Nancy Austin; Popular Las Vegas Comedian
Nancy Austin, a popular comedian in Las Vegas shows, has died. She was 60.
Ms. Austin, who lived for much of her life in Las Vegas, died March 10 at Desert Springs Hospital. She had undergone triple bypass surgery in September.
On television, she was a hit in summer replacement shows in 1959, particularly in “The Last of the Busby Berkeley Girls.” Times critic Cecil Smith compared the corpulent star’s singing and dancing in that program to “a chorus of graceful elephants.”
Known for her own frilly ruffled frocks, Ms. Austin believed heavy women should dress well and marketed a line of clothes called Pudgy Playmates.
She was firmly opposed to “fat jokes” by anybody other than herself and usually wrote her own material. She last appeared in the running show “Love Over 40” at Las Vegas’ Plaza Hotel.
Born in Deerfield, Md., Ms. Austin taught third-graders by day and moonlighted at night in Washington nightclubs before turning to full-time comedy.
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