The Incomparable Sally Rand (again...)

Since I'm super busy these days (-and in pain right now since I just got back from a nightmare at the dentist office, I've never had any problems with my teeth but needed a wisdom-tooth pulled out... The tooth had three roots all bend as a hook... the dentist never saw anything like it... which resulted in the tooth being pulled out in three pieces and a small piece of my jawbone came with it!!) I decided to post some of my old post from the Circus Circus blog.... first up Sally Rand, more to come... Enjoy!

Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress most famous for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance.
She ran away with a carnival as a teenager, and later pursued such career opportunities as night club cigarette girl, artist's model, and cafe dancer.

She was born Harriet Helen Gould Beck and she also performed under the name Billie Beck.

During the 1920s, Sally acted on stage and appeared in silent movies. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand, inspired by a Rand Mcnally atlas.

Balloon bubble dance...


Famous feather fan...

Full body makeup...

I have this card at home...

...autographed by Miss Sally herself!!!


Sally in Tex Avery's 'Hollywood steps out'. Apparently she's wearing a barrel behind the bubble.


Her most famous appearance was at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. She had been arrested four times in a single day during the fair due to perceived indecent exposure while riding a white horse down the streets of Chicago, but the nudity was only an illusion... She was wearing a full body suit.



Protesters at the World Fair in 1933


In 1936, she purchased The Music Box burlesque hall in San Francisco, which would later become the Great American Music Hall.


She starred in "Sally Rand's Nude Ranch" at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939 and 1940.


Sally continued to appear on stage doing her fan dance into her sixties. She died in 1979 aged 75.