Tempest Storm (born Annie Blanche Banks; February 29, 1928 – April 20, 2021), also dubbed "The Queen Of Exotic Dancers," was an American burlesque star and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr, Sally Rand, and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best-known burlesque performers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Her career as an exotic dancer spanned more than 60 years, and she was still performing in the early 21st century. Early life Tempest Storm was born Annie Blanche Banks on February 29, 1928, in Eastman, Georgia. She left school in seventh grade, and in 2016, she revealed that she had been sexually abused at that approximate time in her life. At 14, she worked as a waitress in Columbus, Georgia, where she quickly married a U.S. Marine in order to emancipate herself from her parents; she had the marriage annulled after 24 hours. At 15, she married a Columbus shoe salesman, whose sister worked with her at a hosiery mill. Storm said in a 1968 interview with film reviewer Roger Ebert that after six months in that marriage, "I just left one day. I still had it in my mind to go to Hollywood. I couldn't get it out of my system." Burlesque career Beginnings In Los Angeles circa 1945 at age 17, Storm worked as a carhop waitress at Simon's Drive-In and then as a cocktail waitress, though still underage. A patron suggested she consider striptease as a profession, and arranged an audition with Follies Theater talent manager Lillian Hunt. Three weeks after being hired as a chorus dancer at $40 a week (approximately $570 in 2020 dollars), Storm accepted a promotion to $60 (approximately $855 in 2020 dollars) as a stripper. A week afterward, she recalled in 1968, Hunt said she needed a stage name: Annie Blanche Banks legally changed her name to Tempest Storm in 1957, one of the few strippers to have done so. Feature performer, model, and actress Storm was a regular performer for many years at El Rey, a burlesque theater in Oakland, California, as well as at clubs around the United States, including in Las Vegas. She was featured in numerous men's magazines and burlesque movies, including French Peep Show (1950), Paris After Midnight (1951), Striptease Girl (1952), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). In 1953, she moved to Portland, Oregon, and worked at the Star Theater. A few