Candy Barr Departs Prison (1963)

Duration: 1:31

Year Published: 1963

Sound: sound

Description: In this news segment for Houston’s KPRC-TV, broadcast on April 1, 1963, reporter Bob Harper greets Juanita Dale Phillips, better known by her stage name Candy Barr, as she leaves the Goree State Farm in Huntsville, Texas. Harper asks her how she feels about her release from prison as well as what her plans are now. Phillips was a striptease dancer from Dallas. She was arrested in Dallas in 1959 after police found marijuana hidden on her person. (West Coast mobster Mickey Cohen, whom Phillips was romantically involved with before her arrest, paid her bail.) Upon her conviction, Phillips was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Texas Governor John Connally granted her parole in March 1963. Upon her release, she moved to California with her husband, Jack Shahakian, who may be the man walking out with her in the footage.