Zorita by Liz Goldwyn
This article was originally published in the October 5, 2000 Velvet Hammer souvenir programme.

Zorita is a true character if I’ve ever met one. We began our correspondence through letters and phone calls. She is tough and candid, calling her burlesque colleagues “old tomatoes” and contemporary strippers “trashy tomatoes.” She alternately calls her pubic region “the waterfront” and “my knish.” She lives in Florida, on several acres she bought from the income off General Motors stock which she requested as gifts from every man she “dated.”

She is very private and does not allow visitors or gawkers into her life anymore. She is concerned about me coming to visit her because she worries that she won’t live up to her former image of herself. It is a complaint I have heard before--women who made their careers out of their beauty who feel that age hasn’t served them well. My aim is not to present days long past as faded glory; the passing of time and perspective, changes that come, are just as interesting and important. Zorita sends me a letter a few days before I leave telling me that she hasn’t ever let anyone into her home before, that she and her companion live a quiet life and don’t want any complications. I know she has made a huge leap of faith to allow me to come and am nervous of her impressions of me.