Zorita

Adopted by strict Methodist parents as a child, Georgia Sothern was discovered via a beauty pageant and became a burlesque artist in 1935. Her specialties were a 20-minute dance with two boa constrictors, "Elmer" and "Oscar", and her "Dance of the Wandering Hands". It was only in 1954 that she stopped stripping, to run a number of different nightclubs in the New York and Miami areas. Although she taught younger girls routines, she refused to divulge the secrets of her famous snake dance. She appeared intermittently in films throughout her career. In 1974 she retired to Florida, where she bred Persian cats.