biography

statuesque striptease sensation (dubbed “Queen of the Amazons”) Marinka aka Melanie Hunter (6 January 1940 – 16 February 2021). She was a trailblazer for multiple reasons: as a proud Latina performer (born in Cuba; her family relocated to New York in the 1950s) active in burlesque and traveling the world from the 1960s onward. And as a transgender woman (she disclosed this lifelong secret in her 2021 autobiography Marinka: From Havana to Burlesque. Marinka – aka Melanie Hunter - underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1969). Her closest brush with mainstream showbiz was appearing in the 1979 Bob Fosse movie All That Jazz.