Burlesque icon Tempest Storm is returning to a Las Vegas stage after a 19-year absence.

"I left my notorious past and I'm back to reclaim it," said Storm, who will be appearing at the Celebrity Theatre on opening night of the May 26-28 salute to burlesque weekend.

Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, the red-haired Storm was a burlesque queen during the 1950s and '60s.

She made her first appearance here at the Embassy nightclub in North Las Vegas in 1951 and her last in 1987.

"I'm old enough for Medicare and young enough for men to care," Storm, 78, said in a telephone interview.

In her day, she dated Elvis Presley and was linked to John F. Kennedy and Sammy Davis Jr.

Raised in Georgia as Annie Blanche Banks, she left an abusive home life at age 14 and made her way to Los Angeles in her late teens.

All of 19, she was a popular carhop at Simon's Drive-In in L.A. before getting into show business.

That summer, she was seeing a handsome man named Ben, and on June 20, 1947, she was to go out on a date with him, "but my boss called me and said I had to come in because one of the girls was sick."

A day or so later, the mob-hit murder of her friend Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, 41, operator of the Flamingo, was front-page news.

"I had no idea he was connected to the mob until he was murdered," Storm recalled.

By 1957 she was starring in Minsky's Follies, the first topless show in Las Vegas. Later, her striptease show helped put the sin in Sin City, when she headlined at the Dunes and the Aladdin.

"Burlesque is back," she said.

And so is Tempest Storm: She moved back to Las Vegas in February.

THE SCENE AND HEARD

New York-New York will host the regional qualifying round of Nathan's Famous hot-dog eating championship Thursday. The contest begins at 3 p.m. on the Brooklyn Bridge. ...

See you back here Sunday. I'm taking off a week to visit friends and family in Montana and deliver the commencement address to the Class of '06 at Terry High School, where I got my sheepskin many moons ago.

SIGHTINGS

Jay Leno, dropping in to surprise Tony Bennett at Turnberry's Stirling Club during Saturday's VegasTennis.com fundraiser. Earlier, Leno was spotted at Thomas & Mack, filming interviews with UNLV graduates at the commencement ceremonies. ... Yoko Ono, taking in "O" (Bellagio) and dining at Picasso. ... Dhani Harrison, son of the late George Harrison of The Beatles, dining at Tao (The Venetian) with his mother, Olivia, on Friday. ... Lance Burton, performing the broken wand ceremony to honor the late magician Channing Pollock on Saturday at the Monte Carlo. Some 200 to 300 magicians, friends and family gathered for the tribute. In attendance: Nick Lewin, Peter Reveen, The Amazing Jonathan, Luna Shemada and Johnny Thompson Sr. ... Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, who ran for 1,750 yards last year, and NBA star Pau Gasol, at Pure (Caesars Palace). ... Members of Skid Row and the Scorpions, partying until 5 a.m. at the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Friday. ... Local "American Idol" participant Mikalah Gordon, doing a Mother's Day report Friday as a correspondent for "The Tyra Banks Show."

THE PUNCH LINE

"You know Mother's Day also is the busiest long-distance phone calling day of the year? Over 300 million long-distance calls. And those are just the ones being monitored by the White House." -- Leno

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@review journal.com.