Phyllis Dixey

Phyllis Dixey was Britain's wartime "Queen of Striptease". Her heyday began in 1940 when she took on the lease of the Whitehall Theatre in London. With her legendary "Peek-a-boo" revues she became enormously popular, acquiring a word-of-mouth reputation for sauciness that, in fact, was never quite matched by her performances. The Whitehall played to wartime audiences as packed as those of its rival, the more famous Windmill Theatre. Dixey eventually fell from favour as raunchier competitors began to appear and finally she was made bankrupt. At the time of her early death she was working as a cook.