Juanita Dale Slusher (July 6, 1935 – December 30, 2005), better known by her stage name Candy Barr, was an American stripper, burlesque dancer, actress, and adult model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century.

[1] During the 1950s, she received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, her encounters with the law, shooting her second husband, and her sentence to a prison term for drug possession.

Juanita was nine years old when her mother was killed falling from a moving car on the highway in nearby Victoria County.

[3] At age 16, Slusher appeared in one of the most famous and widely circulated of the early underground pornographic films, Smart Alec (1951).

[1] Shortly after the release of Smart Alec, and while still underage, she was hired as a stripper at the Theater Lounge in Dallas by Barney Weinstein[5] for $85 a week.

She was given the stage name "Candy Barr" at this time (given to her by Weinstein, reportedly because of her fondness for Snickers bars), bleached her hair platinum blond, and became famous.

[5] Barr performed for the only time on the legitimate stage in 1957, playing the role of Rita Marlowe in the Dallas Little Theater production of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

[4] In late October of that year, in another criminal case, Dallas police raided her apartment and found four-fifths of an ounce of marijuana, which was hidden in her bra.

She was then arrested for drug possession, convicted, and given a 15-year prison sentence,[1] However, Candy has stated it was set up and she was only holding the marijuana for a friend.

He arranged for her hair to be dyed by "hairdresser to the stars" Jack Sahakian, provided her with a fake birth certificate and Social Security card, and gave her $1,200 cash.

In the first of her two autobiographical books, Past Imperfect, Collins describes Barr as "a down-to-earth girl with an incredibly gorgeous body and an angelic face... [who had] taught me more about sensuality than I had learned in all my years under contract".

[2] Barr won another chance at reversing her 15-year sentence that October when the district attorney in Dallas said the U.S. Supreme Court had informed his office that her lawyers would be given 20 days to file a motion for a rehearing.

On December 4, 1959, Barr entered the Goree State Farm for women near Huntsville, Texas, to serve her prison term.

Twelve hours after Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald, the leading suspect in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, live on national television, the FBI arrived in Edna to interview Barr.

"[4] Barr returned to the stripping circuit in early 1966, including appearances at the Largo Club in Los Angeles and the Bonanza Hotel in Las Vegas.

During this period, she had a casual sexual encounter with Hugh Hefner, who characterized their affair in a 1984 interview as "a sort of Sex King and Queen kind of thing.

[3] In March 1988, it was announced that Ryan O'Neal would direct Farrah Fawcett in a biographical film about Barr based on a script by George Axelrod, who wrote the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

[1] Candy Barr is among the inductees in the Hall of Fame of Exotic World Burlesque Museum, formerly located in Helendale, California, as of 2018[update] on Main Street in Las Vegas, Nevada.