Cloud 9 DVD offers living tribute to Candy Barr

Cloud 9, the Burt Reynolds comedy about an all-stripper beach volleyball team, hits stores today, ironically the same day the world learns of the death of legendary stripper Candy Barr.

Candy Barr, of course, was the original “porn star,” the stripper who wowed 'em in only cowboy hat and six shooters, girlfriend of Mickey Cohen, set up and sent to prison for marijuana because of her romance, and paroled in 1963 by Governor John Connally, shortly before he was shot by a magic bullet, and the alleged assassin shot by Candy’s pal, the strip club boss Jack Ruby…

Candy died Friday. She’d dropped out of sight in the the 1980s, but we found her and she told her story to Hard Copy about fifteen years ago.

Here’s her Dallas News obituary.

In Cloud 9, written and produced by Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns, Brett Hudson and Oscar winner Albert S. Ruddy, there’s a tribute to Candy Barr in the character of Crystal, the rootin tootin stripper who burns up the beach with her bod-blaring beach volleyball style.

Here’s Legs McNeil’s book on the history of the adult entertainment industry.

Here's where you can find lots more pictures and information about Cloud 9.

And here’s another place to get Cloud 9 on DVD!