Every once in a while on the Tuesday Tease, we take time to recognize legends and trailblazers from burlesque history. Today, we really focus on the “blaze” part of trailblazer as we celebrate the 68th birthday of the “Queen of the Fire Tassels,” Satan’s Angel. Satan’s Angel is a living link to the glory days of burlesque and the current neo-burlesque scene. She worked for Gypsy Rose Lee, the original burlesque legend from the 30s and 40s and she continues to inspire up-and-coming burlesque performers. In a 2010 interview with Pin Curl Magazine, she said, “I got balls from Gypsy Rose Lee, the glitz and glamour from Mae West, the class from Lili St. Cyr.”

Satan’s Angel was born Angel Cecelia Helene Walker on September 18, 1944 in San Francisco, California. She began dancing burlesque after winning an amateur strip contest at the North Beach nightclub Moulin Rouge in 1961. Her signature move was setting her tassels on fire, “then extinguishing the flames by means of strenuous mammary rotation.” She performed in San Francisco throughout the 60s at clubs like the Esquire and the Condor Club and even played bass in The Hummingbirds, an all-girl topless cover band that performed at Tipsy’s nightclub in North Beach. From the 1970s and into the 80s, she performed in Vegas, working with legendary burlesque promoters Barry Ashton and Harold Minsky and performing at clubs like the Palomino Club, the Silver Slipper and the Minsky.
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