Candy Barr: America's First Porn Princess

Abe Weinstein

She became a regular in Tony Zoppi's "Dallas After Dark" column in the city's Morning News. While trawling the Big D at night, Zoppi handicapped club strippers as though they were thoroughbred horses.

One dancer, he wrote, was green on stage but possessed "the equipment for much bigger things."

Candy Barr was often compared with another pert native Texan who became famous in the 1950s, singer/actress Debbie Reynolds.

But Candy's wardrobe was something different.

Singer/actress Debbie Reynolds

For her signature striptease, she would walk on stage wearing a full Annie Oakley buckskin get-up. By the time her five-minute routine was up, she would have stripped off everything but her panties, pasties, cowboy boots, white cowboy hat and the twin holsters slung low across her hips.

For her finale, she would fire her cap guns in the air as the lathered-up crowd erupted into rebel yells of "yee-haw!"

Offstage, Candy enjoyed hanging out at the Carousel after hours, where owner Jack Ruby became a close friend and father figure. She couldn't have known that he, too, would be famous one day.