easy money. The pictures were soon published and by 1977 there was an outpouring of Kitten Natividad pictorials. I couldn’t believe I was on the cover of so many magazines! There were other photo spreads too; steamy girl/girl shoots with associates from strip clubs and Russ’ films. I did sessions with Candy Samples, Uschi Digard, Patty Plenty and many others. Because of the increased exposure, I was able to command more money, sometimes earning over $1,000 a week while other girls made just $50 a night. By the end of the 70's, my level of stardom on the strip circuit demanded more elaborate and lavish shows. I came up with the gimmick of a giant champagne glass where I bathed on stage to the tune of the Bobby Darin hit “Splish Splash”. I had a lot of fun, jiggling and caressing my tits. At the end of the performance, I sometimes let a couple lucky members from the audience dry me off with a towel! Since my break-up with Russ, I’ve made brief appearances in many films and rock video’s while featuring in adult movies. I was also the stripper at Sean Penn’s bachelor party in September 1985, at the Roxy Nightclub on Sunset Strip. Harry Dean Stanton arrived late that night, missing my performance. Penn led him to me, picked up my blouse and said, “See what you missed?” shoving Stanton’s face into my cleavage. These days, I’m not traveling or making many appearances, devoting much of my time to my fan club, pursuing a film career, and trying to stay healthy & young at heart!    Website

About the Panelist - Lili VonSchtupp

Lili VonSchtupp made her debut performance at the legendary Derby in Hollywood CA, on a starry Monday night in September of 2004. She's performed headlined, emceed, and taught classes at Viva Las Vegas, The Great Burlesque Expo, The New York Burlesque Festival, The Hawaii Burlesque Festival, The Las Vegas Burlesque Festival, The Vermont Burlesque Festival, and was the founder and producer of The Hollywood Burlesque Festival. Lili was featured twice at #40 and #42 on the 21st Century Burlesque's Top 50 Industry Professionals and was featured as one of the top 13 burlesque performers in Los Angels by Timeout LA. Her weekly burlesque show, Monday Night Tease has been featured internationally in many press outlets. Having worked with Satan's Angel, and studied with many burlesque legend educators and performers, Lili's 13 plus years in performing plus 10 years teaching and producing serves as great grounding in the art of burlesque. As producer of Monday Night Tease! est. 2003, Friday Night Happy Hour, Burlesque After Dark, and The Hollywood Burlesque Festival, Lili has booked over 600 live burlesque shows and worked with both local, national and international talent. Her unique experience as a performer and a producer allows her the eye to understand what works artistically for the performer as a work of art, and from the audience perspective of entertainment. Serving the art form and the consumer is her expertise.    Website

About the Panelist - Miss Mina Murray

After the job market for glamourous archaeologists dried up, Miss Mina Murray abandoned her Ivory Tower and turn to the art of the striptease. She is a co-founder of The Boston Beautease (formerly The Boston Babydolls) and Headmistress of the Boston Academy of Burlesque Education (B.A.B.E.). Known as "The Educated Ecdysiast" and "The Martha Stewart of Burlesque", she recently published "Miss Mina Murray's Little Book of Better Burlesque".    Website