Morganna
| Morganna, The Kissing Bandit | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Morganna Roberts July 4, 1954 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Hair color | Blonde |
| Eye color | Green |
Morganna Roberts (born July 4, 1954) is an entertainer who became known as Morganna or Morganna, the Kissing Bandit in baseball and other sports from 1970 through the 1990s. She was also billed as "Morganna the Wild One" when appearing as a dancer in the 1980s.
Morganna famously rushed the field on many occasions and kissed Major League Baseball players including Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, George Brett (twice), Steve Garvey, and Cal Ripken, Jr. She has been described as "baseball's unofficial mascot" and "the grand dame of baseball". She also crashed National Basketball Association games, where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of her most notable victims.
Morganna was born on July 4, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was a baseball fan from a young age, as her grandfather took her to see the Louisville team. She grew up in a poor family; her mother Jane disowned Morganna as a baby, which led to her grandmother Virginia's taking care of Morganna for six years. Morganna was then sent to Mount Mercy Catholic Boarding School just outside Louisville. She initially wanted to be a nun but ran away from the school at age 13, hitchhiking with a friend to Baltimore, where she begged shop owners for a job while living on the street and eating out of garbage cans. She was unable to find work because she was too young to get a work permit.
After a month, Morganna came across an ad in the window of the Flamingo Club for a "Cigarette Girl or Camera Girl. Must be 18". She told the owner she was 18, and he quickly decided she would be better employed as an exotic dancer. Morgana had no idea what that was but said yes, thinking "it had something to do with a camel and veils". Her first appearance on stage did not go well; she could not walk in her high heels, and as she danced, the men in the audience kept shouting "Take it off". Thinking they were referring to her, she burst into tears and had to be led off the stage by the manager. After watching some of the other performers, however, she soon got the hang of it and was a well-established and successful exotic dancer by the time she was 17. Her act combined stripping with comedy, wearing two 10 gallon cowboy hats on her chest and impersonating the film critic Gene Shalit. She avoided singing, however, as "when I sing, people think the place is being raided."
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