<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the first part of my interview with Tanqueray, we heard the striking story of Tanqueray’s early life – long before she became such as viral sensation on social media as a result of her appearances on Humans of New York. She was called Stephanie and she’d had a tough upbringing, raised by a strict single mother in an all-white upstate New York area, and then a teenage pregnancy, an unfortunate relationship, and a desire to start a new life had somehow conspired to land her in jail as a teenager. When she was released, she moved to Manhattan – and worked in a clothing factory, this was back in the days when the city had a garment district, attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, and ended up appearing as a much in-demand go-go dancer in clubs such as the Peppermint Lounge. It was the 1960s, and she enjoyed a varied and exciting existence: she had a short career as an escort, became a seller of stolen goods, mixed with pimps, mobsters and The Temptations – and fell in love with an Italian called Carmine, who she married before discovering his drug addiction.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But as the 1970s dawned, the go-go bars in New York suddenly seemed rather old-fashioned, quaint, and in terms of sexual excitement, tame and unexciting. If you could now see newly-explicit sex films in theaters, well&amp;#8230; customers were keen to see something different and more daring in a live environment too. That left Stephanie at a crossroads: there were two options &amp;#8211; she could either accept the brave, new world and became more sexual – which she referred to as ‘working dirty’ – or she could revert to being a more old-fashioned burlesque performer, and rely on tease, with a less racy act and props. Stephanie decided to follow the burlesque route and become Tanqueray.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stephanie and I recorded many of our conversations, and this is the second and concluding part of her story.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This podcast is 40 minutes long.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You can listen to the first part of the Tanqueray story here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8212;&amp;#8211;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50738" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="466" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg 466w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01-216x300.jpg 216w" sizes="(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50737" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="468" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg 468w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01-217x300.jpg 217w" sizes="(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50740" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg" alt="Ronnie Bell" width="434" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg 434w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2-201x300.jpg 201w" sizes="(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ronnie Bell&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50742" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="380" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg 380w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07-176x300.jpg 176w" sizes="(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50741" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="541" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg 541w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2-250x300.jpg 250w" sizes="(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;*&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/06/07/tanqueray/"&gt;Tanqueray – I’ve Always Been Different, Part 2: Podcast 164&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com"&gt;The Rialto Report&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

The Rialto Report

Ashley West

Tanqueray – I’ve Always Been Different, Part 2: Podcast 164

JUN 7, 202640 MIN
The Rialto Report

Tanqueray – I’ve Always Been Different, Part 2: Podcast 164

JUN 7, 202640 MIN

Description

<p><strong>In the first part of my interview with Tanqueray, we heard the striking story of Tanqueray’s early life – long before she became such as viral sensation on social media as a result of her appearances on Humans of New York. She was called Stephanie and she’d had a tough upbringing, raised by a strict single mother in an all-white upstate New York area, and then a teenage pregnancy, an unfortunate relationship, and a desire to start a new life had somehow conspired to land her in jail as a teenager. When she was released, she moved to Manhattan – and worked in a clothing factory, this was back in the days when the city had a garment district, attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, and ended up appearing as a much in-demand go-go dancer in clubs such as the Peppermint Lounge. It was the 1960s, and she enjoyed a varied and exciting existence: she had a short career as an escort, became a seller of stolen goods, mixed with pimps, mobsters and The Temptations – and fell in love with an Italian called Carmine, who she married before discovering his drug addiction.</strong></p> <p><strong>But as the 1970s dawned, the go-go bars in New York suddenly seemed rather old-fashioned, quaint, and in terms of sexual excitement, tame and unexciting. If you could now see newly-explicit sex films in theaters, well&#8230; customers were keen to see something different and more daring in a live environment too. That left Stephanie at a crossroads: there were two options &#8211; she could either accept the brave, new world and became more sexual – which she referred to as ‘working dirty’ – or she could revert to being a more old-fashioned burlesque performer, and rely on tease, with a less racy act and props. Stephanie decided to follow the burlesque route and become Tanqueray.</strong></p> <p><strong>Stephanie and I recorded many of our conversations, and this is the second and concluding part of her story.</strong></p> <p><em>This podcast is 40 minutes long.</em></p> <p><em>You can listen to the first part of the Tanqueray story here.</em></p> <p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;</p> <p><a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50738" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="466" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01.jpg 466w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1980-01-High-Society-01-216x300.jpg 216w" sizes="(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50737" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="468" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01.jpg 468w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-1979-10-High-Society-01-217x300.jpg 217w" sizes="(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50740" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg" alt="Ronnie Bell" width="434" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2.jpg 434w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260521_2-201x300.jpg 201w" sizes="(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px" /></a><em>Ronnie Bell</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50742" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="380" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07.jpg 380w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Tanqueray-07-176x300.jpg 176w" sizes="(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px" /></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-50741" src="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg" alt="Tanqueray" width="541" height="648" srcset="https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2.jpg 541w, https://www.therialtoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RR-Snip20260530_2-250x300.jpg 250w" sizes="(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">*</p> <p>The post <a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/06/07/tanqueray/">Tanqueray – I’ve Always Been Different, Part 2: Podcast 164</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.therialtoreport.com">The Rialto Report</a>.</p>