Goddess of Love Incarnate. Leslie Zemeckis

her G-string went flying off into the balcony.

      Next Fehnova had the G-string coated with radium paint, used mostly on watches that glowed in the dark.¹⁷²

      At the evening show Lili stripped down to her G-string, the stagehand pulled on the wire as the lights were hit, and the phosphorescent G-string flew through the air, landing in one lucky man’s lap. The audience went crazy.

       Fehnova “disciplining” Dardy

      Lili might tremble backstage, yet once she stepped in front of the audience she had a confidence that was unflappable. If she stumbled, and she did in the beginning, she would spend more time rehearsing with Fehnova, who drilled her hard.

      “It was the presence of the women in the audience that gave me butterflies in my stomach.”¹⁷³ Where she felt confident and took “pleasure in tantalizing and intriguing” her male audience, she felt the women judging her and they terrified her.¹⁷⁴ Preshow jitters would plague her for the rest of her professional life. “I hate the audiences,” she would explain. “Anyone hates anything that frightens them.”¹⁷⁵

      Under Ivan’s tough and persistent tutelage she mastered a fluid gait. “I walked her until I thought she would drop but before we were through Lili knew how to walk across a stage, believe me.”¹⁷⁶ She dance-walked across the stage, her head held high, shoulders back. She appeared sensuous and inviting, enticing from the sway of her hips to the arch of her back, her uniquely “pigeon breast” jutting forward. Lili became calm and confident. Fehnova was proud of her, declaring her “intrinsically graceful.” He had spotted her “natural grace and poise that many ballet dancers work years to get. . . . She radiated personality.”¹⁷⁷

      Under Fehnova’s tutelage she danced for hours. They developed acts she would repeat for years, such as “The Love Bird” and “The Chinese Chastity Belt.” With each new daring invention she received more notice in the papers. The demand for her grew. San Franciscans wanted to see the new sensation.

      Since the Florentine, Lili had begun experimenting with pseudonyms. Often she was Marie Van Schaack, which few seemed to know how to pronounce or spell. Ivan suggested “Fehnova” and then “Lili.” She remembered Marlene Dietrich’s character Shanghai Lily. Alternatively she tried Lili Marie. Ivan informed the publicity manager at the Music Box that from now on she would be known as Lili Fehnova should any members of the press ask who the tall cool blonde was. And they were asking.

      Fehnova began shaping the show. There was a ten-girl lineup, a dance duo, singer, Vivian Duncan on the piano. During the December 3 show Lili had the good fortune to have her flying G-string land in a reporter’s receptive lap. Variety singled out Lili, noting her “G-string takes the air.”¹⁷⁸

      Lili made friends with the dance duo Harger and Maye. Burt Harger and Charlotte Maye were café dancers and “one of the strongest teams” working.¹⁷⁹ “Their varied sets arrest attention” and Lili was impressed.¹⁸⁰ Of course she would have observed and taken from the dancers as she did with others.¹⁸¹ She was close enough to sleep on the couch of Harger, whose life would have a tragic end.

      Lili said she was “infatuated” by the handsome Burt but he did not reciprocate her advances. Finally he set Lili down and explained he was gay.¹⁸²

      Puzzling that Lili misnames the duo in her biography (as she would so many), but just the mere mention of them means they had an influence on her (she mentioned so few). Lili wrote they went on to enjoy a “long friendship.”¹⁸³

      Burt Harger’s career was cut short in 1945 at age thirty-nine. His dismembered torso was found washed ashore in New York, while an arm and leg were found in the Hudson River. Maye had become worried when her dance partner missed a rehearsal. Police would discover Harger had been murdered with multiple blows from a hammer, then cut in pieces with a razor by his lover and roommate of fourteen months, who was upset over the news that the dancer was set to marry. The murderer took multiple trips on ferries dumping body parts wrapped in sheets into the water.¹⁸⁴

      Newspapers at the time called it the “Torso Murder Case.” Lili had to have known about it, as she was in New York herself, but she makes no mention of her murdered ex-crush.

      Back in Los Angeles, Barbara was working hard-to-conquer Hollywood, still dancing at the Florentine. Signed with RKO, she was pursuing an acting career with Idella’s encouragement.

      Dardy was finally allowed to work and landed a job dancing for vaudeville producer Harry Howard.¹⁸⁵ The show would take her to San Francisco.

      At the LA train station Ian helped his youngest daughter with her suitcase while she wrung her gloved hands, nervous, prepared to head north. At sixteen she had never been away from her family.

      Gray streaked Ian’s auburn hair. He still suffered debilitating headaches and was particularly close with his youngest daughter. She was brave and fearless on the horses, high-spirited and saucy. Organized, capable, sharp-tongued when she had to be. Dardy adored her dad.

      In San Francisco, Dardy and the rest of the dancers in the show were put up at the Grand Hotel, directly across from the Golden Gate Theatre where she would be performing. She had begun the oftentimes harsh life of a showgirl. It was a noon curtain; four shows, bed by three, up and at the theatre again by ten.

      Contrary to what most believed, the grind in a showgirl’s life was in the travel, not on the stage.

      Exhausted from the pace, Dardy would fall asleep backstage, fully and elaborately dressed, to awaken to the sounds of her overture being played by the orchestra and she would dash to make her curtain.

       Stripper Betty Rowland with gas mask

      DECEMBER 7, 1941. WAS A COLD DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO. ARRIVING AT the theatre early, Lili busied herself getting ready. The dressing room was eerily quiet. Girls and crew began showing up walking around in tears, somber faced.

      The Duncan Sisters were even whiter under their ghost-like pancake. Vivian stood onstage and in great theatrical style told the cast that the Japanese had dropped bombs on Hawaii.

      In the coming days there was palpable fear in the air as police patrolled the waters off San Francisco bay. The city was dark by sunset. The mayor declared a state of emergency. Attendance dropped. Just as she had been garnering good press, Lili’s dreams would have to be postponed.

      Lili was at her dressing table pulling bottles from a beautiful white leather makeup case. As soon as she started earning money Lili began to spend it on beautiful things. Things she had dreamed of owning. She had great taste; expensive taste.

      Dardy trawled through Lili’s treasure trove of liquid and powder and lipsticks, bleach and perfume.

      “What’s this?” Dardy held up a scary green mask with a long tube that ran down to the ground.

      “It’s a gas mask and you better get yourself one, babe.”¹⁸⁶ Lili was perfectly serious as she penciled in her eyebrows. One never knew when the bomb was going to be dropped and “we had to look our best.”¹⁸⁷

      HYSTERIA WAS IN THE AIR. ROSETTA ANNOUNCED TO CAST AND CREW that they were moving to the River House in Reno.

      With the Latin Quarter temporarily shut due to the war Lili was grateful for the Reno engagement. With several weeks to fill Lili returned to Los Angeles to help Alice pack an emergency kit in case the Japanese attacked.

      Unable to remain idle Lili booked gigs dancing at both the Merry-Go-Round and Sugar Hill clubs on Vine