April March (dancer)

April March was one of the performers featured in the 2010 Leslie Zemekis film, Behind the Burly Q and in the Immodesty Blaize film, Burlesque Undressed.

In 2006, April March was invited to appear as one of the Legends of Burlesque at the annual Miss Exotic World in Las Vegas. After seeing the new burlesque revival and the acts dedicated to the classic strip tease, March was impressed and once again became part of burlesque doing annual appearances, lectures and teaching at festivals in Las Vegas, Boston and Canada. Although she no longer did a strip tease, she became a teacher in the old style of the elegant strip tease act.

April March retired from burlesque in 1978 citing that the business had changed and become too blatant and sexual. After retiring, her only public appearance in thirty years would be in 1982 when she became the third woman ever (after Ann Corio and Elizabeth Taylor) to be honored as Person of the Year by The Circus Saints and Sinners Organization.

For a brief time, March was engaged to singer, Mel Torme, who was to be her fourth husband. She jilted Torme to marry a man who owned a string of drugstores. Although Torme was furious, the two eventually renewed a friendship that lasted until Torme's death. During this fourth marriage, March took a six-year hiatus from burlesque, during which she discovered a second love, golf. She served as President of the Ladies Golf Association in Tulsa, OK. and developed an eight handicap. This accomplishment would later have her become the only burlesque stripper to be written up in Sports Illustrated in the June 1964 issue.

In 1961, April March was given the title "The First Lady of Burlesque". When an agent pointed out March's striking resemblance to then First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy, the agent jokingly said that March's new moniker could be "The First Lady of Burlesque". March's ladylike demeanor on stage also played a part in the title and she began using it.

Later in her career, March starred in two shows with the Minsky Theaters in New York City and Wildwood, New Jersey. She turned down Harold Minsky's offer to star in his Las Vegas theater in favor of a three-month contract as the star of the Arthur Fox Review Bar in Manchester, England. March was a special guest star in Ann Corio's off-Broadway show, This Was Burlesque and was filmed for a late night television special entitled The Secrets of April March. She also went head to head in a television interview with Dorothy Fuldheim and appeared as a guest on the Joe Franklin Show. March was also a frequent headliner on the B&E Theater Circuit, a chain of burlesque theaters across the U.S. and Canada owned and operated by Frank Bryan and Frank Engels. She appeared as the stripper in the 1961 Jim Henson short film, Time Piece, which may be the only existing footage of her performing.

April March began her career in 1952 at The Theater Lounge in Dallas, TX. After meeting Barney Weinstein in Oklahoma and being offered the opportunity to work in his club, she traveled to Dallas. Weinstien had her trained as a burlesque stripper and gave her the name April March. At the same time, Weinstien and his brother, Abe, were training another burlesque legend, Candy Barr. March became an instant favorite with audiences who were intrigued by the mix of sensuality and innocence from the raven haired beauty and taken in by her warmth and charm.

Velma Fern Worden (born June 18, 1935), better known by the stage name April March, is an exotic dancer and prominent star of American burlesque. Billed as April March, The First Lady of Burlesque, she was a headline act in burlesque from 1952 to 1978. During her more than thirty-year career, she gained popularity throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe for her classy and sophisticated striptease. March was one of the innovators of the elegant strip tease.