C: Have you ever held a monkey?D: Yes, I have.
C: Oh, tell us! You must tell us! That's the question I ask everybody.
D: Why, do they usually say no?
C: Most people say no, but when I get a yes, I'm excited.
D: It was a very long time ago. I was very very little in Long Beach and my cousin and I used to go all the time and I tell you, those little monkeys bite. (we laugh) Yeah. You gotta be careful with those little things. They look so cute and so sweet, but you better watch out because they will bite. If you have a ring on and you go like this (she pretends to turn a ring diamond side down), they know how to undo that finger like that. They kept picking at my ring...this is another time, a monkey. He made me so mad. He straightened out my finger and he went for my ring. They're smart!
C: What is your favorite movie of all time?
D: Uh, favorite movie of all time, um... oh boy. I guess I gotta go with... I used to like Casablanca, but that's been kind of worn out. I did like "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe. I've seen it a couple of times and it really was very clever. And another thing I've seen a couple times..."Bus Stop."
K: I know that one, but I haven't seen it.
D: It's adorable. Marilyn Monroe is beautiful in it and I love her, but I tell ya, Don Murray, that young cowboy, 20 years old...never seen a girl because he was raised on the farm. The dialogue is fabulous! He says, "Look at all the gals! There must be a hundred head of them!" (Dixie laughs) The lines are so adorable. You gotta catch up with every line in that whole movie.
C: What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you?
D: Oh, I don't know. Stage...weird weird weird. I'll probably think of it after this interview. Well, you know things do happen...backstage...you can't get your costume on or off. I'd rather find something rather bizarre to tell you...or else I'm ashamed to tell you. (we laugh)C: If you were a superhero, who would you be?
D: Madonna (we all laugh). Yeah, she is. I like any girl or fella that has started from the very bottom and worked her way up the hard way. I can see the tension there. People didn't want to accept her in Hollywood. The same thing with Marilyn Monroe. And yet, there's a girl that'll never be forgotten. She deserves it. Marilyn Monroe is bigger than Hollywood or the studios.
C: Who has been the greatest influence on your life?
D: I would imagine Marilyn Monroe and maybe Jean Harlow before that. I idolized Jean Harlow. There was just something special about her. Just before Marilyn there was Betty Grable and I loved Betty Grable movies. She was always the broken down showgirl and they never knew how they were going to pull of the big one and she bumps into this guy and this and that and somehow the whole show comes together. It was the same thing with the Andy Hardy series. Betty Grable was a good dancer. Her movies were similar to burlesque type movies.
C: Speaking of Betties,...because I know everyone will want to know,...Have you ever worked with Bettie Page?
D: Yes. I didn't work WITH Bettie Page, you don't really work with her because in New York they hired a photographer for the photo shoot and a lot of times there's two or three girls and they pay you for time in front of the camera. And Tempest Storm, who comes out here all the time, worked a lot with Bettie Page. Bettie Page was strictly more or less a Pinup model, but she was the best in the business, because when somebody did hire her, she could just pose quick. Boom! Boom! Bing! Bing! When I did do photos right before or the day after, I would see all of my proofs and then I'd see Bettie's. Oh, she had TONS of them. Yeah, she had a real big cult following and she was the first one who kinda got famous for those high heels. But she was a pin-up model and not so much burlesque. I've got a couple pictures of her and I admire her and she's a terrific persona and I'm glad that she's hit it so big. There is a long period in this business where you wonder, "where do I go and what do I do?" and I'm glad she has made this tremendous comeback. It's really good.
(we talk about Bettie Page and Candi Barr and how they do not want the public to see them as they are today as they prefer people to remember them the way they were.)D: Tempest Storm comes out and does her show every year.
C: To this day?
D: Oh, yeah, I just talked to her the other day. The British want to film her too. They are coming here the day after tomorrow. I always tell the kids around here that the British are coming, but it doesn't mean that much to them. Believe it or not, we've had a lot of British shows out here. Germany has been out here an awful lot. They make a lot of documentaries.
K: I want to know how you keep pasties on.
D: Ohhhhhhhhh! (claps) All right! To keep the pasties on, you can either use spirit gum or you can take regular adhesive tape like Johnson's adhesive, whatever brand, and just snip it and make five different little strips...then you make them sticky back all around and fold them over...then you put them in the pasties. Then you put them on...then you put your street bra on. Then you leave your street bra on and go on with your makeup and the hair, and go on with your act. Then you take your street bra off and you put this little net bra on...
K: Ok.
D: And then they'll stay. You can take the net bra off and you can dance. They'll stay on real good. The only thing is if it's like unusual weather,...cold especially, you take a cigarette lighter and you must heat that adhesive up. (she also demonstrates warming them up with her breath) And then you put them on. Because if you play the theatres back east, yeah, in the wintertime it gets cold. Oh yeah. (We all laugh) (to Kelly) You're from the east, New York, right?
Color
K: Philadelphia.
D: Oh, Philly, that's right. I played the Trocadero there many years ago.
K: I love the Troc. They have the rock and roll bands there now.
world on that stage." Well at that time in the 40s, Peaches was quite a bit older, but you see it was that flaming red hair. It was those lights and that music and everything and he was just so down in the dumps and, oh, that wonderful show and that chorus line... And here he is. He still sends money quite a bit off and on and the videos and everything and he's warmed up to liking the other girls, but Peaches was his favorite and I've copied a lot of pictures of Peaches...and mailed them to him every once in a while when I needed donations. (we laugh. ) And you see there again...it's something from their memory...way back. I got another good one too if you got time.
D: A young fella came into the museum. He walked in. He walked out. He walked out and down the walkway and said, "Oh, I'll drag that old son-of-a-bitch out of the car anyway." He said, "Oh, I work for a television station in San Francisco and every time I talk to my dad he sez (Dixie adopts a sickly old man voice), 'Oh I can't get out of bed. Oh, my back.' I heard about your museum and decided to bring him. He said he's too sick to get out of the car and he doesn't know where he is." Well, he said "I'm gonna try one more time" and he brought him out. Well, we went to the museum and he's still kinda grumbly, grumbly, grumbly and he got a little better and he got a little better in the next room, and he got a little more better. He's looking at everything and straightening up and he wasn't complaining anymore and we got to the World War II room and he said, "I WAS 17 YEARS OLD WHEN I JOINED THE MARINES!" And he was going on and he was on the battle of Okinawa and he was just so straight and he forgotten everything and just forgotten his problems. He really did. He was so happy to be there and looking at all the memorabilia that I have of World War II and the chorus girls and he said, "Oh, let me go in the other room!" and he saw HER and this and that and so he strolls out and he says he says he has a big orchard and says, "When I come back again I'm going to bring a big basket of fruit!" and THIS and THAT and his son is just smiling and winking to me and they got in the car and his son calls back from San Francisco and thanks me saying I did so much and it wasn't that I did so much, it was the museum. It's the feeling that you get when you go in there, you know. Yeah.
K: (almost choked up) That's great.
world of opportunities out there. You just have to just know what you want in your heart. Like these young girls who come out here, hey, they don't know exactly what everybody did in the old days, but, you know what, they have something inside them that wanted to do some kind of an act. And they're proving it. I just played New Orleans on Bourbon Street and, OH my goodness, you should see the young beautiful new girls they got. All kinds of good acts...sexy, cute, funny, all kinds of things. So theres a lot of kids out there not getting the recognition that they should get...so if they come out to Exotic World, we put ANYONE on the pageant. I hope you come out and see the pageant.
