LaWanda Page & Dean Martin

Best known for her role as cantankerous Aunt Esther on the sitcom classic Sanford and Son, comedienne LaWanda Page was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1920. After beginning a professional dancing career at age 15, she later relocated to St. Louis, working as a waitress at Ned Love's Tavern; in time she began stripping, incorporating elements of circus sideshow fire-swallowing into her act and earning the title "The Bronze Goddess of Fire." While in St. Louis, Page also met local comedian Redd Foxx, with whom she toured the so-called "chitlin circuit" of black-owned nightspots. She...