Sally Rand

  Sally Rand was considered the greatest fan dancer ever with her ostrich feather fans. She was also noted for her balloon bubble dance. But Sally Rand was not only a burlesque queen she was an actress appearing in 29 films from 1925 to 1938 and at times performing under the name Billie Beck.

  Sally Rand was born in in Elkton, Hickory County, Missouri on April 3, 1904 as Helen Harriet Beck or Helen Gould Beck.  When she was a child she was inspired by the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.Sally became interested in dance and at a young age she ran away to join a carnival. At 13 she found herself in  Kansas City and became a cigarette girl in a nightclub. She held many similar jobs, including as a circus performer in Ringling, until she began acting on stage and in silent films in the 1920's. It was American film director, Cecil B. DeMille who gave Helen the name Sally Rand, which was inspired by a Rand McNally atlas. In 1927 Sally Rand was chosen to be a WAMPAS Baby Stars. * And even though she had appeared in numerous average quality movies, her career in movies ended with advent of talkies because she suffered from a lisp.  It was at this time that the 5'1" 35-22-35 shapely  Sally Rand decided to work on incorporating her talent for dancing back into her career. Using the right mixture of enticement, imagination and intricate feather placement. It was at the Paramount Club, where she had a long standing job, that in 1932, Sally came up with the fan dance.

  Sally Rand came to prominence in the 1933-1934 Chicago World's Fair entitled Century of Progress, that was meant to celebrate the progress of civilization during Chicago's first century of existence. It is here, earning $125 a week, where she performed with her ostrich feather fans to the music of Chopin and Debussy. She was subsequently arrested 4 times in a single day because of perceived nudity while riding a white horse down the streets of Chicago, apparently nude. This became known as "Lady Godiva" stunt. Sally Rand was charged with lewd conduct but the charges were later dropped because as Superior Court Judge Joseph B. David stated, "Some people would want to put pants on a horse...if a woman wants to wiggle about with a fan, it is not the business of this court." The publicity from this incident made her a burlesque sensation and raised her weekly wages to $3,000 in a single summer. Because she never was actually showing everything, by using white theatrical cream or a body stocking, she was fond of saying "the Rand is quicker than the eye".

  Things got so bad that after her arrest the World' Fair was being threatened with not being allowed to open if  Sally Rand performed again, to which they agreed to but the World's Fair lost money because Sally Rand was not performing and was threatened with strikes, so they had no choice but to bring her back. This time Sally Rand came back with a new act, the bubble dance " I wanted balloon sixty inches in diameter, which is my height, made of a translucent or transparent material". The problem with that was that balloons were only made up to 30" in diameter and were red because they were used as target balloons by the War Department. So Sally, herself, fronted the money needed to have the translucent balloon made. It took many test but the super-sized balloon was eventually made and Sally Rand made her bubble dance debut in 1934, with 24 dancers and 16 showgirls.

Sally Rand being arrested in Chicago in 1933

  When the Chicago expedition finally closed, Sally went out on the road and sometimes it got more than a bit rough. For when she was at the California Pacific Exhibition, in San Diego in 1935-1936, Sally got bruises under her left eye and thigh after pebbles were thrown at her as she danced on stage. She left the stage bleeding  but soon reappeared with her fans and completed her dance routine. After the incident the management promised to have security in future crowds when she performed.

  When Sally wasn't dancing she would go to church, go sightseeing around San Diego and give interviews. She even baked a cake for her part in the home show of the Palace of Better Housing. blew a balloon in a contest at he Zone and gave a lecture to teachers and women groups on the art of dancing.

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

  After San Diego Sally Rand went to San Francisco in anticipation for the 1939 Treasure Island's World's Fair, where she starred in "Sally Rand's Nude Ranch" , which was one of the highlights of the fair. It featured women wearing gun belts, cowboy hats, boots and little else. The fairs official guide delicately described it as " Sally Rand Nude Ranch : a dude ranch a la 1939".

  In 1946 Sally Rand found herself  arrested twice in a row while performing in San Francisco at Club Savoy  on corrupting the morals of an audience, indecent exposure and conducting an obscene show.  The first arrest came when she was performing for an audience, filled with six cops in it, seemingly nude and with a large white fan. She then hired renowned defense attorney Jake Ehrlich, who kept American jazz and big band  drummer Gene Krupa and blues legend Billie Holiday out of jail on drug charges. Ehlrich made the argument that nudity was respected in the art of great masters and suggested that the court view the dance in question, as an artistic expression. The judge agreed to this proposition and released Sally Rand and let her continue her performance, unaltered, until the trial was over. But that very same night she was arrested again when she began dancing by the San Francisco Police Department. But the joke was on them, for when the lights came up Sally Rand was hiding a pair of long johns behind her fans. Plus, in place of her customary triangleof costume, was a note marked "CENSORED. SFPD!" The next morning she performed her usual routine in front of judge and jury and was immediately acquitted on the grounds that, "Anyone who could find something lewd about the dance as she puts it on has to have a perverted idea of moral",as Judge Shoemaker pronounced it.

  Sally Rand was not only an artist but a lady who was not afraid to speak her mind. An ad-lib remark she made on a radio appearance for NBC, about Al Wagner resulted in him filing a lawsuit against NBC for "defamatory remarks". In 1952, the court ruled that NBC was not liable for unexpected remarks made by guest performer.

  Naturally Sally attracted more than her fair share of marriage proposals. She married for the third time on August 12, 1954, in Las Vegas to 35year old contractor, Fred Lalla. Sally Rand was past 50.


  As an intellect, Sally Rand once took time time off from dancing to appear on stage with former boxer and World  Heavyweight Champion from 1926-1928, Gene Tunney to discuss Shakespeare. Another time, she went before 1,300 Harvard freshmen to lecture on the evils of communism. Also, while appearing at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas in 1954, she conducted a weekly television program. Of all things, Sally was an advisor of universal problems. She would also do celebrity interviews and have discussions on music, books and the home. Sally Rand had said " Beauty comes from within; a greedy, avaricious woman cannot be beautiful". 


 Having reached the age of 50 in 1953, Sally played the Dallas fair and claimed to have made  $14,000 in one day. For the rest of the week she was there Sally averaged $6,000 a day. From May of 1954 - January of 1955 she appeared at the Last Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, " I had the longest run that anyone has ever had there." Sally milked the same basic act for the rest of her career, continuing her fan dance routine into the 1970's. Sally even replaced fellow burlesque performer, Ann Corio in the stage show This was Burlesque, appeared at the Mitchell Brothers club in San Francisco in the early '70's and toured as one of the big stars in the 1972 nostalgia revue, "Big Show of 1928" which played at big revues, including Madison Square Garden. For that matter, Sally was wearing miniskirts and turning heads in 1974. When pressed about continuing her act into her 7th decade, Sally replied " What in heaven's name is strange about a grandmother dancing nude? I'll bet lots of grandmothers do it." 

  Sally Rand died in Glendora, California from undisclosed causes on August 31,1979 at the age of 75. Because she had insurmountable debt, at the time of her death, entertainer Sammy Davis,Jr. stepped in with a $10,000 check to help cover expenses, according to Sally Rand's adopted son.

 

Sally Rand with friend, one time Ziegfeld dancer, Dorothy Rubel

  

Sally Rand White Peacock Dance- 1939

Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren was born on September 20,1934 in Rome, Italy at the Clinica Regina Margherita.

At the age of 14 she entered a beauty contest, though she did not win she was one of the finalist.where she met Carlo Ponti.

 Sophia Loren's first English speaking role was in the 1957 movie "The Boy on the Dolphin"

 She won an Oscar in 1961 for the movie "Two Women". First major Academy Award for a non-English- language performance and to an  Italian actress.

 In 1963 she made Vittorio De Sica's movie "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". This movie co-starred Marcello Mastroianni. And contains her iconicly famous stripping (?) act.

 

 For more information on Sophia Loren go to my other blog Misha's Blue  http://mishasblue.blogspot.com/ for a more in depth post and photos.

Jayne Mansfield

  Hard to believe that June 29 will mar the 44th anniversary of Jayne Mansfield's death. While traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana from Biloxi, Mississippi on U.S. highway 90, the car she was riding in with three of her children by Mr. Universe Micky Hargitaty, Miklos, Zoltan and Mariska, Sam Brody, her married divorce lawyer and lover and their driver, Ronnie Harrison, when the car ran into the rear of a tractor trailer because it had slowed down because of a truck spraying mosquito fogger. The Buick Jayne was end not only hit the back of the tractor trailer but went under it as well. This, plus the blonde wig she was wearing at the time, has led to erroneous conclusion that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated, she wasn't. It was the fact that her skull was crushed that is the cause of death. Jayne Mansfield is buried in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania where her parents were from.

  That was Jayne's end now for her beginning. Vera Jayne Palmer was born April 19, 1933in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania but spent her early childhood in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. At the age of 3 her father died of a heart attack after being given a clean bill of health by his doctor that very morning.Luckily, her mother was able to get a job as a school teacher in order to support the family. Not long afterwards Jayne's mother met and married Harry "Tex" Peers and the family decided to move to Dallas in 1939. At a Christmas Eve party in 1949 Jayne met Paul Mansfield; they married on January 28, 1950.  In November of 1950, after a difficult labor, Jayne gave birth to a baby girl, her first of 5 children. While doing the family thing & having only gone to high school until her junior year, she also attended college studying dramatics at the University of Dallas and the University of Texas at Austin. Her husband thought all of this would dampen Jayne's desire for Hollywood but he was wrong. So after Paul got done doing his stint in the Army (courtesy of the Korean War) he kept his promise to Jayne and the family went to California. But as it seems to be with situations like this the marriage ended in divorce and Paul went back to Dallas.

  Jayne took work in a movie theater but soon began working as a model which led to her film and stage career. Now the studio heads may have thought that  just because she  had measurements of 40-21-35 they were getting a dolt or the whole "Well she's just a woman, what does she know?" deal but they were so wrong. She spoke 5 languages and was classically trained in piano and violin. Her I.Q. was supposed to have been 163. All she did was dye her brunette hair blonde and play dumb. I've heard that it takes a lot of smarts to play dumb. So if anyone could do it, Jayne could. She was signed by Warner Brothers studio for 6 months  because they wanted to have their own variation of Marilyn Monroe. She had a bit part in "Pete Kelly's Blue"  in 1955. Soon after the release of the movie Jayne was loaned out to RKO  for a two second role in "Underwater" which starred Jane Russell. In 1955 she also enjoyed a successful Broadway run in the play "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" On May 3, 1956 Jayne returned to Hollywood and was signed to another 6 month contract this time with 20th Century Fox. The studio promoted her as "Marilyn Monroe Kingsized" and used as a threat against Monroe to get her to work. Jayne's 1st staring role was in the movie "The Girl Can't Help It" which also had performances by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and Little Richard. In 1956 she met Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay while at a Mae West show. He was one of the musclemen. West was jealous of the two dating and publicly DEMANDED that Mickey stop seeing Jayne, to which he publicly answered that Jayne and he were in love and were planning a future together.In 1957, she was in the starring role of the movie version of her hit Broadway play, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter". Both Jayne and the movie were a hit. In January of 1958 Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay married. The couple loved children and were ecstatic each time Jayne  became pregnant. The couple had three children together, one being Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU fame. None the less they divorced in  August 1964 but remained good friends.. In the later part of 1964 she married Matt Cimber, whom she had met when he directed her in a stage production of "Bus Stop" , in Yonkers, New York. They had one child together. While working on what would be her last film, "Single Room Furnished" production had to be stopped in the middle because Jayne's marriage to Cimber was falling apart because of her alcoholism. open infidelities and her proclamation that one time lover,Nelson Sardeli, was the only one to have made her happy. They seperated in July of 1965 and divorced in July of 1966. After her death Mickey Hargitay and his wife was given custody and raised the children he had with Jayne and Matt Cimber, naturally got custody of their son.

  Jayne Mansfield appeared  on television as well as having her own stage shows. It was while traveling to another gig in New Orleans that she died. One of her movies "Promises, Promises" was the first talking picture to feature a mainstream star nude. Jayne was also a Playboy Playmate of the Month in February of 1955.

Gypsy Rose Lee January 8, 1911- April 26, 1970

 

Queen of the striptease, who always emphasized the tease part, Gypsy Rose Lee was born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington on January 8, 1911.She got her start in burlesque in Kansas City on October 6, 1926 at the tender age of 15 in not much more than a grass skirt and did not take much off. Gypsy also brought class and wit to her acts.She moved to New York and became one of the biggest stars of  Minsky's Burlesque. She performed there for 4 years before deciding to go to Hollywood to give acting a try, which was generally panned. Gypsy went back to New York City where she invested and starred  in many of Michael Todd's productions. As well as having an affair with him. She married 3 times. While married to her 2nd husband Gypsy embarked on an affair with director Otto Preminger, with whom she had a child by in December of 1944. Twelve years later she gave up stripping at the age of 42.

  Stripping was not the only thing Gypsy did. She wrote " The G-String Murders" in 1941, which was made into the film, starring Barbara Stanwyck, "Lady Burlesque" in 1943. Gypsy's second murder mystery was "Mother Finds a Body" published in 1942. And of course, a relative send up of her upbringing, her memoir "Gypsy" in 1957. In later years she had a successful television show in San Fransisco for housewives.

  In 1969  Gypsy was diagnosed with lung cancer. This prompted a reconciliation with her sister actress June Havoc, whom she had been estranged from for many years, courtesy of their mother. Gypsy died of lung cancer on April 26, 1970. She was also an animal lover who is credited with establishing one of the first  kennels dedicated to breeding Chinese Crested dogs.