Goddess of Love Incarnate. Leslie Zemeckis

She found a room in a boarding house that looked clean and decent. Before she even undressed she perused the phone book for local theatrical agents. She found one not far away and set out to conquer San Francisco.

      Showing up unannounced she threw her nude picture on the desk and told him she was a dancer from the world-famous Florentine Gardens and she would soon be working with Lou Walters, but . . . she needed work now.

      The woman standing before the agent was stunning, with a wide smile, a face that could stop traffic, slim, seemingly as tall as the tallest building. He called the Music Box and sent his new client over for an interview.

      Twenty-three-year-old Lili got the job.

      The Music Box Theatre was the most dazzling theatre Lili had ever seen. It would remain a loving memory for her among dozens of venues. Smaller than the Florentine, it had a capacity for only six hundred on its two tiers. There were three bars painted blue and gold with a band at one end and a dance floor in the middle of the ground floor. Tall marble columns held a balcony that wrapped around the second floor. To Lili it was like pictures she had seen of European opera houses. It was a luxurious, bejeweled candy box.

      The burlesque theatre located at 859 O’Farrell Street was not an “ideal location for a club.”¹⁶⁴ It had opened in October 16, 1940, backed by Frank and Clarence Herman. After a year it shuttered while the Duncan Sisters, who took over management, ran the nearby Lido. It was small and ornate, like its operators.

      The once-famous Duncan Sisters had triumphed in a winning act that had wowed the country in the twenties. Rosetta and her younger sibling Vivian were two petite veterans of vaudeville. They had been performing since they were kids. Vivian played the pretty dumb blonde. Rosetta had performed for years in blackface in their $1-million-making act “Topsy and Eva,” an Uncle Tom’s Cabin–ish musical written specifically for them. The music was a “riot of success” and had been enormously popular.¹⁶⁵ It was an act they would regularly regurgitate well into the 1950s.

       Lili’s employers, The Duncan Sisters

      The two women, no longer charming young ingenues, were now in their forties, standing a mere five two. Once vivacious and popular, they were now irrelevant with their antiquated act, yet they valiantly trooped on, oblivious to the changing times. They refused to believe the world was moving on from their dated form of entertainment where it was acceptable for a beautiful young white girl to sing and act in blackface.

      THE VETERAN TROOPERS TREATED THE SHOWGIRLS THAT WORKED for them like daughters. Where Vivian was sweet and resembled Barbara Cartland, Rosette was completely different, “rude” and a “lesbian.”¹⁶⁶

      Lili loved San Francisco. She loved the Chinese restaurants, pork noodles for 35 cents. Great carts parked along Powell Street; with a riot of fresh flowers for sale. Fisherman’s Wharf was crowded with boats, most of the Italian sailors sat mending nets, singing in their native language. What Lili loved most was the cool temperatures. She walked around the city, jumping into restaurants or bars. Without Dick and her family, Lili had no one to answer to. San Francisco was freedom and would hold fond memories for her. She would return time and again throughout her career, appreciating the invigorating breezes.

      The Music Box had a revue-type show much like the Florentine Gardens. Vivian played the piano, though one reviewer complained the sisters “seemed tired.”¹⁶⁷ A hot dance team called Harger and Maye appeared to much applause. It was one of the Duncan’s idea for Lili to be the “Girl of the Hour.”

      Lili was to come out every hour wearing something spectacular and walk among the crowd. She could smile or chat briefly. Then she was to remove a piece of clothing. Her first proper tease to date. Lili would exit and leave the audience waiting until the next hour, when she would return to remove another item of clothing.

      Presumably it would keep the men in the club buying more drinks throughout the night, waiting to see the nubile blonde until she was revealed in all her glory.

      At the top Lili removed a fur, revealing her beautiful white shoulders in a strapless gown. Smile. Turn. Leave them wanting more.

      The next hour she peeled off a glove. She left them wanting more.

      By the end of the night she was naked except for a tiny sequined G-string, satin pumps, and a gardenia behind one ear. She looks wildly happy and in her element. Experiencing her first taste of success.

      LILI LIKED THE SPECIAL ATTENTION. TERRIFIED AND EXCITED AT THE same time, she would hold her head high and smile. All eyes were on her.

      Stage fright is a paralyzing feeling. The stomach cramps, the mouth dries, hands become numb, and the heart races. It can be sheer terror. Yet there is no better reminder that one is fully alive, fully in the moment. There is no conquering the feeling. There is only the stepping into it and walking through it. For some performers they cannot endure the terror; for others it is intoxicating. Despite the agony she felt, Lili always managed to go on. Always.

      Lili said she worked with an alter ego. Was it Greta Garbo she hid behind? She mentions her constantly in her Canadian biography, asking herself what Garbo would do to help her make a decision.

      The nights were long but fruitful. Lili would slowly glide down the staircase to the main part of the room, her fur dragging elegantly behind her. Underneath the crystal chandeliers Lili glittered among the patrons. She felt beautiful and powerful and she knew she had them in the palm of her hand.

       Down to the bare essentials

      As a final tease she would unpin the gardenia behind her ear and toss it into the audience. She was irresistible. Yet with her attitude she created a barrier between herself and the audience. She was an “untouchable beauty.”¹⁶⁸ Maybe her alter ego allowed her distance yet desirability, à la Garbo. Lili’s version of Garbo was far more lush and feminine, her body more inviting.

      Lili was supremely comfortable with her body. It was exhilarating being naked in front of applauding strangers who oohed and awed at her mere presence. NTG wrote that for Lili, “clothes were unimportant.” And “she had an aversion to wearing anything” on the stage.¹⁶⁹

      Vivian chided Lili for not mingling with the guests. Lili wanted to remain mysterious. Vivian continued to protest until reporters called wanting to know the Girl of the Hour’s name. Lili got her way.

      Lili was an unpolished performer, winning kudos for her sheer beauty. She had something, but it was largely unproven. In fact the whole Music Box show was rough. The sisters hired a new choreographer by the end of November.

      Ivan Fehnova had previously worked with Mike Todd at the New York World’s Fair. He stepped in to whip the show into shape.¹⁷⁰

      In his midforties, Ivan was a flamboyant, homosexual Russian who wore black silk shirts with high upturned collars. His thinning black hair was parted in the middle and slicked back. He carried large white handkerchiefs. He was chubby yet elegant, impossibly glamorous and rigidly disciplined, prone to whacking dancers on the back of their legs with his six-foot staff made out of polished wood. Of course, not too hard. He didn’t want to inflict damage.

      FEHNOVA WOULD BECOME A GREAT FRIEND TO LILI. HE SAW HER potential though he declared her hopeless as a dancer. “She had absolutely nothing,” he declared.¹⁷¹ But Lili was willing to follow his every direction. She would always warm to having a mentor, eager to improve herself.

      The Russian had an idea that would cause a sensation. He had her change into her G-string and stand on the empty stage. He hooked a fishing wire onto the side of her panties. The wire was attached to a fishing