The New Orleans Burlesque Festival

Rita Alexander's return to New Orleans went nothing like she imagined in her dreams. A French Quarter burlesque queen in the 1960s, the blonde amazon known auspiciously as "The Champagne Girl" relocated to Las Vegas in the early '70s to join the Folies Bergere showgirls. But for more than two decades, when she closed her eyes at night it was a glamorous and bustling mid-century Bourbon Street scene that danced in her head.

From Gambit BY NOAH BONAPARTE PAIS

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