FRENCH SINGERS: Rita Cadillac

Here are 3 songs by the legendary Rita Cadillac.

Rita Cadillac (born Nicole Yasterbelsky; 1936, Paris – 1995, Deauville) was a French striptease artist, dancer, singer, and actress.

Cadillac started her music career as an accordionist under the alias "Rita Rella" at the age of 13. In 1952, she was a pin-up model and took the name "Rita Cadillac" (possibly as a French slang pun on her prominent breasts) at Crazy Horse where she began to work as an exotic dancer.

Rachel Shteir writes in her book on the history of striptease that Cadillac did complicated, highly produced, funny, sexy numbers. In one of her most famous boudoir acts, set in a 1880’s Arizona honky-tonk, Cadillac removed her white corset with green polka dots and her black tulle gloves with an agonizing slowness, that inspired total silence in the theatre. She was also a dancer of Folies Bergère in the 1950s.

Cadillac appeared in a dozen French films (both in leading roles and in small supporting parts, often doing a striptease number) such as Soirs de Paris (1954) (a sexploitation film about the night life of Paris), Gueule d'ange / Pleasures and vices (1955) (with Viviane Romance), Jusqu'au dernier / Until the last one (1957) (starring Jeanne Moreau), Porte océane (1958), Me faire ça à moi / Do that to me (1960) (with Eddie Constantine), La prostitution / Prostitution (1962), Un clair de lune à Maubeuge (1962), Mélodie en sous-sol / Any number can win (1963) (starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon) and Cadavres en vacances / Corpses on holiday (1963) (with Simone Renant). The most distinguished of her films of the 1950’s was René Clément's Gervaise (1956), for which, ironically enough, she received no credit, merely serving in one scene as the body double for Suzy Delair, who was 20 years her senior. Outside France, she starred in the Spanish crime film Juventud a la intemperie / The unsatisfied (1961) and played a supporting part in the Greek musical comedy Afto to kati allo! (1963). In 1981, she appeared in the miniseries and film Das Boot, as the club singer Monique in the town of La Rochelle.

Her well-proportioned form became legendary in European popular culture circles. She used her pseudonym also for her records. Between 1959 and 1962 she recorded witty and racey songs like Ne comptez pas sur moi pour me montrer toute nue ("Don’t count on me to show myself totally nude"), Adonis, C'est fou ("It's crazy") and J'ai peur de coucher toute seule ("I'm afraid to sleep all alone"). At the time, a couple of Scopitone clips were made of her songs.

Enjoy Rita Cadillac’s style!

(See also Crazy Horse.)