Founder of the Bluebell Girls Dies

The Times had a great obit in on Sunday. Irishwoman Margaret Kelly, 94, who founded the Bluebell Girls, the long-stemmed, high-kicking, slightly clad troupe considered the most glamorous chorus line in Paris and perhaps the world, died in Paris last week.

Risqué even by Paris standards, the Bluebell Girls were in great demand. By the 1960's, Miss Kelly, after an inward moral struggle, allowed them to perform bare-breasted. An Arab sheik once tried to purchase the entire troupe, Newsweek once reported, and an Italian magnate offered 16 white Ferraris in trade. But Miss Kelly watched over every aspect of the Bluebells' conduct, on stage and off, and there was no sale.

After all, the young women she affectionately called "my girls" were no common chorines. "I created class with chorus girls," Miss Kelly told The New York Times in 1988. "Although the girls are topless, it's done with taste and elegance."

Posted by Jim at September 20, 2004 04:45 PM