Annabel Battistella, whose Combat Zone performance as Fanne Foxe fueled a Washington sex scandal, dies at 84
Updated February 24, 2021, 7:52 p.m.
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On Novemberâs final Saturday night in 1974, Annabel Battistella was performing a burlesque dance at the Pilgrim Theater stage in Bostonâs Combat Zone neighborhood when she welcomed into the spotlight a man off in the wings.
âLadies and gentleman, I have a visitor for you, and he wants to say hello,â said the performer who used the stage name Fanne Foxe, and later went by her married name, Annabel Montgomery. âMr. Mills, where are you?â
Longtime LITTLE ROCK radio host PAT LYNCH died WEDNESDAY at 70, reports the ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE.
LYNCH, who worked at KMON-A/GREAT FALLS, MT and KSPO-A/SPOKANE before moving to ARKANSAS, hosted a talk show for 17 years (1983-2000) at KARN-A/LITTLE ROCK and later hosted at SIGNAL MEDIA then-News-Talk KABZ (103.7 THE BUZZ) and KDXE-A, wrote a column for the DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE in 2000-2011, and provided a weekly commentary on NBC affiliate KARK-TV in 2006-12. He retired from the media in 2013, serving as a speaker for the GROWING IN GRACE RECOVERY MINISTRY, and was active in religious education.
By Tom King
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The 1970âs was really the best decade for almost everythingâ¦.music, tv-shows and movies, fast foodâ¦and political scandals. I bring this up to remind you of that night in 1974 when a stripper named Fanne Foxe brought down one of the most powerful men in DC by taking a 2am swim in the Tidal Basinâ¦she died this weekâ¦â¦let your mind drift back to when society really cared about stuff like thisâ¦.
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Here is the Washington Post obit for Fanne Foxeâ¦.
About 2 a.m. Oct. 7, 1974, U.S. Park Police pulled over a silver-blue Lincoln Continental that had been swerving and speeding without headlights near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.
She ran from the car of a powerful congressman and dove into the Tidal Basin in 1974, generating a splash that would ripple into a political cause celebre.
With her 1974 plunge into the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., Annabel Battistella, who died Feb. 10 at 84, secured her place in the annals of political scandal.