La Savona was a mid-20th century burlesque performer from Prague who became famous in the U.S. for her belly-dance inspired acts. She was awarded our Living Legend Award in 2012, the highest honor BHoF has to offer performers of burlesque’s classic era.
Learn more about her life and performance style in this short video by BHoF Collections and Interpretation Coordinator Emmie Pappa Eddy — the first in a series of biographies featuring never before seen pictures from the Burlesque Hall of Fame archives!
Special thanks to Jim Linderman of the “Dull Tool Dim Bulb” and “True Burlesque” blogs for sharing pictures of La Savona taken by the legendary Irving Klaw.”
Comments(3)
Bailey Hodge says:
May 14, 2020 at 7:57 pmThis is my great great aunt she was a beautiful soul and i am so blessed to have come across this!
Damian says:
April 13, 2021 at 1:44 pmThis is a wonderful story, but the numbers are wrong. If she was born in 1933 and passed in 2017, she would have been 84, not 96. I guess the real question is whether she moved to the US when she was 14 or 26, and either 28 or 40 when Yuri Gagarin inspired her Space Magic piece. Both are feasible but I’m leaning toward being born in 1921.
Burlesque Hall of Fame says:
April 15, 2021 at 2:49 pmThank you for catching this. We double-checked our sources and it does look like the article where we took the 1933 date from was mistaken. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm an accurate birthdate with the material we have available, but she was likely born 1920 or 1921.