Actors - Candy Barr

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	Actors - Candy Barr

Candy Barr (July 6, 1935 – December 30, 2005) was an American stripper, burlesque exotic dancer, actress in one pornographic movie and model in men's magazines, of the mid-20th century.

She received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, her troubles with the law, shooting her estranged second husband and being arrested and sentenced to a prison term for drug possession, as well as her relationships with Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby.

Early life

She was born Juanita Dale Slusher in Edna, Texas, the youngest of five children born to Elvin Forest "Doc" Slusher (August 19, 1909-May 2, 1969) and Sadie Mae Sumner (October 1, 1908-March 11, 1945). Her siblings were Leota Slusher (born 1927); Keleta Pauline "Kay" Slusher (born 1928); Gary Slusher (1931-1972); and Forest Slusher (1933-2003).

After her mother's tragic death, falling from a moving car on the highway in nearby Victoria County, when Juanita was age 9, her father married Etta Agnes Holden (June 18, 1908-January 19, 1988). Etta was divorced from Guy Goggans (1905-1978) and had four children, Solon Goggans (born 1927); Nila Fae Goggans (1929-2003); Ruby Yvonne Goggans (1933-2005); and Charles Edward Goggans (1937-2003).

Doc and Etta Slusher then had two children together, Travis Leroy Slusher (born 1946) and Katherine Pauline "Kathy" Slusher (born 1948).

Juanita's early years were reportedly scarred by the trauma of sexual abuse from a neighbor and baby-sitter. At 13 years of age, she ran away from home and went to Dallas, where she landed in a den of prostitution and white slavery. At age 14, she reportedly married her first husband, Billy Joe Debbs (or Dabbs), an alleged safecracker, but the marriage lasted only a brief time. She also worked as a cocktail waitress and cigarette girl.

Blue movie & stripping career

At age 16, though she appeared much older, she appeared in one of the most famous and widely circulated of the early underground pornographic movies, Smart Alec
(1951). Because of this short blue movie, which is no more than 20 minutes in length, she has been called "the first porn star." She later insisted that she was drugged and coerced into appearing in the movie, however.

Shortly after the release of Smart Alec, and while still underage, she was hired as a stripper at the Theater Lounge in Dallas by Barney Weinstein for $85 a week. She acquired the stage name Candy Barr at this time, given her by Weinstein, reportedly because of her fondness for Snickers bars, bleached her hair blonde and quickly became a headliner. She also worked at Weinstein's Colony Club, with a large placard of her prominently displayed out front.

Barr established herself in burlesque and striptease with her trademark costume–cowboy hat, pasties, scant panties, a pair of pearl handled cap six-shooters, in a holster strapped low on her shapely hips, and cowboy boots.

When the Theater Lounge would close, she would often patronize the after hours Vegas Club, where she became acquainted with the owner and operator, Jack Ruby, in about 1952. Their friendship was very casual, however, as she never worked for him and never associated with him outside the Vegas Club and the Silver Spur Inn, which he also operated.

She reportedly married her second husband, Troy B. Phillips, in about 1953, and had a daughter in about 1954. In January 1956, Barr shot her estranged and violent husband when he kicked in the door of her apartment in Dallas. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but the charges were later dropped. Phillips was not fatally wounded.

Barr performed for the first and only time on the legitimate stage in 1957, playing the role of Rita Marlowe in the Dallas Little Theater production of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. In late October of that year, in yet another notorious case, Dallas police raided her apartment and found four-fifths of an ounce of marijuana, which was said to be hidden in her bra. She was arrested for drug possession, subsequently convicted, and received a 15 year prison sentence, though, according to her, she was set up and was only holding the marijuana for a friend.

The big-time

While the marijuana case devolved into a lengthy series of appeals, her fame spread nationwide and the curvaceous, green-eyed blonde became the toast of the strip club runways, reportedly earning $2000 a week in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. While stripping at Chuck Landis' Largo Club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, she met gangster Mickey Cohen and became his girl. According to Cohen, in his autobiography, In My Own Words, he helped her make bail after Gary Crosby told him, "One thing about that broad, she can make ya feel like a real man."

Barr accompanied Cohen to the Saints and Sinners testimonial for Milton Berle in April 1959. The mobster, who insisted he wanted to marry her, eventually sent her and her four-year-old daughter to Mexico so she could evade arrest. He arranged for her hair to be dyed by hairdresser to the stars Jack Sahakian, provided her with a fake birth certificate and social security card and gave her $1,200 cash. He later sent her $500 after she was established in a Mexican hideaway. She became restless there, however, and returned to the U.S. During this time, her interest in Cohen floundered.

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