Nervous breakdown from the weight of doves

Howdy!

This week we talk about a burlesque dancer, Dovita (Rosita), who worked with doves, and ponder whether Pepper could have a similar act with crows.

I stumbled across a mention of Dovita on the Twitter account of New Yorker writer Rachel Syme, who assembled a bunch of research very quickly.

rachel syme @rachsyme

reading a book (nonfiction) that mentions a woman named dovita who did a striptease at the 1939 worlds fair where doves...removed her clothes? and I wanted to know more and can’t find a thing. any sleuths able to find out who she was?

March 19th 2021

252 Retweets1,860 Likes

Also, Tim sent me this thread which points out that there is a connection between Rosita and Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. The birds miss her!

Cabel @cabel

Friends… have we solved a theme park mystery? Do we now know What Happened To Rosita? Ok, let me back up. In Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, José drops this infamous line, and it has haunted me, and many others, forever.

March 26th 2021

88 Retweets323 Likes

While looking for info on Rosita, I found references to the world’s tallest burlesque dancer. Irene Jewell, who performed under the name Ricki Covette, was 6’ 8” tall! Click her name to read an article about her life, she’s amazing!

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Also, if you’d like to see Rosita’s act after she dropped the doves and went with something a bit more tropical, take a look at this video.

Thanks for reading and listening,

David and Pepper