Filthiest Performance He Ever Saw
Arrested in 1958 for a dance called "Tom Cat Fever," New Orleans exotic dancer Lilly Christine fought the obscenity charge to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which struck down the state's obscenity law
She comes off the floor at the 500 Club with the lights still on her, a wild crown of peroxide hair and a dancer’s hard, lithe body, and John Grosch is waiting to arrest her.
It is July 16, 1958. Grosch is chief investigator for the district attorney, and for two weeks he has worked Bourbon Street, hauling dancers off in pairs. He tells the reporters that her number, “Tom Cat Fever,” is the filthiest thing he has ever seen, and he is a man who has been around.
Lilly Christine tells them something different. She is an exotic dancer, not a stripteaser. She wears nothing on that stage more daring than the costumes in Peep Show on Broadway, and she never takes it all off.
One of them is about to be proven right by the Supreme Court of Louisiana. It will not be Grosch.
They called her the Cat Girl, for the slow, stalking way she m…
