KITTY WEST (Evangeline the Oyster Girl) headlined Bourbon Street clubs in the late 1940s and '50s. Born into a poor Mississippi family, she was one of six children. Her father was a minister, and her mother was a cousin of Elvis Presley's father, Vernon. In 1947, at the age of sixteen, she left home and moved to New Orleans where she got work as a stripper. She headlined the Casino Royale as the Oyster Girl, an act in which she rose out of a giant oyster shell and danced with an oversized pearl. In 1949, she made the pages of LIFE Magazine for an impromptu catfight with Divena, the Aqua Tease. Kitty was promptly arrested. Taking her act one step further, she dyed her hair green to represent seaweed.

TEE TEE RED, the TNT Girl entered the world of striptease after winning an amateur striptease contest in Miami. The competition was judged by burlesque queen, Zorita, who took the seventeen-year-old dancer under her wing. In 1960, Tee Tee portrayed a stripper in the Jerry Lewis film, The Bellboy. Only one quick shot of Tee Tee made it into the final cut. Her first engagement as a feature was in New Orleans, where she spent the next three years performing at the 500 Club and the Sho Bar. She referred to herself as an exotic acrobatic/comedienne/contortionist. The affair between burlesque superstar Blaze Starr and Governor Earl Long is stuff of legend, but few knew ol’ Earl had his eyes on Tee Tee Red as well, as mentioned in Blaze’s autobiography. After thirty years, Tee Tee finally threw in the g-string at the age of forty-nine, a week shy of her fiftieth birthday. 

WILD CHERRY was raised in a circus family, and began dancing in the girlie shows in the carnival circuit. In the late 1950s, Cherry worked as an exotic dancer in the nightclubs on Bourbon Street.  Wild Cherry received her stage name from a club owner, who gave her the moniker due to her hot temper. She specialized in "oriental" and Afro-Cuban dancing during her striptease performances. Wild Cherry danced until her mid-forties. She currently can be seen performing her comedic routine and greeting fans at the Bustout Burlesque show.

RITA ALEXANDER, the Champagne Girl began stripping at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street as a teenager in the mid-Sixties. She was trained by Tee Tee Red. After getting breast implants, Rita developed an act in which she balanced small champagne glasses on her breasts and drank from the glass without using her hands. She soon became a headliner with her image on everything from the window displays to table tents and cocktail napkins. She had the starring role in the low-budget film Hot Thrills Warm Chills, which was shot on location in New Orleans. In the early 1970s, Rita left for Las Vegas where she became a star in the Follies Bergere. She pursued acting in Hollywood and received roles in TV and film. Rita played a Vegas showgirl who gets killed in Charlie’s Angels, and a fembot in The Bionic Woman. She currently works as a psychic reader.