Could you be a legend before you’re 21 years old? It might sound a little impossible, but Tempest Storm is known in the burlesque world as a legend.
She’s a fierce redhead who was best known in the 1950s and ’60s as “the Tempest in a D-cup,” reports the Huffington Post.
So when was this fiery redhead born? Her birthday is on a leap day, February 29, 1928.
Even though she is turning 84-years-old on February 29, she will be celebrating her 21st birthday.
It might sound obscure to wait 84 years to have a “legal” drink, but Tempest Storm was never a drinker so she is excited to celebrate other aspects of her once-every-four-years birthday.
“It keeps you young,” she told the Huffington Post. “Certainly, my fans always know the date.”
“She is it,” Laura Herbert, the official historian of the Burlesque Hall of Fame said to The Huffington Post. “The term legend gets tossed around in the burlesque world, but she is a true legend. She is one of those whose name you’ve heard of, even if you don’t know burlesque. She was the original bump-and-grinder.”
Tempest Storm was originally born as Annie Blanche Banks in Eastman, Georgia. She already tried and failed at marriage twice before she was 21. After her failed marriages she decided to flee her small town to fulfill her dream of becoming a showgirl, according to the Associated Press.
When Tempest Storm made it to the stage she first tried using the name “Sunny Day,” but in 1950 she became “Tempest Storm” and chose to legally changed her name in 1957.
Her career as a burlesque dancer lasted longer than most. She officially retired in 1995 but continued to appear on stage until she broke her hip in June 2010, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
Happy 21st birthday Tempest Storm!
