Sally Rand

Sally Rand
Born	Helen Harriet Beck April 3, 1904(1904-04-03) Hickory County, Missouri, U.S.
Died	August 31, 1979(1979-08-31) (aged 75) Glendora, California, U.S.
Other names	Billie Beck
Occupation	Burlesque dancer Actress
Years active	1925–1979
Spouse	Clarence Robbins (?–?) Thurkel Greenough (1941–?) Harry Finkelstein (1949–1950) Fred Lalla (1954–?)

Sally Rand (April 3, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.

Early life and career

Helen Harriet Beck was born in Hickory County, Missouri, attending Greenwood Grammar School three years ahead of Robert A. Heinlein. During the 1920s, she acted on stage and appeared in silent films. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand, inspired by a Rand McNally atlas. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1927. After the introduction of sound film, she became a dancer, known for the fan dance, which she popularized starting at the Paramount Club. Her most famous appearance was at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair entitled Century of Progress. 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 also conceived and developed the bubble dance, in part to cope with wind while performing outdoors. She performed the fan dance on film in Bolero, released in 1934.^{[citation needed]}

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.

She was arrested twice in succession San Francisco in 1946. While performing at Club Savoy, she was arrested by six police officers in the audience as she danced, seemingly nude, in silhouette behind a large white fan. While on trial, the judge granted her immunity should she be arrested for the same offense while on trial. She was arrested during a night of the trial while performing her act, despite her immunity and the fact that she was wearing long underwear and a note that read "CENSORED. S.F.P.D." while performing that time. In an unusual move, the judge viewed her performance at the Savoy and cleared her of all charges after deeming that "anyone who could find something lewd about the dance as she puts it on has to have a perverted idea of morals".

She appeared on television in 1957, on an episode of To Tell the Truth with host Bud Collyer and panelists Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, Kitty Carlisle, and Carl Reiner. She did not "stump the panel" but was correctly identified by all four panelists. She continued to appear on stage doing her fan dance into the 1970s. Rand once replaced Ann Corio in the stage show, This Was Burlesque, appeared at the Mitchell Brothers club in San Francisco in the early 1970s and toured as one of the stars of the 1972 nostalgia revue "Big Show of 1928," which played major concert venues including New York's Madison Square Garden. Later, she appeared with Tempest Storm and Blaze Starr.^{[citation needed]}

Death

She died in 1979 in Glendora, California, aged 75, from undisclosed causes. She was deeply in debt at her death and according to Rand's adopted son, Sammy Davis, Jr. who had been a child performer, stepped in wrote a $10,000 dollar check which took care of Rand's expenses.

In popular culture

• In Tex Avery's cartoon Hollywood Steps Out (1941), a rotoscoped Rand performs her famous bubble dance onstage to an appreciative crowd. A grinning Peter Lorre caricature in the front row comments, "I haven't seen such a beautiful bubble since I was a child." The routine continues until the bubble is suddenly popped by Harpo Marx and his slingshot, with a surprised Rand (her nudity covered by a well-placed wooden barrel) reacting with shock. Rand is referred to as "Sally Strand" here.

• She was the model of several characters in Robert A. Heinlein's stories, such as the Mary-Lou Martin of "Let There Be Light".^{[citation needed]} Rand was also included in Heinlein's final book, To Sail Beyond The Sunset, as a friend of main character, Maureen Johnson Long, mother of Lazarus Long.

• In the 1979 book The Right Stuff, the author Tom Wolfe described Sally Rand fan-dancing for the first American astronauts and other dignitaries and referred to the astronauts observing this sixtyish woman's "ancient haunches". In the 1983 film version of The Right Stuff, Rand was portrayed by actress Peggy Davis.

• A fictionalized version of Rand appeared in Toni Dove's interactive cinema project Spectropia, played by Helen Pickett of the Wooster Group.

• In the 1936 Merrie Melodie cartoon Page Miss Glory, a robustly proportioned matron performs a parody of Rand's fan dance.

• In the "Nathan Heller" mystery series by Max Allan Collins, Detective Heller meets Sally Rand.

Filmography

Features:

• The Dressmaker from Paris (1925)
• The Texas Bearcat (1925)
• The Road to Yesterday (1925)
• Braveheart (1925)
• Bachelor Brides (1926)
• Sunny Side Up (1926)
• Gigolo (1926)
• Man Bait (1927)
• The Night of Love (1927)
• Getting Gertie's Garter (1927)
• The Yankee Clipper (1927)
• The King of Kings (1927)
• His Dog (1927)
• The Fighting Eagle (1927)
• Galloping Fury (1927)
• Heroes in Blue (1927)
• A Woman Against the World (1928)
• Crashing Through (1928)
• Nameless Men (1928)
• A Girl in Every Port (1928)
• Golf Widows (1928)
• Black Feather (1928)
• The Sign of the Cross (1932)
• Hotel Variety (1933)
• Bolero (1934)
• Sunset Murder Case (1938)

Short Subjects:

• The Czarina's Secret (1928)

Source

• Knox, Holly. Sally Rand, From Films to Fans. Maverick Publications (1988); ISBN 0892881720

External links

• [2] Web site for the one Actress and Dancer who portrays Sally Rand in a one woman show, www.FanningThePassions.com
• Sally Rand at the Internet Movie Database
• Sally Rand and The Music Box at Virtual Museum of SF
• Burlesque and pin-up forum
• Sally Rand at Find a Grave