Essie Mae Cash, known by her stage name Bubbles Cash, [1] is an American former burlesque dancer and film actress credited as a key inspiration for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders team.
Born in or around 1946, Cash grew up near Fort Worth on a dairy farm, [2] : 176 and in Grand Prairie, [3] aspiring to succeed Candy Barr as a famous Dallas stripper. [1] [3] [2] : 176 She acquired the nickname Bubbles as a baby. [1] In 1960 she was working as a carhop at the drive-through restaurant Sivils in Oak Cliff. [3]
By her own account, Cash married at 15, but other sources give the age of 17; her husband was Vestal Earl McIntosh, known as Mack, a gangster and signwriter. [1] [3] In 1962, Cash left Sivils and began a career as a burlesque dancer. Soon after marrying, she had plastic surgery on her breasts (becoming "one of the first well-known women in Dallas who publicly acknowledged having augmented breasts" [3] ); had a child, Keiley; and began working at venues including The Theatre Lounge, The Colony Club, and The Calves Bar. [3] [1]
At the age of 20, [2] : 176 on November 5, 1967, [4] Cash attended a Dallas Cowboys home game against the Atlanta Falcons. [3] [4] Walking down an aisle carrying candy floss from a concessions stand, wearing a short skirt, Cash realised that she was attracting a lot of attention, including from print and television journalists, and did a small dance. [3] This propelled her to fame, and she became the Dallas Cowboys' "unofficial mascot", given free tickets to appear regularly at home and at some away games. [2] : 176 She is widely credited as a key inspiration for the development of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. [5] [6]
According to one fan who acquired her autograph, "the B in Bubbles was a pair of breasts with nipples. Her last name was a dollar sign". [2] : 177
Cash ran for election as governor in 1968 as a "peace candidate" opposing the Vietnam War, [3] [2] : 177 and again in 1990, when her 3287 votes made her the most successful of the nineteen write-in candidates. [7] [2] : 177
According to the Internet Movie Database, Cash appeared in the films Hip Hot and 21 (1966), Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967), and Mars Needs Women (1968). [8] However, a 2017 blogpost reported that Cash told her daughter Keiley Mink that she appeared only in the last of these, [9] a claim that Mink repeated elsewhere. [3] Jimmy McDonough established, however, that contemporary news reporting demonstrated that Cash did appear in Hot Thrills and Warm Chills, subsequently taking the producers to court for what she viewed as a breach of contract. [3] Cash was, however, also cast in a film Swamp Lust [9] [2] : 177 and, according to the 2017 blogpost, appeared in the documentaries Mondo Texas and D.O.A.: A Rite Of Passage . [9]
In Mars Needs Women , Cash played a stripper whom a team of Martians attempt to abduct to enable the perpetuation of the Martian people. [10]
John Eisenberg has characterised 1968 as "the peak of her fame". [2] : 177 After 1968, Cash divorced her husband, moved to Los Angeles and Hawaii, and then back to Dallas, where she became a musician and opened a jewellery shop. [3] [2] : 177 According John Eisenberg, "when I tried to find her in 1996, her jewelry store had closed and none of her old bosses knew where she was", [2] : 177 but Jimmy McDonough later published an interview with her along with extensive coverage of her daughter's life. [3]