The Busty, Badass, B-Movie Babe Tura Satana

exactly where to go. There's plenty of outlets, plenty of shares. Nobody is here to do anything but work, so that was that was a nice I'm not dropping, you know, coffee to justify my presence here. No, no baristas are casually looking over going when the hell are they going to leave? I remember thinking it would be too expensive, and then we did the math and we're like, no, it cost going to a coffee shop every single day and it's like minutes away from our house. Yeah, so perfect.

We are what do they say, blessed and highly favored. That's true, that's us know. The coolest thing that is we saw so many friends this week. Molly was in town by Molly, I know you listen, so hello. Really awesome to see her, and we saw a lot of friends. In the course of seeing her, I had to get together with other friends we haven't seen in a while.

And the best part of moving is when you come back and visit, right, you see a lot of people at once, And then the best part of your friend moving because they come back and visit and all your friends get together, like finally, but yeah, and then it was our friends Sammy's birthday, so we got to go staying karaoke and yeah, it has just been a nice social calendar this week. Sammy listens to you better say

hello to her, right, Hey, Sammy, and listen regularly. Samy and I were just talking yesterday because she texted me one of my own jokes from the show and it took me a second to figure out what she was talking about. I was like, oh, yeah, that's great, feels such a compliment. We're like, I wanted you to know how dad I am from the shop. Well, today we have an awesome story, so I think we should just

go for it. Any ready for this one? Because I was really into this one because today we want to tell you, guys about tourist Sitana, who is the lead star of the nineteen seventies cult classic B movie Faster pussy Cat, Kill Kill, which is just a great movie. She was a busty and beautiful Japanese American woman. She had an incredibly tough childhood, but that made her an incredibly tough woman. She became a burlesque dancer. She had

cameos and several films. Obviously she starred in Fast Pussycat. She had a black belt in karate. She passed info to the FBI about the mafia. She beat the shift out of some rapists. She had flings with Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio. She even taught Elvis how to kiss. This is just one irrepressively badass bitch, and we cannot wait to tell you about her. So Faster Eli record recall, Let's go and let's go. Hey the French, come listen. Well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no

matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a love. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract cons that from a concrete wall. But if there's a story, were a second clanch ridiculous roles production of I Heart Radio. Tua was born Toura Yamaguchi in in Hokkaido, Japan. Her mother was a native American and Scotch Irish circus performer, and her father was a Japanese and Filipino silent movie stars. What I know, I would love, Like what a life.

They rest, very interesting people just have around you. Mom's cooking dinner, like on her walking on her hands. That's miming eating. He's like, I'm walking on her hands in the name. Yeah, I'm not going to eat this because you made it with your feet, but I'm gonna You're gonna believe I'm eating it. And the family moved to America in two but that wasn't really the best time

to be Japanese in America. That is the year that the US decided to round up a hundred and ten thousand men, women and children and put them in military style internment camps for the duration of the war. So Tura and her father were separated from her mother and sent to Mansanar, which is one of ten such internment camps, and they were there for several years, and then when the war was over, they did get to reunite with

her mother and they moved to Chicago. Tora had a really tough time in this Polish Jewish Italian neighborhood on the West side of Chicago. She says that she was tormented daily as what she called quote a tojo or a monkey person, awful thing to say to anyone. Um. She also had to fight her way to and from school. She developed very early. She had like a very voluptuous figure when she was very young, and she tried to

hide this by wearing baggy clothes. But when she was about ten years old, her mother sent her to buy some bread. On her way back from the bakery, tour was grabbed and thrown into a car, where five men brutally raped her and then pushed her back out in the street. This cop showed up, but he turned out to be a cousin of one of the rapists. Yeah, and then even worse than that, these guys managed to pay off the judge. To her describe herself, she said,

quote one thousand dollars for a little girl's virginity. And the case, of course, never went to trial. The judge told her that she had quote enticed the men into raping her. He called her a juvenile delinquent, and as a punishment for this ten year old girl being raped, she was sent to a reform school. It is I want to understand who you are to look at a ten year old girl in the eye until her she enticed five men into raping her. Like, no, no, she

did not. That is a sick, horrible thing to say, aside from the fact that no one has ever enticed anyone into raping that right now. Tara's parents responded to this attack in some interesting ways. Firstly, Tara's father started teaching her martial arts like aikido and karate in the hopes that she would be able to protect herself in the future, since obviously probably had very little faith in

the justice system at this point. So Tara rounded up some other girls in her neighborhood and started a girl gang called the Angels that roamed around like, ready to beat the ass of anyone who was bothering young women in the area. Okay, she was like, I'm just determined that what happened to her would not happen to anyone else. Um, and I just think that's an amazing response. Eventually, she would go on to earn a green belt in iikedo

and a black belt in karate. But her parents also thought that a husband might be the answer for too is like rowdiness and like her fighting and everything, and so they arranged a marriage for her when she was only thirteen years old to a seventeen year old family friend named John Satana in Mississippi. Both these people too young to be married. I'll tell you that right now, And the marriage, of course, only lasted about nine months. Shook off her husband, but she kept the cool last name,

and she fled to Los Angeles. She had a fake I d and she got hired to dance at the Trocadera Club on Sunset Boulevard, and then she was working as a swimsuit model by the time she was only fifteen years old. At some point she caught the eye of silent comedy film star Harold Lloyd, who's the best. I mean, I don't know him personally, but Harold Lloyd was always I liked him the most. Yeah, he has

a very interesting career. By this point, Harold was experimenting with photography and he was taking nude photos of stars like Betty Page and Toura modeled for him too. Now. He apparently did not know that she was under age at the time, because she had this fake ID and she looked much more mature than than her age. She is featured in the book of his photos, which was later published by his granddaughter called Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in three D, which I gotta I haven't seen this book.

Are they like blue and red pictures? The old style three D glasses of because he said he was experimenting with three D photography. It was like, are they like pop up and the tips come popping out? Now? Toura credits Harold Lloyd with giving her the confidence to get into acting. In an interview for Jimmy McDonald's biography on Russ Meyer called Big Bosoms and Square Jaws, she said, quote, I saw myself as an ugly child. Mr. Lloyd said,

the camera loves your face. You should be seen. But she went back to Chicago first and started making a name for herself in Illinois nightclubs. First, she performed under the stage name Galatea, after the Greek myth of the statue that Pygmalions sculpted and fell in love with so she did this act where Galata came to life. Um. And then she began performing in a kimono as missed

japan Beautiful. And she became famous for her Tassel act, which blended, you know, sexy dancing with martial arts and acrobatics. So it's really unique act. Um. She described it for the Chicago Tribune quote, I wore a Japanese kimono and a huge headdress, and I carried my own Buddha. He would sit on a stool on the stage. After the dance routine, I'd take a very small harakirie knife and pretend to kill myself. This act sounds great, very creative.

According to Edmund Valen's blog Mafia History, Toura eventually started earning around a thousand dollars a week, which would be worth around ten thousand dollars today. Okay, insane money. That's half a million a year in today's money. One of the theaters that she performed in was the Folly's Burlesque Theater in Chicago, which was mob controlled, of course, like

most of the entertainment industry at the time. Edmund Valen says that it was owned by the brother of mafio so Nick Carsella, and while she was dancing there in the mid nineteen fifties, she caught the eye of Henry Susk, who was a wealthy auto dealer with mafia connections, and the two of them got romantically involved, and then Toura was introduced to Susk's associate, Gus Alex, who was this mafia big shot. I mean, this is a guy, you know Cement shows with the fishes, you know, I know,

especially Chicago, You're like right in the thing. It was kind of a thing in Chicago for a while there. Valin writes that Gus Alex quote supervised gambling and vice in Chicago's underworld and eventually rose the wits upper echelon. He was a top target of the FBI. Sitana developed an intimate relationship with Alex that attracted the FBI's attention, and that is when tourist Satana started passing info to

the FEDS. It's the spy ship. She like, she wasn't so close to these mafia guys that she could give the FBI anything super juicy, like I know he killed this guy or something like that. But one piece of information that she passed to them turned out to be pretty crucial. Um. She told them about a suite at Chicago's St. Clair Hotel that guests Alex used for meetings

or to make incriminating phone calls. She told her handler William Romer that quote all the top Chicago hudlums used it, and she was able to provide the floor plan in case the FEDS wanted to bug the room, as well as warned them that the manager of the hotel was really friendly with Alex and he would definitely tip him off a media atly if anyone started asking any questions. Additionally, she told them the fake name that the suite was rented under, and how the manager would cater lunch so

that their meetings the mob meetings would be uninterrupted. Unclear exactly how this information managed to play into their investigations, but Romer wrote in his memoirs that quote as the years went by, this information was to serve me very well. So they definitely got some good info from bugging the room. Or maybe they picture them like getting wheeled in with the catered lunch and they're like hiding under the cart like an ocean's love them. Well. It was also at

the Follies in Chicago. Apparently that Tura caught the eye of an as yet unknown president. According to her, she taught him everything he knew about the locking lips and shaking hips. We're gonna hear about how she got him. Right up of this Welcome back to the Hotbreak Hotel. So tourist Sitana is dancing with this giant Buddha on stage. She's doing all kinds of cool martial arts moves. In the mid nineteen fifties, when Elvis Presley himself became smitten

with her. Toura claims that they met in Biloxi a year before while she was touring, and then when he was in town to perform at the Chicago Theater, he caught her act at the Folly's and he went backstage to say, Hi, You're like, excuse me. I was just looking for the bathroom and couldn't help. Oh, I didn't realize this is where all the performers are in and the agents like to hang out. Remember me from Biloxi? Whoa watch the shoes? I'm really sens and uh write

a song about it. You should start in Elvis, I should start Tom Hank. Yeah, let's reboot last year's Elvis movie, It's time for a gritty Elvis reboot get uh Man in his late thirties to play young Elvis. Presley uh Pamela de bar in her two eight book Let's Spend the Night Together Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and SuperGroupies, wrote the quote, he wanted to know how she did the slide and the splits at the same time, how

she did the shimmy, how she shook all over. He was quite intrigued, so Tura gave Elvis some of them hip shimmy lessons that he would go on to make famous. Who knew Elvis borrowed part of his act from a minority person and then used that earned fame. I know it does tracked now. They did start dating, but Tura was not satisfied by what she called Elvis' is quote wet fish kisses. Damn, Elvis did not have game. I know, right,

it's really demystifying this sex symbol. And I mean, I know we don't do romantic advice on this show, but you'll get your kiss game together. Your kisses wet. I know those wet fish kisses. I know they are gross or like real tight lips. Oh, I was thinking real loose lips. Well yeah, well or I should or or you need lips like concrete. You know, you've got to go in tighten hard. That's what I always say about kissing. That's what I always People ask a lot, and that's

how I respond. That's why we don't do romantic tips on this show, because that's kind of advice you get like a vice grip. You know, I want to feel like your face is being sucked off by jellyfish, you know. Loose lips sink ships, tight lips swing hips. I always say, wow, that's what you always I only say a few things, and I say them constants, the one you should get

some new things, just fresh it up. So yeah, Tira said Elvis was kissing like a wet fish, so she to give him some lessons on the art of French kissing. And she described to Pamela dey Bar like a series of secret dates that they went on. They even had dinner together at her parents house and quote more intimate tutorials in the bedroom. Uh so she was really getting

Elvis together, getting him together. She's like, you got all the managers and the agents and the and the vocal instructors in the world, But who's teaching you what really matters? Out of Love. Tour said that Elvis was quote a very considerate lover and the old type Southern gentleman, always saying yes, ma'am, until I told him to stop because he was making me feel a hundred years old. He said, what should I call you? Sugar? I said that's good enough.

I'm picturing, of course in bed. She's like, just like that, and he said that was amazing. Elvis, let me hold the doll for you. She's like, we're in bed, there's no door. I'll find a door. I'll open it. Door for no reason. It's just like people now, people can see me. Elvis was spitten enough with Ta that he eventually proposed to her, but she turned him down. She explained in two thousand and eight, quote I told him if anyone knew about us being engaged, it would cost

him his career, which honestly might be true. Um, you know it. Not only would it be an interracial marriage, which anyone who heard our Sammy Davis Junior episode knows that nobody was into at that time. Um, but it would also be a marriage with a nude model and dancer, and that would really hurt Elvis's like all American boy image that he would later craft. So she went on to say, quote, I tried to give his ring back

and he told me to keep it. He said, you will always have a part of me with you, and I still have it. It's a solitaire diamond about three carrots. He could afford a three carrot diamond ring and afford to say no, you keep it. I know, right, I feel he'd be like, all right, I'll take that. She claims that Elvis was stuck on her enough to insist that his wife Priscilla dressed like her, wearing gobs of black eyeliner and long flowing black hair that he'd quote have her put up in a big ponytail or a

huge beehive like mine. Okay, but the Chicago Museum points out that her timeline doesn't really line up with Elvis's career. And I gotta say, it's a bit weird to be like, I'm gonna make my wife style herself after my ex girlfriend.

That's strange for anybody to me. But you know, I mean, I weirder things have definitely happened, sure now in the Chicago Magazine's Estimation Tour as story about Elvis coming back stage at the Follies to see her would have happened around nineteen fifty five, but he didn't perform in Chicago until fifties. Evan and Toura also gets no mention in

either of the definitive Elvis Presley biographies. By nineteen sixty seven, when Elvis married Priscilla, heavy highliner and big beehives were kind of hugely popular of a trend already, So Priscilla's style might not have had that much to do with Toura herself. Yeah, but you know, other sources say it's still possible. Uh, Tura might have simply mistaken some of the dates or places through just you know, quirks of memory.

Remember everything perfect. I don't know the difference between seventeen right now. Like literally, if you gave me two events and said which one happened in which year, not a chance, right, good luck to you, because and that's true if you're if you're like, I'm just dancing in a club, it's sometime in the mid fifties and I met Elvis, Like if you got the year wrong, it's like, you know, it's still possible. And she did live in Mississippi if she says he lived, you know, they met in Biloxi

and stuff. So there, you know, there is some threads for sure, you could pull and see if they were real, and you could see them leaving out, leaving it out of his graphy. I mean, his image to this day is curated, you know what I mean? And I mean even oh, he was in love with this lady and then they didn't get married, that's not that interesting, Like would you not want to focus more on the person he did marry. She's making it up. It's a crazy story that she could have totally made up, and who

would who would be able to say otherwise? Right to like add to her own legends stuff like she does. She does like her legend. You know, she has a she has a crafted image as well, and at that point, she's got some other stories like Torres Sitana also apparently hooked up with baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. She did, however, say that Elvis was a much better lover. Sorry Joe, home run this time. She told Pamela day Bar quote, I always felt like Joe was comparing me to Maryland.

He was a very strange person, subdued and reticent. He wasn't a good lover, but he wasn't bad either, which again, like it sounds like someone's self inflating story to say, oh yeah, I s love with Joe to Maggie and he was just always comparing me to Marilyn Monroe. You, I don't know, maybe I suppose he would. Maybe, yeah, I mean that's what we have him on our list

as well to do mary Is. I keep telling we're about that story, we get to it, and he definitely was like that's who he He probably compared every woman to Maryland, wouldn't you. I guess if you were with Marilyn Monroe, it's true, so you could definitely see it. But yeah, I also, I mean, you know, he was

not a good lover, but he wasn't bad either. Kind of says to me that maybe they just weren't sexually compatible, like you know, sometimes you need something more to have a good set, have a good time of it, but not always. Because she also slept with old Blue Eyes himself. Frank Sinatra, who Tura said quote was built like a stead horse and knew what he was doing. Now that's

the most believable things. I said. You could say that about anyone, could say it about Frank, and people would be like, yeah, I feel like the man got practice, he had no shortage of opportunity. Yeah. Uh. And she claims that bond girl Ursula and Dress hit on her at a party at Frank Sinatra's house. Also and a profile for fanzine, Toura said, quote everyone was saying Dean, Judy, Jack Lemon, everyone. Ursula and Dress saw me at the bar, and she comes up to my side and asks me

if I've had my first girl yet. Tura apparently explained to her that once she had slept with every single man in the world, then she'd be ready for her first girl. But quote not till then, sweetie. Okay, but Ursula Andress would be a pretty good for you girl. There's nothing you know, being clear about your heterosexuality. You know that's fine, That's well. I feel like Ursla and Dress would uh certainly could be a tipping point. I know.

I'd be like, well, I mean, get another dude over here, and we can make some happy just for the experience. Where's Frank. I want so bad well, okay, I I want so badly and I want so badly to not be at this party with Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Jack Lemon, Frank Sinatra dress. Like what a time we talked about this. I think recently we watched Babylon just you know, which

is earlier than this, but old old Hollywood. There's just this era of Hollywood where I'm like, it sounds so fun and also so chaotic and dangerous and miserable at the same time. But I would love to pop in for one party in my little time machine, like exactly in our time travel agency where we get to go to very specific parties in history. This is one that should be in the list. Oh my god. You know, everybody's like, who would you who would you kill if

you had a time machine? What would you do? What party would you go to? Party? Who would you have dinner with? None of that stuff. You have a time machine and you could pop into one party where they won't really know you're there because it's so crazy. Where are you going to go? And it makes sense because like it's time travel, so you're you're afraid, you know, to fund something up and change the future with it's

a party, so like just go, no one will notice. You, there's not much you can do except like kill someone at this party maybe, but like, well this party and have a good time and leave and do very little to the timeline experience. You and I end up sleeping with dress and yeah, she can't get her mind off us, starts performing badly. Yeah then then what and what have we done? I like to get back in the time

machine take it all back. Oh god, but we'll still have our memories, I hope right in tell us which party you would go to with the time machine in history, because I would. I would love those answers. Well, we'll read them out on the show. We have had a few parties on our show that we have said we would go too, So I would definitely love to hear what y'all think, Okay, and then Toura Stanna's daughter Kalani, was born in ninety seven, when Tura was nineteen, and

her second daughter, Jade Kim, was born in nineteen sixty nine. Now, Tura claims that her baby daddy's are jazz crooner Tony Bennett and The Birds actor Rod Taylor, but she does not specify which kid belongs to which dad anywhere that we could find um. The only thing I could see was who somebody asked if her daughter had a Australian accent, and she said, because Rod Taylor is Australian and she said no, but Rod Taylor didn't either when I was

with him. Also, do they know that accents are genetic? Okay? I was like, I don't know. Well, it was actually a really cute little ride up where he was like he was meeting her after screening, and he was super nervous, and he was like, I was just trying to think of something cool to say because I really idolized her. And why you're the lamest person ever when you're around someone that you adolized. Just like the only thing I

could think of which I find relatable. I wonder what Tony Bennett has got to say about this, right, And I did. I did look at Tony Bennett and Rod Taylor's Wikipedia pages at least, and no mention of Tura on either of them, or any kids like with her or anything. So again, it's you know, who knows what she's embellishing or what they are willing to admit to, or what cares take it all a face value. Well, I was kind of like pretty much everyone involved. I

mean Tony Bennett is still with us. I believe pretty much everyone involved as Dead's like, who cares? I fucked Elvis? Fine, okay, you say so. So. Toura's on screen career really started to kick off in the early nineteen sixties. She's she's doing all this stuff before she's even the right indi wire dot Com writes that she quote earned her guild card on the TV show Hawai, I and I after being spotted dancing at the Los Angeles Follies by a

Warner Brothers scout. In this she would have played a sexy secretary in nine nine, but it must be said that if she was on that show, it was never listed on her IMDb credits page. Most sources say that her first on screen role was actually in the Shirley

McClain Jack Lemmon movie musical Irma La Douce. The story is that the director of this movie, Billy Wilder, and his wife decided to go hang out at the Pink Pussycat in West Hollywood one night when Toura happened to be dancing and they were just like totally enraptured with her performance. They realized that she was the perfect person to play Suzette Wong, who was one of Irma's fellow

Parisian prostitutes in the movie. Toura told Ruth Stein in an interview for s f gate dot Com that she had the same number of costumes as Shirley McClain, saying quote, I had one with Tassel's hanging off the end of my boobs. Billy just loved those things, Billy Wilder Tassel fan. After that role, she landed another cameo as a stripper

in Dean Martin's Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed. I love the names of movies, old movie and probably a question Dean Martin asked all the time, Like he said, who that um Natura is also uncredited for that role in in Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? But she apparently also was the choreographer for Carol Burnett in that, which would be so dope just to work with Carol

Burnett for an hour. She also got other roles in television shows like Burke's Law and The Man from Uncle in nineteen sixty four, which crossover Alert also featured a very young Kurt Russell. Hey, Hey, we know him from our episode about him that's right, and then Goldie, but it was softcore King russ Meyer who gave her her

most famous role. And while she was working on Irma Deduce, she got the call to come read for Russ's movie Leather Girls, and Indy Wire says she didn't have time to change between work and the audition, so she showed up in the wedding dress she was wearing for the film and he handed her the script. He asked her how she'd play it. She responded, quote, I'd make her

kind of feminine but also a bitch on wheels. After her cold read, russ told her, quote, you are definitely Varla, and she got the part and the title of the film was changed to Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, which is a great title. It's so great and I don't I don't know if y'all have seen this, but it is just the wackiest movie. Yeah, it's this whole kind of style of filmmaking. You're into it or you're not, that's for sure. And I was not for a while, but

I came to appreciate this kind of stuff. It is so campy and ridiculous, overacted and crazy, but it is really fun. It's just shouting every line like there's no subtlety to the performance. There's no like the story. Yeah, there's no subtext. This was a sexploitation B movie and it basically kicked off the female action hero. The tagline was women Belted, buck olden booted, and it was just

unlike anything movie audiences had ever seen before. It's probably unlike anything you've seen now unless you've seen the many things copying it. You know, since then, Varla her character was the leader of a killer girl gang of go go dancers. Yes, I love it already. During the movie as Days Digital Rights, she quote drag races across the desert, unleashes some of the cattist one liners to have hit celluloid, most of them improvised, and generally kicks patriarchal ass. Now

the movie, you know, it didn't win any Oscars. It should not, but it did have a major influence on filmmakers like John Waters and Quentin Tarantino got John Waters especially, I mean this just like his whole vibe absolutely King

of King of filth Right. Critic Roger Ebert once wrote, quote what attracts audiences is not sex and not really violence either, but a pop art fantasy image of powerful women, filmed with high energy and exaggerated in a way that seems bizarre and unnatural until you realize Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Dam and Steven Seagal play more or

less the same characters without the bras. Of course, maybe they should have the bad but I think thought about that Sylvester Stallone changed the format a little now that Arnold would wear one, but Stephen would not. Steven Seagal would never agreed. Well, Arnold was great at teasing himself, like finding the comedy in his own image. That's one of the best things about Arnold's movies, especially as comedies. It's like he knows how silly he is. And yeah,

you're right, Seagal way too self serious. Yeah, but I think this is such a great quote from obviously Roger, who knows what he's talking about. Um that it's not really all that different from something like Commando or Cliffhanger or something where it's kind of ridiculous, right, I think it's I think Myers movies are a little more frenetic, you know, a little more chaotic, and admit a little

more of their own silliness. Yeah, but I think there's a lot of similarities there, and you're like, well, how can you like it when he does it? Yeah, it would be interesting to see, uh, something like Faster Pussycat but made by a team of women, because at first, like Commando and stuff like that, are made by teams of men, so their idea of hyper masculinization and stuff is all playing out. This is still sort of russ Meyer, you know, there's still a male gaze element to it.

I guess you didn't know that Commando is directed by Jane Campion. Wow, I had no. I would totally watch Jane Campion's version of command Can you imagine now? Varla in Faster Pussycat was also a revolutionary role in the way that it pushed back against existing stereotypes of Asian women. Even in Toura's burlesque act, which obviously played on audiences geisha girl fantasies. You know, she's in a kimono, she's

dancing with a Buddha. She's definitely playing into that. But it didn't adhere to the stereotypes because she had these incredible costuming and authentic martial arts moves. And a lot of sly humor that she incorporated that kind of lifted, kind of elevated it from just regular Geisha girl stuff days Digital writes, quote as a fearsome protagonist, a faster pussycat.

She smashed through the Hollywood stereotype of Asian women being sexually available and submissive, crushing dull all American boys under her knee high boots. And you know, it would be wrong to give creator and director russ Meyer all the credit for this, because even he said that he and Tura Satana aid Faster Pussycat together, and apparently he was not great at sharing credit, so that was quite something

for him to shout her out. Um. And it makes sense because she performed her own stunts, She choreographed her fight scenes and several other people's fight scenes, and she ad libbed most of Varla's best lines. For example, in one scene, a guy is like ogling her cleavage as he talks about wanting to see America and tour retorts. Quote, you won't find it down there, Columbus, turn those three ships around. Amazing how russ Meyer apparently had a rule that no one was allowed to have sex while they

were making this movie. It's probably just to avoid a bunch of problems between actors because drama rama. But Toura refused. According to ruth Stein, she said, quote, I told him I had to have sex every day because otherwise I get very frustrated. He said, we're filming in the middle of a desert. Where are you going to find anyone? I said, that's my problem. Get some That's funny. I had read it. That's my that's my problem. I don't know either way. It's great, that's my problem, my problem.

You don't worry about that. I'll take care of that part. The film itself cost forty dollars to make. It came out in the summer of nineteen sixty five and it became a cult classic. And she never worked with Russa Meyer again. But she was cast in two Ted V. Michael's movies, The Astro Zombies in Night and The Doll Squad in ninety three. I have not seen those two me neither, and I did. I did read an article that said, like Fastro Zombies is is like not as

good as Faster pussy Cats. It's like even more campy and stuff. But her character and it is apparently really cool um. But another just very just two very b movie style stuff, and apparently rest Meyer did regret never casting her again. He wished that they had worked together because that movie is still being talked about. Yeah, you might have wanted her by your side. But look, tourists

got all this experience. She's been playing these badass killers, and she was actually more like Varla than anyone realized because she took all that knowledge and experience and then she spent fifteen years tracking down each and every one of her childhood rapists to exact some sweet revenge. Yeah, and we'll get into those breaks right after this break. Welcome back, everybody. So yeah, not only did to reform

her own girl gang as a kid again. They were called the Angels, and they were like motorcycle jackets and jeans and boots, wandered around trying to beat the ass of any dude trying to get fresh um. But she was also determined that her own rapists would get some form of justice, even if it had to come from her own fists. She said it took around fifteen years

for her to track them all down. And while there's not a lot of detail out there, Tura did describe some of her punishments to Michael Musto in interview for Village Voice. They included taking off pieces of skin with her nails, kicking one guy in the face and in the crops, and hanging another guy by his genitals so

he now speaks quote in a very high voice. She also said quote they never knew who I was until I told them, And I mean, this is the movie I want to watch because you could just see her like heavy winged eyeliner, big hair, you know, badass leather outfit, standing over some piece of ship, being like, remember a ten year old girl you raped in your car? Well, guess what, bitch, she's me and she's about to rip your dick off. Right, you won't find it down there.

Columbus Wolf, Yeah, do it, go get them. I love it. I think that is true. Again. I hope that it's true, and I hope she was very sure, exactly right right, very good points. But I guess if they went through a whole like court situation, she probably has their faces pretty clearly in her mind. She might have had a couple of connections at the old FBI. Still very true or mob connections either way. Connect Yeah, that's absolutely true.

After the movie the doll Squad wrapped up to her decided that she was going to leave show business and spend more time with her daughter's Klanni and Jade. She got back into nursing, which she had actually intended to go into when she was in high school. She got a job at a hospital, but she did continue dancing. But then an ex boyfriend showed up at her club and shot at her twice. He hit her once in

the stomach. By the time, and no word on which ex boyfriend, and we assume it wasn't Elvis No, in fact, no mention to his biography. I shot a lady in the top bustlerman. I commutely left that part out. By the time that tour was out of the hospital, she decided to give up dancing as well, and according to The Guardian, changes were made to California licensing laws that made most nightclub owners decide that everyone would have to

perform topless. But Toura. She really liked those tassels that she wore, so she said, nuts to that, not doing it. I'm done. I'm a burlesque dancer. I don't do all that ship. No nips from me, no nips from Sitana. She worked as a nurse and later as a police dispatch operator for the l A p D. And maybe that's how she met her second husband, Endil German, former police officer, who she married in Nate Team one. What a life like starting out as a dancer at the

Trocadero and a swimsuit model. You get some time in Hollywood, some time with the mob, and then you become a dispatcher. It's so weird. I love looking at like one time movie stars, you know, people who were like, oh the you know, just just one hit wonders, you know, and then like they got out of the business, and you're like, what are they doing now? Oh they're a vet. Yeah, oh they work at a at the stockyards. Like it could be people got to continue having lives. No, very true.

They're like real estate agent, like Vanilla. Oh yeah, like just like Vanilla. And not long after she married Andel German, though, Toura was hit by a car um It was going sixty miles per hour in per hour zone and the driver was unlicensed and it broke her back. Tour spent

two years in and out of the hospital recovering. She required two major operations and around fifteen smaller ones um and her doctors warned her that she may never walk again, but Tora, of course replied, quote, not only will I walk again, Doc, but I'm gonna do everything else I used to do Columbus, Columbus, That's right. And aside, you know from her impressive martial arts moves, she did keep that promise. She couldn't quite you know, do the kicks

and crazy ship that she used to do. But otherwise she she walked and ran around. She did her her regular life, so awesome. Nice job to ra She went on to work hotel security and Reno Nevada, so she must have had an okay back to drag those drunks out of the casino sometimes. But honestly, her smartest move was to trademark her own name and image, which meant anytime russ Meyer reissued Faster Pussycat or altered the poster,

he had to pay her. Again. Smart Now, at first, it's probably didn't matter because the movie was a up but it became a cult classic over the years, and besides all the ubiquitous T shirts and poster prints, Tura also ended up cashing in on a Halloween mask and an action figure. Hell yeah, please make me an action figure. Now. A lot of opinions about the movie Faster Pussycat have

changed with time, like this. One feminist film critic be Ruby Rich, who coined the term new Queer Cinema, saw the movie when it came out and she said she was quote absolutely outraged that I had been forced to watch this misogynist film that objectified women and that was

really just short of softcore porn. But then she watched it again in the ninety nineties and she quote just loved it and ended up doing a whole talk about how films get edited by history because the movie was one thing in the seventies and then in what she called the quote heyday of queer culture in the nineties,

it met something completely different. I thought that was a really interesting point, Like sometimes you make a movie and it just isn't for its own time, but as time goes on, it becomes more and more appreciated, um and because culture changes around it. So I found that really fascinating or less appreciated. You know, the other flip side being you you watch it. You know, there's so many movies now that people are like, I can't even like two thousands era comedies and stuff. You're like, I can't

even watch it's so uncomfortable. I laughed my ass off at the time. And now it's just like I can't stop thinking about, you know, things I've heard about how people are harmed by this kind of language or this or movies like this or whatever. And you're like, well, it's okay that I laughed at this then and don't want to now, Like that's that's all. Yeah, the context of your entire world that you're existing and has changed,

and that's okay. I saw and Reddit the other day people talking about movies that have you know, aged in different ways like we're talking about, and somebody was like, you know, had brought up Blazing Saddles and they were, you know, really hard defending it. A lot of people were almost no one was attacking it. Um, but I know you and I saw Blazing Saddles for the first time fairly recently. I think I had seen it before, but but you had not, right, And um, and I

love mel Brooks. I mean, I like, when I was a kid, Robin Hoodmen in Tights and Spaceballs were like my favorite movies. But I just never got around to that one, and while I'm like, yeah, I mean, people defend, they're They're like, this was a really brilliant movie, and it is. It's it's funny, it's got a lot of commentary that's very biting and uh, you know, can work really well in some context. And also just for me at the time that I saw it, it it was kind

of hard to watch. And I'm you know, not I'm going to tell anybody they're wrong for liking it or or or vice versa. It's just also subjective art people, you know, Yeah, it's hard to have a wrong opinion about art. Yeah, the point is that you're you get to look at it and react to it. Period. You've got to let people love things, and you've got to

let people hate things. You know. I used to who I used to get pretty frustra it at when people didn't like something that I liked, and really brought up myself a lot of peace when I was like, it's okay again. You know, in terms of the collective human experience, how lame is it if we all liked and dislike the same things. I mean, why are we all live in the same life here? People? Very true? Very true.

Although I do love the scene in Blazing Saddles when he holds himself hostage and kind of doing both stereotypes of black people at the same time, and it was It's so clever. And it does help to know that Richard Pryor wrote like all of all of that characters stuff and everything and not melt brooksitt here like throwing the N word around. Um, But but I feel you. We did watch him. We were like, hey, yeah, yeah,

he would just have to do it differently today, that's all. Well, he wanted to make the same points, you would have to do it differently. And yeah. And that's not to say that like it's it shouldn't exist today or it's wrong for existing or whatever. It's just like, yeah, you would approach I don't even think you would have to make a different A lot of people say, like, this movie couldn't get made today, and I'm like, it could.

People just might not respond to it well. Or you would find different ways to approach the same subject, you know, because we already had Blazing Saddles, So are we not building off of that? Right? Why would you make it today? You couldn't make it today because Blazing Saddles already exists. You can't make something in the vacuum of that movie not existing because it does. But no, there's some amazing stuff in that movie. It's it's it's clearly brilliant. Oh

we're so far off subject. Meanwhile, all that to say be Ruby Rich changed her mind. Yes, And Meanwhile, John Waters loved Faster Pussy Get from the get go. He wrote that it was quote beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made. It is possibly better than any film that will be made in the future, and when he watched it years later, he simply stated that it quote

aged like a fine wine. There was a rumored reboot of Faster As You Get, Kill Kill with of course, Quentin Tarantino attached, and he was apparently considering Brittney Spears to come play Varla. According to Vice Now, Tourra, when asked about this, simply said that if Tarantino ever went through with the project, quote, I'd kill him. He'd kill my part, so I'd kill him, And I gotta say I believe her. I think she would straight up kill Bill.

Quentin Tarantino was kidding, but I don't know. I think his house and five point Palm Exploding Heart track that guy, Quentin. Tarantino was like, oh, that's what he didn't I don't think. I do think Britney Spoons is a strange choice. Well, he just wanted, you know. I could see where he's like, I want someone who's not going to look like a natural actress in this part, because that's that's how tour uplayed it. So I could see Tarantino being like, I

want a non actress, you know, a performer. I want a performer to play this a stage presence, but not necessarily unbelievable, right, I guess it's more the martial arts stuff that I'm an outside brit to do necessarily, Like why not find a like an m M A fighter or something? Sure, you know, I mean she's a dancer, so she could probably do some of the moves. That's true. She has some acrobatic skills. Maybe she could have pulled off the vision Tarantina was looking for. I don't know.

He didn't, and we're probably better off for it. I was about to say, it's probably best we don't know. Toura Sitana also became a regular at cult film conventions, of course, and even though she had a pacemaker put in in two thousand three, she was like tougher than ever. In one interview, she talks about being at a convention to do a signing and one over enthusiastic fan hid in her hotel room afterwards and then like popped out

to reveal himself. Well, guess what happened to her described it quote, he went flying across the room and wound up with a broken arm, busted nose, and a badly twisted leg. The house detective carried him out. So she's like, I'm might have a pacemaker and I might have broke my back. So you kick your sucking ass if you hide my room. Yeah. So yeah, Tura still kicking ass. As the rest Meyer himself once said, quote, Tua was

extremely capable. She knew how to handle herself. Don't funk with her, and if you have to fuck her, do it well she might turn on you. Damn Wow, that's uh important advice. Like listen, she told Elvis to his face, he kissed like a wet fish, So be careful. She's got that's my problem, that's my problems, that's my problem. In one interview, Stana said, quote, I learned to be tough because of what life kept handing me. I could either go down for the count or I could get

up and kick ass. Words to live by Endel German. Tora's second husband died in two thousand two. Were never remarried. She passed away from heart failure on February fourth, two thousand and eleven, in Reno, Nevada, leaving behind her two daughters, Klanni and Jade, two sisters, Pamela and Kim, and a really cool life story. Yeah for real, I mean, just a dope legend it is. Again, I mean, obviously there's questions about about you know, obviously a lot of this

came from her interviews. How she described her life, not necessarily corroborated by the people she said she was interacting with. But it's one of those stories where I'm like, I don't care, Like this is a great story if you tell me an amazing story, and then at the end you're like and it's true, and we're like, Okay, that part wasn't what I was worried about. I just thought

it was awesome. Right, It's really rad to have a life where any of this could have happened, Like, even if we don't know for sure, there she has the connection she was in the right places at the right times. You know, it is possible. And I mean if I said I had done any of this, there's no chance. So like I slept with I don't know, Ryan Gosling, you know, be like, okay, I taught Ryan Gosling had a kiss when we all ever and not doesn't quite

track with the what I do know to be true. Right, But she lived a life in which any of this could be real. She was she was really cool. I liked Torris Sitana. She was. We gotta watch that movie again. Yes, I do want to watch it. We did do um once upon a time with our theater company, did a Restmeyer send up and everybody had to wear these giant fake boobs and big hair. It was a lot of fun. But we I think we watched at least some of it.

We watched this whole movie. Okay, maybe even another one, but but yeah, for research for that, you know, and get our acting together and are aesthetics together. I mean, our whole group was always very into like John Waters and that kind of whole aesthetic, that camp and hyper stylized,

over the top sort of stuff. It wasn't what I came into the group having a background in our friends, but like our you know, our friends James and Rob and a lot of others who were just like that was the stuff they loved and they got us into it too. It's it's pretty amazing. You've got to open

yourself up to it. You've got to kind of change your vision of what a movie should look and sound and feel, like I think, because I think it's one of those things were very early on, not even very early on, but like you know, even even in high school or college, I could have watched that movie and said this is trash. Why would you want to sit through this? But you kind of like put that away and say, well, wait a minute, this isn't I'm not

watching you know, Christopher Nolan. Here, I'm I'm engaging in a completely different experience, and I shouldn't be comparing them, right, and that they're not trying to make that right? So did they really fail? You know what I mean? Like russ Meyer was not trying to make Schindler's List. He was trying to make Mr Pussycat and he succeeded, right. I mean, it's the difference between riding on a luxury

jet and a Carnival Ride. You know, like you're not supposed to compare them, right, exactly if you enjoy them like Air Force one vomit over the you enjoy them very different wys for very different reasons. Yeah, exactly exactly. So I have to recommend seeing Faster Pussycat out there. If anyone wants to check it out, you should, because it is definitely a snapshot of cinema history. Also, it's

like a sixties B movie. There's nothing like them, But there's just nothing like a sixties B movie or any any type of exploitation felt like blaxploitation, sexploitation. They're also interesting and have their place. Yeah, and I think also give you a different kind of appreciation for things like Tarantino and John Waters and stuff like that, kind of seeing what was inspiring them to do things the way

they do them, which is very different. Um. And I mean I'm even hit or missed with Tarantino a lot of times. I can't stand him as a person, but um but I've watched his movies differently after I saw some of the sort of source material movies that he relied on. Yeah, well, we hope you enjoyed this story. As much as we did. It was so fun to kind of go to the seventies and and get out of the literary world. No more Western European authors this week, not this week. But yeah, we hope you enjoyed her

as much as we did. Um. As always, we love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know what you thought of this episode or what parties through history you would love to attend. All right, Email addresses radic Romance at gmail dot com. That's right. You can find us also on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at O Grade, It's Eli, I'm at Dianamite Boom, and the show is at ridic Romance. That's right, And thanks so much for spending your time with us. We love hanging out with

y'all and we will see you next time. All right, So long friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends neighbor's uncle s indance to listen to a show Ridiculous roll Dance