Lottie "The Body" Tatum-Graves-Claiborne (October 31, 1930 - February 28, 2020) was an American burlesque dancer who performed from the late 1940s to the early 1980s.
Born and raised in New York, her career in burlesque began in San Francisco, and later she moved to Detroit.
During her lengthy career, she worked throughout the U.S. and in numerous other countries, performing with many of the great singers, comedians, musicians, and dancers of her era.
[1] She grew up enjoying participating in sports like baseball and basketball, and loved studying ballet as a girl.
Her first professional job was performing with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Herbert White's popular dance troupe in the 1940s that traveled to venues around the country.
But, once the Lindy Hop craze died, she quickly learned that other types of professional jobs in the field of dance were few and far between for an African American woman.
[3] In the late 1940s, Lottie married an Air Force lieutenant and moved with him when he was stationed in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She and her husband divorced; and, she met Harlem Globetrotter Goose Tatum at the Champagne Supper Club.
When Lottie lived and performed in San Francisco in the late 1940s and early 1950s, she also traveled the country to work.
[4] Lottie worked alongside many performers - comedians, singers, musicians, and dancers - who were popular in that era, including Redd Foxx; T-Bone Walker; Della Reese; Billie Holiday; Sammy Davis Jr.; Aretha Franklin; Miles Davis; Sam Cooke; Bessie Smith; B.B.
Those times were surprisingly rare, she said, especially considering that African Americans were not always welcome while the U.S.A. was mired in an era of inequality and bias.
"[3] The wives of political leaders in other countries would take her shopping, and she was invited to be a guest in the Dodge family (the car people) summer home in Michigan.
She had worked long and hard to build that career, and conducted herself in a way that demonstrated that she knew she deserved to be respected for her efforts.
She belonged to Our Lady Queen of Heaven - Good Shepard Catholic Community in Detroit, regularly attending mass throughout her life.
In 2015, Lottie wrote about her life in the collection of women's stories, What We Talk about When We’re Over 60, with Linda Hughes and Sherri Daley.
The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas named her their Living Legend of 2017, and their museum has a display that includes one of her show gowns.
The book Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Jazz Era, updated in 2020, by Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts, includes an interview with Lottie.
In her chapter for What We Talk about When We're Over 60, Lottie chronicled highlights of her personal and professional experiences, including overcoming racial barriers in order to pursue her passion for dancing.