Eva Tanguay on AllMovie

One of America's great vaudeville entertainers, famous as the "Electrified Hoyden" and the "I Don't Care Girl," Quebec-born Eva Tanguay thrust herself from obscurity to stardom with an act that was blatantly sexual despite her rather homely appearance. "I'm not beautiful, I can't sing, I do not know how to dance," she admitted but her fanciful costuming (or lack thereof) and insouciant airs took audiences by storm. Tanguay was persuaded to make her screen debut by the Selznick company in 1917, but The Wild Girl failed miserably at the box office and she returned to the vaudeville stages without looking back. Having lost her fortune in the 1929 stock market collapse, Tanguay died penniless and virtually blinded by cataracts. She was portrayed by Mitzi Gaynor in the 1952 screen musical The I Don't Care Girl.