Early Life
Starr was born in rural Wilsondale, West Virginia, to Lora Evans and Goodlow Mullins (later changed to Fleming). Fleming left home at age fifteen in 1947, and moved to Washington D.C. where Red Snyder discovered her either working in a doughnut shop (according to her autobiography).
Snyder became Flemming's first manager, encouraged her to start stripping, and gave her the stage name Blaze Starr. After he attempted to rape her, however, Starr left Snyder.
Starr moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she began performing at the Two O'Clock Club nightclub in 1950, eventually becoming its headliner. Starr rose to national renown after she was profiled in a February 1954 Esquire magazine article, "B-Belles of Burlesque: You Get Strip Tease With Your Beer in Baltimore". The Two O'Clock Club remained her home base, but she began to travel and perform in clubs throughout the country.
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“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
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