Iris Chacón
Iris Chacon, born March 7, 1950, is a Puerto Rican who was, at one time, the world's most famous Vedette.
Iris Chacón was a dancer, singer, and entertainer. Her incredible figure (38-26-42) combined with her alluring looks, scantily clad costumes, and uninhibited display of raw sexuality (with an emphasis on displaying her g-string backside, which she seemed to love to wear and revel in) made her a sensation in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, as well as in mainland US cities such as New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. Although Chacon's voice and dancing was considered only average, her dancing abilities became legendary across Latin America and the United States. During her heyday in the 1970s and early 1980s, she toured most of Latin America, the USA, Europe and Japan. She also starred in many movies and soap operas, such as Yo Se Que Mentia. Her acting, like her singing, was considered standard.
In 1983, a television commercial she did for Amalie Coolants became one of the most famous TV commercials in Puerto Rico's history. The controversy surrounding the commercial landed her in a front page article in the Wall Street Journal in June of 1983 entitled A Onetime Choirgirl Rules as Sex Goddess On Puerto Rican TV. In that article, while Chacon promised to conquer America, like Carmen Miranda, others thought that her skimpy g-string costumes and full figure would not go over among an American audience. The article also quoted the Cardinal of Puerto Rico, who spoke negatively of Chacon's influence due to her sexy and wild performances.
Her variety show, El Show De Iris Chacón, aired for more than 15 years on WAPA-TV from 1972-1985. At the same time, it was also broadcast by some Spanish language television stations thrroughout the United States and Latin America. The show allowed her to display her talents as a variety show host and interviewer as well as a dancer. It also contributed to controversy regarding her figure and skimpy costumes. In fact, it was her dancing in revealing costumes that made her so controversial for the time period. She appeared live in such famous places as Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall in New York during the late 1970's and early 1980's. Once a year she performed in "El Caribe Hotel" in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which drove the audiences wild with her uninhibited raw sexuality.
After her heyday, she moved to Miami and later to Orlando, where she lived more modestly, and found a job acting on Gullah Gullah Island, a popular children's show that aired on the Nickelodeon cable network.
She has been married to musician Junno Faria for more than 25 years, and they have a daughter, Katiria Faria Chacón. Sometime in the mid-1980s, Iris declared herself "a born again Christian." However, this did not stop her from performing. While she claimed that her fans did not like the fact that she had begun to wear "more clothes" it appeared that by the end ot the decade, Iris had made her peace between being "born again" and still being a vedette.
From 1984 through the early 1990s, Iris Chacon appeared on such American TV shows as "America Onstage", "The Merv Griffin Show", "Geraldo Rivera", "Joan Rivers", and "David Letterman." It was on her first appearance on Letterman that she was described as the Dolly Parton and Loni Anderson of Puerto Rico. Letterman even joked about proposing to her. Merv Griffin said of her that "she was the answer to 'where's the beef?'", a reference to the Wendy's commercial of that time period. However, by 1984 Iris Chacon reached her peak, and not being able to reach an "Anglo" market, finished her show in Puerto Rico by mid-1985 at the age of 35. Her show remained in re-runs until the end of the 1980s. Rumors have emerged for years that she would release a DVD of her best performances of "El Show de Iris Chacon." As of now, http://www.MusicaBoricua.com states that this will not be out until at least sometime in 2007.