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26 January 2013

Barbara Lemay (1932 - 1993) hootch dancer.

Sammy Hoover was born in West Virginia, and at 16 joined a carnival. He was too pretty to just sell hotdogs, and was put in the girlie show.

Hoover became Barbara Lemay, and performed as Glamazon. She became a star hootch dancer. Once a man died of a heart attack during her show. His mortician came to see the woman who could send a man to his death with a smile and an erection. She also worked as a stripper and in burlesque, and as a go-go dancer.

In her 60s she was still stripping at a gay club in Los Angeles, when Rico Martinez made a documentary about her life.

*Not the mezzo-soprano, nor the wrestler, nor the album by RuPaul.
    • Rico Martinez (dir). Glamazon: A Different Kind of Girl, with Barbara Lemay. US 83 mins 1993.
    • ChrisStraayer. Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientations in Film and Video. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996: 259-60. 
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3 comments:

  1. slackercruster21/2/16 20:27

    I miss Barbara. I new her in the early 1970's. I took many photos of her back in the day. Here is one from Hollywood after she came come with a prize from an Artists' Ball for a costume she made.

    https://danielteolijr.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/barbara-lemay-1973-daniel-d-teoli-jr.jpg

    There are a few pix more pix of her. Google 'Gender Benders from the 1970's'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown26/12/16 23:14

      I am doing a little research on her myself. She used to work for my grandmother and grandfather in Calumet City Illinois at the Ritz Club my grandmother and grandfather are gone now but I have a few pictures and some stories of Barbara. I'm just curious if you know anything about that particular time period in her life. I have to pictures of her in which she has written some notes on the back one of them a note to my grandfather and grandmother. They both have addresses on the back 1 in St Louis and the other in Cincinnati

      Delete
  2. Unknown21/10/17 21:35

    I Love and Miss you Barbara !!!!! I met and knew this inspirational woman for years in Los Angeles and would spend evenings listening to her stories about the carnival and her growing up and struggles. She made me a Barbara original costume which i have to this day. One of a kind this woman was. A true Pioneer for and of many.. THANK YOU and MUCH LOVE... Scotty
    aka DT.

    ReplyDelete

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