Candy Barr

Juanita Dale Slusher (July 6, 1935 – December 30, 2006), better known by her stage name Candy Barr, was an American stripper, burlesque dancer, actress, and adult model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century.

During the 1950s, she received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, her encounters with the law, the death of her second husband, and her sentence to a prison term for drug possession. Barr was also in relationships with Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby.

After serving three years in prison, Barr went to South Texas. She returned to stripping in the late 1960s, and posed for '' Oui'' magazine in the 1970s, then retired. In the early 1980s, Barr was acknowledged in the magazine ''Texas Monthly'' as one of history's "perfect Texans", along with other Texans, including Lady Bird Johnson.

Early life

Candy Barr was born Juanita Dale Slusher on July 6, 1935, in Edna, Texas, the youngest of five children of Elvin Forest "Doc" Slusher (August 19, 1909 – May 2, 1969) and Sadie Mae Sumner (October 1, 1908 – March 11, 1945). She had four siblings: Leota (born 1927), Keleta Pauline "Kay" (born 1928), Gary (1931–72), and Forest Slusher (1933–2003).

Juanita was nine years old when her mother was killed falling from a moving car on the highway in nearby Victoria County. Her father then married Etta Agnes Holden (June 18, 1908 – January 19, 1989). Etta was divorced from Guy Goggans (1905–78) and had four children: Solon (born 1927), Nila Fae (1929–2003), Ruby Yvonne (1933–2005), and Charles Edward Goggans (1937–2003). Doc and Etta Slusher had two children together, Travis Leroy (born 1946) and Katherine Pauline "Kay" Slusher (born 1948).

Juanita's early years were reportedly scarred by the trauma of sexual abuse from a neighbor and babysitter. At 13, she ran away from home and went to Dallas, where she worked in a motel. It was there that Slusher began working as a prostitute. At the age of 14, she reportedly married her first husband, Billy Joe Debbs (or Dabbs), but the marriage came to a stop after Debbs was imprisoned for safecracking. She also worked as a waitress before becoming an exotic dancer.

Career

At age 16, Slusher appeared in one of the most famous and widely circulated of the early underground pornographic films, '' Smart Alec'' (1951). Because of the widespread "underground" distribution and popularity of the film, she has been called "the first porn star" by the media.

She originally told a men's magazine that she did the film for the money, as at the time, she said, she had a dollar. Years later, Slusher instead said that she was drugged and coerced into appearing in the movie without her consent. Shortly after the release of ''Smart Alec,'' and while still underage, she was hired as a stripper at the Theater Lounge in Dallas by Barney Weinstein for $85 a week. She was given the stage name "Candy Barr" at this time (given to her by Weinstein, reportedly because of her fondness for Snickers bars), bleached her hair platinum blond, and became famous.

She worked at Weinstein's Colony Club during her career as a porn star. Barr established herself in burlesque and striptease with her costume of a cowboy hat, pasties, scant panties, a pair of pearl-handled cap six-shooters in a holster strapped on her hips, and cowboy boots. When the Theater Lounge would close, she would go to the after-hours Vegas Club, where she became acquainted with the owner and operator, Jack Ruby, in 1952. Their friendship was very casual, however, as she never worked for him and never associated with him outside the Vegas Club and the Silver Spur Inn, which he also operated.

Barr reportedly married her second husband, Troy B. Phillips, around 1953 and had a daughter about 1954. In January 1956, Barr shot her husband when he kicked in the door of her apartment in Dallas. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but the charges were later dropped. Phillips was not fatally wounded.

Barr performed for the only time on the legitimate stage in 1957, playing the role of Rita Marlowe in the Dallas Little Theater production of '' Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' In late October of that year, in another criminal case, Dallas police raided her apartment and found four-fifths of an ounce of marijuana, which was hidden in her bra. She was then arrested for drug possession, convicted, and given a 15-year prison sentence, However, Candy has stated it was set up and she was only holding the marijuana for a friend.

While the marijuana case turned into a series of appeals, her fame was spread nationwide and Barr became the most famous person of the strip club she worked in, earning $2,000 a week in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, as well as at the Sho-Bar Club on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans