Tallulah learned to use a wire welder while helping her dad repair farm equipment at the home place in Northern Wisconsin. She loved the old draft horses he kept even though he no longer needed them for heavy work. Tallulah was a small kid, not tall enough to climb up on the back of the huge horses. The only way she could snag a ride was to keep an eye out for when one of the horses lay down. Then she would run into the field, sit on its back and wait however long it took for the horse to stand up. It was a slow ride, nothing flashy.

When Tallulah struck out on her own, she moved to Las Vegas and took a job in an auto body shop, welding and banging out dents in quarter panels. She got so buff, her boyfriend, Tony, told her she could be in one of the big nightclub reviews.

Remembering Gloria Steinem’s observation, “we are all female impersonators,” she quit the tomboy persona at the auto body shop and became a showgirl. She liked the big headdresses and the slow, deliberate walk.