Bubbles Cash
Bubbles Cash (born Essie Mae Cash)[1] is noted as a former burlesque dancer and film actress credited as a key inspiration for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders team.
Early life
[edit]Born in or around 1946, Cash grew up near Fort Worth on a dairy farm,[2]: 176 and in Grand Prairie,[3] aspiring to succeed Candy Barr as a famous Dallas stripper.[1][3][2]: 176 She acquired the nickname Bubbles as a baby.[1] In 1960 she was working as a carhop at the drive-through restaurant Sivils in Oak Cliff.[3]
By her own account, Cash married at 15, but other sources give the age of 17; her husband was Vestal Earl McIntosh, known as Mack, a gangster and signwriter.[1][3] In 1962, Cash left Sivils and began a career as a burlesque dancer. Soon after marrying, she had plastic surgery on her breasts (becoming "one of the first well-known women in Dallas who publicly acknowledged having augmented breasts"[3]); had a child, Keiley; and began working at venues including The Theatre Lounge, The Colony Club, and The Calves Bar.[3][1]
Association with Dallas Cowboys
[edit]At the age of 20,[2]: 176 on 5 November 1967,[4] Cash attended a Dallas Cowboys home game against the Atlanta Falcons.[3][4] Walking down an aisle carrying candy floss from a concessions stand, wearing a short skirt, Cash realised that she was attracting a lot of attention, including from print and television journalists, and did a small dance.[3] This propelled her to fame, and she became the Dallas Cowboys' "unofficial mascot", given free tickets to appear regularly at home and at some away games.[2]: 176 She is widely credited as a key inspiration for the development of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.[5][6]
According to one fan who acquired her autograph, "the B in Bubbles was a pair of breasts with nipples. Her last name was a dollar sign".[2]: 177
Politics
[edit]Cash ran for election as governor in 1968 as a "peace candidate" opposing the Vietnam War,[3][2]: 177 and again in 1990, when her 3287 votes made her the most successful of the nineteen write-in candidates.[7][2]: 177
Acting
[edit]According to the Internet Movie Database, Cash appeared in the films Hip Hot and 21 (1966), Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967), and Mars Needs Women (1968).[8] However, a 2017 blogpost reported that Cash told her daughter Keiley Mink that she appeared only in the last of these,[9] a claim that Mink repeated elsewhere.[3] Jimmy McDonough established, however, that contemporary news reporting demonstrated that Cash did appear in Hot Thrills and Warm Chills, subsequently taking the producers to court for what she viewed as a breach of contract.[3] Cash was, however, also cast in a film Swamp Lust[9][2]: 177 and, according to the 2017 blogpost, appeared in the documentaries Mondo Texas and D.O.A.: A Rite Of Passage.[9]
In Mars Needs Women, Cash played a stripper whom a team of Martians attempt to abduct to enable the perpetuation of the Martian people.[10]
Later life
[edit]John Eisenberg has characterised 1968 as "the peak of her fame".[2]: 177 After 1968, Cash divorced her husband, moved to Los Angeles and Hawaii, and then back to Dallas, where she became a musician and opened a jewellery shop.[3][2]: 177 According John Eisenberg, "when I tried to find her in 1996, her jewelry store had closed and none of her old bosses knew where she was",[2]: 177 but Jimmy McDonough later published an interview with her along with extensive coverage of her daughter's life.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Jimmy McDonough. "Hot-Blooded Women: The Dames of Dale Berry Pt 4". bynwr.com. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k John Eisenberg, Cotton Bowl Days (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), ISBN 0-684-83120-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Joe Nick Patoski, The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America (New York: Little and Brown, 2014), ISBN 9780316174800, ISBN 0316174807.
- ^ a b Ryan Sprayberry, Lone Star Sports Legends: On This Day in History (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2017), pp. 165-66 ISBN 9781467137751.
- ^ "Skin in the Game", Vanity Fair, vol. 60, no. 11 (November 2018), p. 116; ISSN 0733-8899.
- ^ Uncle John's Fully Loaded: 25th Anniversary Bathroom Reader (Printers Row, 2012), ISBN 9781607107040, ISBN 160710704X.
- ^ Eugene W. Jones, Practicing Texas Politics (Houghton Mifflin, 1992), p. 150, ISBN 9780395472880, ISBN 0395472881.
- ^ "Bubbles Cash | Actress". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
- ^ a b c Tabonga!, Eegah!! And (2017-01-04). "13: BUBBLES CASH - "Mars Needs Women" (1967)". 13. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
- ^ Paul Meehan, Alien Abduction in the Cinema: A History from the 1950s to Today (McFarland, 2023), pp. 62-63, ISBN 9781476649214, ISBN 1476649219.