Millie DeLeon

Millie DeLeon ( 1873 – August 6, 1922) was the stage name of American burlesque dancer Millie Lawrence, described as "the first real queen of American Burlesque."

Biography Her birth details and background are unreported. Her original name is given variously in records as Elizabeth or Maude Lawrence, and the name "Millie" apparently originated as a corruption of the French Mlle.. By 1903, her act had developed to the point where, according to writer Rachel Shteir, "she presented a saucier persona. There is no other way to describe De Leon's act than to say that she impersonated a prostitute. She sauntered onstage swaying her hips and paused, flashing her bare or bestockinged calf... She tossed garters from a basket and sashayed into the crowd...".

DeLeon was known as "The Queen of all Dancers" or as "The Girl in Blue" - "blue" being a subtle reference to indecency - and was notorious for manipulating the media through the artful use of scandal. As her act developed, her signature stage maneuver was to remove her garters, so revealing her lack of underwear, and throw them into the audience. She traveled across America as a performer, often testing the limits of local indecency ordinances, and was arrested numerous times in the U.S. and Canada between 1903 and 1915. In 1914, the Philadelphia North American reported:

She died in 1922, in hospital in New York, "due to a complication of diseases".