Lili St. Cyr was born Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 3, 1918. Her maternal half-sister, Rosemary Minsky (née Van Schaack; born 1924), was also a burlesque stripteaser; The sisters were raised by their grandparents, the Klarquists. From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, St. Cyr was one of  the most recognized acts in striptease. Although more obscure toward the end of her life, her name popped-up regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over her, and her attempted suicides. St. Cyr was married six times. Her best-known husbands were the motorcycle speedway rider Cordy Milne, musical-comedy actor and former ballet dancer Paul Valentine, restaurateur Armando Orsini, and actor Ted Jordan (knowledge from wikipedia)

The Mike Wallace interview with Lili St. Cyr: “The leading stripteaser in America”. October 5, 1957. Note from Mimi Berlin: The Mike Wallace interview is sponsored by Phillip Morris cigarettes. In those days that didn’t have to be a secret; Au contraire; both Mike and Ms St Cyr are smoking constantly during this interview. Mike Wallace also tells us how smooth these cigarettes taste

(via lisatina69)