Ann Corio

One of twelve children of Italian immigrant parents, Ann Corio was a prominent American burlesque stripper and actress. Born Ann Coiro on November 29, 1909, in Hartford, Connecticut, the change of her surname was motivated by her choice of profession and her family’s disapproval of it. Her rise to stardom began with her involvement with the Mutual Burlesque Circuit in 1925, eventually making her one of the most popular risqué actresses of the time. Corio later appeared in films and plays, and on the radio and TV, eventually putting together her own off-Broadway show, This Was Burlesque, in 1962. In 1968, she wrote a book with the same title. Corio died on March 1, 1999, at the age of eighty-nine in Englewood, New Jersey.