WHAT I'M THANKFUL FOR 12.14.10 (NSFW)

I
think we all need at least one really nice positive thing about the
entertainment business every single day of the year, including weekends.
Sometimes it may be something simple, like a video that showcases
something fun and sometimes it may be a movie poster that embraces the
aesthetic we all want Hollywood to aspire to. Sometimes it may be a
long-winded diatribe. Sometimes it’ll be from the staff and extended
family of CHUD.com. Maybe even you readers can get in on it. So, take
this to the bank. Every day, you will get a little bit of positivity
from one column a day here. Take it with you. Maybe it’ll help you
through a bad day or give folks some fun things to hunt down in their
busy celluloid digesting day.

12.14.10
By Andrea Rothe

What I’m Thankful For:
A lady that will not leave the stage: Tempest Storm.

I will always take my hat off to a dame that dances and performs past the age of 40. You don’t see it much any more, and the present environment in gentlemens clubs allows for a wave of what-the-fucks or rude comments when the club’s token older dancer is spotted. Most men will pass on her, but some gentlemen are still willing to be entertained by an “older” woman. And it’s usually to their delight. Hell, meet a dancer over the age of 35 and she can tell you a couple of things. There are a few entertainers left that survived the boom of the 90’s and they have stories to tell of the stacks of money that came flowing into the clubs during this era just before the IRS changed the laws on what businesses could write off as expenses.

Now what about a dame over 80?

Meet Tempest Storm, who has been dancing since the early 1950s. She’s had a hell of a career, having performed as a feature entertainer on stages in famous burlesque theatres, stages in Las Vegas, and clubs all over the United States for decades. She insured her 44DD breasts (Hollywood’s two most important props) for one million dollars through Lloyds of London at the height of her career.

Did you know that there is a stripper hall of fame? Make that the official Exotic World Burlesque Museum Hall of Fame… she’s had the honor of being inducted and one of her g-strings now hangs there.

She officially retired at the age of 67 in 1995, but continues to perform a few times a year even though she is well past eighty. She brings class and elegance, and for a woman of her age, she still remains beautiful. She is a fading star in a business that has changed from seductive strip tease accompanied by live music to bootie popping, ass clapping, leg spreading, money flying dens of noise and cigarette smoke where the stage bounces below a the dancer’s feet as she bends to show her labia or pulsing asshole to a tipping gentleman.

I’m thankful for the stage presence and overall confident sexual glory this woman has represented throughout her career. Today’s venues are populated mostly by the shy-but-willing youngsters who still believe that one can just buy the platform shoes from the internet and get naked for big money in spite of a dying economy–places whose rosters are full of girls who have had no training for the stage or sales floor and show up to drink off the nerves, score a bump, or worse get on her knees in a private room.

Tempest Storm represents an entertainer who was so dedicated to her persona that she legally changed her real name (Annie Banks) to her stage name. She stuck to her rules and her standards and built a career out of it that even reached into Hollywood. The fact that she still performs is a testament to sexuality post forty. Post fifty. Post sixty. Post seventy. And now, post eighty. Like any professional performer, she respects the instrument for her performance, which is in this case, her body. She cannot help the wrinkles or the withering muscles. But she can get dolled up and walk proud and fling a feather boa. And she can face her audience, make eye contact, and smile. Shy twenty-somethings with younger skin could learn something.

See below for some Tempest Storm. NSFW, unfortunately.