Candy Barr: The Small-Town Texas Runaway Who Became a Darling of the Mob and the Queen of Las Vegas Burlesque by Ted Schwarz

My review on unicornmeat.com:
I was hoping to write a story on this book for Bachelor Pad Magazine. By the end of the first chapter I realized this was too bleak for Java the Bachelor's "Booze, Babes & Burly-Q."
Candy Barr (nee Juanita Slusher)'s life was tragically full of rape, forced-prostitution and exploitation. Even her alleged relationship with gangster Mickey Cohen was, by her account, not of her own will.
At times I was confused about the whereabouts of her child. The birth of her daughter is briefly mentioned, leaving me wondering about Candy working as a dancer during her pregnancy. During later events, the presence of her daughter wouldn't seem to fit in with the events.
Most of the events in the book were told to the author by Candy Barr, which accounts for some of the confusion.
Her life in prison is the most fascinating era. During this time she wrote a (later self-published) book of poetry, leveraged the prison's desire for her to perform in the annual rodeo in exchange for a job in the prison library, and grew as a person.
The best part of the book, on the part of the author, is compellingly describing Candy/Juanita's heartfelt passion for dancing, and how her natural talent at it helped her to overcome the obstacles to join the ranks of the most famous exotic dancers of all time.
If, like me, you like reading everything you can get your hands on about the lives of exotic dancers, or you're interested eventful life stories, this is a worthwhile book. It is not a romanticized tale of stripping or "burlesque." Very little glitz, glamour and rhinestones


That review is kind of halfassed though. I have other things to add but I don't think I'll do it here because the eyes of the internet are watching.
I exchanged emails with the author. He's a character... indeed.
Candy Barr dances: