Legend: Dee Milo

Dee Milo: Featured Legend for Red Hots Burlesque

This legend blows us away every time we see her perform. Red Hots Burlesque wishes her a happy birthday…

DEE MILO
b. August 16, 1930

While tending bar at San Francisco’s Barbary Coast in the late ’40s, Dee Milo noticed that they were hiring dancers. When she said that she would like to apply, the management told her no. Instead, the fiercely independent Dee moved to New Orleans where she began dancing on Bourbon Street, and learned to dance and dress as a burlesque dancer. She returned to San Francisco and was hired as a headliner in the early ’50s, beginning more than a decade of traveling throughout the U.S. and Mexico and Japan. Dee knew how to tantalize and keep an audience eating from the palm of her hand, her signature act “Sentimental Journey” teasing for more than ten minutes of come hither stares, and sweet smiles. She shared top billings with legends like Jennie Lee. Her career ended in 1964 when Dee returned to Utah. Though her mother had enjoyed the benefits of the large paychecks Dee sent home, her mother never approved of her stripping. Dee chose to listen to her mother and repent her sins, and at her mother’s prompting burned all of her costumes and memorabilia. It wasn’t until her own daughter was ten that she found one of Dee’s gowns while playing in the attic. This red dress was the lone survivor of the bonfire. Dee Milo performed in that costume at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in 2012, raising goosebumps amidst the audience. She celebrated her 83rd birthday last week.