Leslie Zemeckis

A Showgirl You Should Know: Noel Toy Medium Noel Toy the “Chinese Sally Rand” She was unfairly called the “Chinese Sally Rand.” She was much more than an imitation fan dancer. Born Ngun Yee in 1918 in San Francisco to Chinese parents who emigrated from Canton, Ngun Yee was one of more than a half […]

Prologue Chicago, 1956 It had been a terrible day. A terrible few weeks, months, years if she was honest. September 26, 1956, was an unseasonably cold day in Chicago with temperatures in the 30s. It was evening and the roommates had been arguing for hours. Money, or rather the lack of it. The slender blonde […]

Interlude in Arizona It is always interesting to me what doesn’t make it into a final cut of a book/manuscript/movie. I love doing research for all my projects and finding the by-the-ways, the additional stories, the minutia that sometimes ultimately does not fit with the final story. This “interlude” I found interesting but was ultimately […]

A Showgirl You Should Know: Jennie Dolly The Dolly Sisters were known for their extravagant costumes The adored Dolly Sisters were identical twins born in Budapest in 1892. Jennie was older than Rosie by a few minutes. Named Rózsika and Janka Deutsch, as young girls they immigrated with their parents to America where they began […]

A Showgirl You Should Know: Faith Bacon “the World’s Most Beautiful” Faith Bacon was born in 1910 in Los Angeles to an ambitious young mother who was still in her teens and a father from a prestigious northern California family. After a mysterious and tumultuous upbringing, her parents divorced and Faith’s mother dragged her across […]

A Showgirl You Should Know: Sally Rand “America’s Sweetheart” By: Leslie Zemeckis Though not traditionally thought of as a “showgirl” Sally Rand was actually the epitome of one. She started in the theatre, spent time in the circus, went onto Hollywood, returned to vaudeville, and supposedly a brief stint (if true) in Florence Ziegfeld’s Follies […]

Eileen Wenzel “The Tragically Blemished Broadway Showgirl”[i Port Arthur News, 2–2–36 Like the 1920s film actress Barbara La Marr, Eileen Wenzel was deemed just too beautiful, cursed with incredible beauty that was doomed to have an unhappy ending. Wenzel was a tall ravishing brunette. As a showgirl she worked for the top of the tops, […]

A Woman You Should Know — Rita Rio the Sweetheart of Swing A Woman You Should Know — Rita Rio the Sweetheart of Swing Rita Rio and her all-girl band What started as a publicity stunt surprisingly led to a fulfilling career as “the What started as a publicity stunt surprisingly led to a fulfilling career as “the outstanding […]

Do Not Wait for Opportunity” Words of Wisdom with Director and Actress Leslie Zemeckis    

      Fat Bottom Girl By Leslie Zemeckis   COLLECTION OF LESLIE ZEMECKISBackstage at the Carnival “Left alone with big fat fanny She was such a naughty nanny Heap big woman you made a bad boy out of me” – Brian May The sticky, sweet smell of cotton candy combined with the stench coming […]