Kitten Natividad

I was born Francisca Isabel Natividad on February 13, 1948 in Juarez, Mexico just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Yes Natividad is is my real last name, I'm a Latin gal! Mom was just 16 when I was born, she gave birth at home with my grandma as midwife. I was the first of nine siblings although only one of my sisters shares the same parents as me. I guess that's why I never had children on my own, after changing all those diapers when I was growing up. We lived between Juarez and El Paso traveling back and forth until the age of eight. I was so light-skinned that folks thought that I was a little American so it wasn't a problem. When I was older and they asked me where I was born, of course I didn't speak any English. Then mom married an American who got us over the border for good. We got our citizenship, and I started speaking English when I was nine years old. The summer before my senior year, at I got my first taste of show business. I went to Los Angeles to spend time with grandma for summer vacation. My uncle worked at a janitor at PJ ís and his boss was dating Stella Stevens. He asked my uncle who Stella could hire as a housekeeper and he recommended me. They always wanted Latin women, because Americans donít like doing housework. So I worked for Stella Stevens that summer at her home in Coldwater Canyon. I scrubbed and cleaned, Stella taught me how to cook. She was working on the Matt Helm film "The Silencers" then so she had to loose fifteen pounds during the filming. She would give big parties, and I would answer the door and have to wear a white uniform. I met lots of people like Warren Beatty and Linda Evans. Seeing them by the pool I thought,'this is fun I want to be a movie star'. Of course I haven't lived that life yet. I went back home after summer and had a honor year, vice president of my class, voted most popular and our drill team won the title of best in the state. My first love came also during the senior year, my family had always insisted on chaperons but this time they didnít so this was also my first sexual experience. After I graduated we eloped but we didnít have any money to get married and so we got caught and stayed at his family's house. We in separate rooms and late at night he would creep in through the window and we would make love. God, It was fabulous! When we finally did elope it didn't work out and I was back home. I soon left home again because my mother used me as a maid to wash and clean. My stepfather was going to college and mom was supporting all of us working in a factory, so I went back to Los Angeles to work for Stella again. I was there for about a year than took a trade school course and ended up working at IBM as a key punch operator. Making very little money and looking for other options, I discovered that the sister of one of my neighbors made a living as a stripper and earned $300 a week which was twice as much as I made. I took off my clothes, looked at myself in the mirror and said 'well, I have a great body', so I asked her for help and she introduced me to the club owner. When my boss at IBM found out about it he called me into his office and begged me not to become a go-go dancer. Before that he wouldnít even say ëgood morningí to me. And so in 1969 I made my dancing debut at a club in Pasadena called Gianone's. I was so nervous and concentrating on what I was doing that I didnít notice any thing else. The crowd was howling and roaring and all I knew that they were throwing money and I liked it! When I finished I asked if they were clapping and they said that you could hear it two blocks away! I was hired on the spot, goodbye IBM! Before long I was making $600-700 a week including tips. I dated the owner of the club for a couple of years, he wanted to mary me but I knew he had his hands in the cookie jar at the club. I went to an talent agency and auditioned all over the San Bernadino area working a couple clubs a night. The money was great and I kept busy working long hours. The agency told me that my name Frances wouldnít work and because I was very shy, way back then, they gave me the name Kitten. As Kitten my breakthrough came in 1973 with winning the Miss Nude Universe title in San Bernadino. I was 25 but lied about my age because my agent said that the judges liked young women. I was working at a club in Pasadena called the High Light, and Morganna (the Kissing Bandit) and her agent Sparky Blain came in. I didnít think that she was that good on stage and she wasnít very friendly back stage, but I did like her boob job. Sparky thought that I has a good body and he asked me to enter the Miss Nude Universe contest. zbout forty five girls were in the contest, it wasnít fixed because I didn't know any of the judges and Sparky didnít talk toany of them. He had such faith in me and gave me the confidence to walk on the stage and feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. Even with all of that confidence I still went crazy when I won! I switched permanently from go-go dancing to stripping and made a career decision to follow this road. After winning Miss Nude Universe, Sparky had me doing all sorts of publicity stunts, special appearances at clubs, college campus fraternity's, other beauty contests, bikini walks and nude press conferences. All of these stunts helped to boost my career. The press affairs were first class events in a rented conference hall with champagne and catering. The bikini walks were in central business districts at lunchtime with press interviews all across the country from New York to Los Angeles. And all of these events were centered around a club performance. As a headlining stripper I was the only girl on stage and it was all very new with the nudity. I would always give 100 percent to the job when a customer laid down a dollar I would go to him and gyrate as much as I could, it was hard work but this was my school to become a good stripper. I learned to give individual attention and picked up nuances from the other dancers and made them my own.