Satan's Angel

Angel Cecelia Helene Walker (September 18, 1944 – April 11, 2019)[1] was an American exotic dancer specializing in stripping and burlesque under her stage name Satan's Angel.[2][3]

Satan's Angel
Satan's Angel at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in 2009
Born
Angel Cecelia Helene Walker

(1944-09-18)September 18, 1944
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedApril 11, 2019(2019-04-11) (aged 74)
OccupationDancer

Career

Satan's Angel started dancing in San Francisco in 1961, after winning an amateur strip contest at North Beach nightclub Moulin Rouge.[4] Her full moniker is Satan's Angel, the Devil's Own Mistress, Queen of the Fire Tassels. She has also danced under the stage names Tassel Tossin' Angel, Angel Dahl, Angel the Body, Satana Angel, and Satin Angel.[5]

Satan's Angel's signature act is to light her tassels aflame, "then extinguishing the flames by means of strenuous mammary rotation".[6][7][8] She would sometimes twirl five tassels at a time—two on her nipples, two on her buttocks, and one on her navel.[4][9]

She performed in San Francisco in the 1960s, dancing at small and bigger nightclubs including the Esquire, the Galaxie and the Condor Club. She was also bass player in The Hummingbirds, an all girl topless cover band which performed nightly at Tipsy's in North Beach.[3][5]

Later, in Las Vegas in the 1970s and into the mid 1980s, she was cast by big-name burlesque promoters like Barry Ashton and Harold Minsky and danced at the Palomino Club, The Aladdin, Silver Slipper, and the Minsky.[3][5][10] She also toured the United States and the rest of the world with her act.

When asked why she chose to pursue a career in burlesque, she has said she wanted the glamorous life of Gypsy Rose Lee.[4] She has also said she borrowed artistic elements from Mae West, Lili St. Cyr, Ann Corio, Sally Keith, and Carrie Finnell to create her stage character Satan's Angel.[3][4][5]

She retired from burlesque in 1985, after twenty-four years, but came out of retirement in 2002.[2][3] Since then she has performed in the Miss Exotic World Pageant—in 2005 as part of the Legends section of the program, and in 2006 as part of the Cavalcade of Classic Stars. She has also appeared at the annual burlesque convention Tease-O-Rama and in multiple neo-burlesque shows.[2][3][5][6][9][11]

In addition to performing, Satan's Angel gave classes in burlesque striptease and fire tassel twirling.[12] Strip tease and burlesque dancer Catherine D'lish has called Satan's Angel "a trailblazer in her profession".[5]

References
  1. "News, Culture, Trending: R.I.P. Gary Stewart and Angel Walker, Judith Baca's Mural and More". laweekly.com.
  2. Baldwin, Michelle; Evans, Dixie (2004). Burlesque and the new bump-n-grind. Denver: Speck Press. ISBN 0-9725776-2-9.
  3. Leatherman, Benjamin (2006-09-27). "Hell's Belle". Phoenix New Times. Phoenix, AZ: New Times Media. Retrieved 2009-04-14. Satan's Angel has taken her flaming tassels out of retirement, to the delight of a new generation of burlesque fans.
  4. Produced by North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC. Co-produced by American Public Media. (2007-08-10). "Hot hot hot". The Story. American Public Media.
  5. "A conversation with a flaming beauty: Satan's Angel, The Devil's Own Mistress". American Ethnography. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  6. Preston, John (2008-03-07). "Immodesty Blaize: Britain's burlesque star". Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. Retrieved 2009-04-17. Satan's Angel is over 60 and she's still taking her clothes off, so I don't see why I shouldn't carry on for a long while yet.
  7. Fritscher, Jack (1972). Popular witchcraft, straight from the witch's mouth. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press. p. 86. ISBN 0-87972-027-1. Dr. Arechega, who calls Ishtar the Original Stripper, might approve of Cece Ingram billed in contemporary burlesque as Satan's Angel. Others would call Cece's flaming tassels, spinning in opposite directions, a sacrilege. Anton LaVey would invite the burlesque artist to his altar.
  8. "Grinding to a Halt". Time. Time. 1970-04-27. Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-12. Satan's little darling stripped down to a G string and tassels, which she set aflame and proceeded to twirl in opposite directions.
  9. Pullen, Suzanne (2005-09-18). "Tease-O-Rama". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco: Hearst. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  10. Shteir, Rachel (2004). "You gotta get a gimmick". Striptease: The untold history of the girlie show. New York: Oxford Univ Press US. p. 303. ISBN 0-19-512750-1. In Minsky Goes to Paris (...) "Satan's Angel" started out in a devil suit, but quickly stripped to a G-string and tassels, which she set aflame and twirled in opposite directions.
  11. Leith, Sam (2008-12-15). "Why I fell in love with Miss Dirty Martini". Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 2009-04-17. Tempest Storm and Satan's Angel, who still perform to rapturous applause, are both old enough to be great-grandmothers. If ever there was a big, glorious two fingers to the body-fascist, no-fun hate brigade of the glossy fashion magazines, this is it.
  12. Roach, Catherine M. (2006). Stripping, sex, and popular culture. New York: Berg. ISBN 978-1-84520-129-6.
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