Dolores Del Raye, originally from Mexico, or maybe even further south, as one unreputable source claimed Brazil, but then one reporter in Miami definitively reported she "comes from the Dunes in Las Vegas."
Heh! Barrump!
Maybe that was a joke used by her "putty-nosed, baggy pants buffoon" Billy Ainsley, who headed her show. Billy was an old Vaudeville clown, who once busted his back when a prop chair was pulled out from under him on stage. He ended up, apparently, in a house in Columbus, OH with a dog named Dukey. Why am I padding this story with patter about a buffoon? Because no one wrote about Dolores.
But Dolores did make a stag film titled "St. Louis Woman" so I guess she really was from everywhere. Most of the time when she was shown in a magazine she was called "exotic" which was the 1950s burlesque promotional word for "not white" as unappealing that is. Not only that, the layouts usually say things like "fiery" or "crazy" and made fun of her diet (enchiladas and tortillas) and said not to miss her bullfighter dance.
Racism isn't pretty, even in spit curls.
Miss Del Ray appeared often in the pages of the regulars. Adam, Follies. Rogue. But most of her pictures appear in cheaper crap like the Tri-S and Hale rags. She was a stripper, not a model.
Peak years of dancing 1955 to 1960, and yes, she performed with a big red cape she swirled around her like a bullfighter. She also wore a tiara atop her spit curls on special occasions.
Her biggest role was in color on the cover of the bible of burlesque, Cabaret Magazine, in May 1957, where, of course, she was referred to as "savage" instead of a woman.
She may have "appropriated" her stage name from Dolores Del RIO, a legit actress who was famous. Dolores Del Raye was not. Today you can see her dance on the Something Weird DVD Grindhouse Follies #21.
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