Rosita Royce

Rosita Royce (1918 - 1954) was an American actress and burlesque artist. She performed during the peak of the burlesque industry in the 1930s and was known for her "Dance of the Doves", in which the specially trained doves would fly away with pieces of the clothes she was wearing.

She was given the nickname "Dove Dancer."

Rosita Royce was born Marjorie Rose Lee in 1918 in Lincoln, Nebraska to Bertha and Dr. C.M. Corrington. She grew up in Kansas City and later lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her father owned a chain of dental offices throughout Kansas and Nebraska but lost everything during the depression.

At the age of three, Royce developed heart problems. Doctors suggested dancing as a form of exercise. By the age of eight, she began taking dance lessons from the celebrated dancer Ruth St. Denis. Royce attended the University of Nebraska and Wesleyan University, Connecticut.

At the beginning of her career, Royce assumed the stage name Rosita (changed from Marjorie Rose Lee). She traveled to New York and performed in famed theatrical producer Earl Carroll's "Vanities." One day, the Carroll told her, "Rosita, it's a shame to cover up a body like yours." Royce took her mentor's advice, trained doves to help in the act, and suddenly experienced new-found fame.

In her performance, Royce entered fully clothed, wearing long, velvet gloves and within minutes, her father would release seven doves who would land on her gloved arms and head. Each bird weighed fourteen pounds. As the music played, Royce called the birds by their names, who then carefully removed a piece of her clothing.

Once, under the stress of performing fourteen to sixteen times a day, Royce fainted before the show. When the management offered to refund the admission price, the crowd demanded rain checks instead. Royce later explained to her disappointed fans the combined weight of the doves simply tired her out. The situation was not good for Royce. She once walked out during the evening's intermission, complaining about performing seventy-four shows a week and the working conditions of the chorus girls. The manager, Philip Gelb, called the walkout "a cheap publicity stunt"; he felt he had Royce in a "contractual cage" as she had signed an exclusive-rights document with him for eighteen months. Later, in 2013, she was featured in a documentary titled That's Sexploitation!, which looked at the exploitative nature of the contemporary burlesque industry.

In 1953, Royce appeared in burlesque based comedy-musical Striporama. The other dancers featured included Georgia Sothern, Bettie Page, and Lili St. Cyr.

In 2013, her footage was featured in director Frank Henenlotter's 2013 documentary That's Sexploitation! The other noted performers to be seen in the documentary were Virginia Bell, Mary Blair, Bettie Page, Sally Rand, and Georgia Sothern.

Royce died on September 24, 1954, in Miami, Florida.

Her mother, Mrs. Corrington reported on her death: "During one of her performances at the New French Quarter on opening night, she slipped on a cigarette butt that patrons would flick upon the stage. The floor was not cleaned during the previous dancer's act and she seriously fell on stage. She was taken to the hospital on August 7th. where she underwent surgery but due to her previously being diagnosed with inoperable cancer, the operation failed and she did not recover."

Royce was buried in Southern Memorial Park, Miami.