Sally Rand

Sally Rand (1937)

Sally Rand on a troop visit to the Key West Naval Hospital

Sally Rand (* 3. April 1904 in Elkton , Missouri as Helen Gould Beck , † 31 August 1979 in Glendora , California ) was an American burlesque - dancer and actress .

Life

Helen Gould Beck was born in 1904 in the Elkton unincorporated area of Missouri. Her father, William Beck, was a retired colonel and a former graduate of the United States Military Academy , and her mother, Nettie, was a schoolteacher who worked part-time as a reporter. Helen moved her family to Jackson County when she was elementary school .

At the age of thirteen, Helen Gould Beck made her first stage appearances at the Empress Theater in Kansas City . After appearing in a Kansas City nightclub, she was discovered by a critic for the Kansas City Journal and featured in his articles. Beck took ballet and acting classes before embarking on a career as an actress in Hollywood . To finance her trip to the west coast, Beck took a job as an acrobat at the Ringling Brothers Circus . She was also active in several traveling theater groups, including in the company of the then still unknown Humphrey Bogart in the play Rain .

In 1925 Helen Gould Beck achieved her breakthrough as an actress in Hollywood with her first small roles in silent films. Shortly afterwards she received her stage name Sally Rand , which the director Cecil B. DeMille had come up with based on the publisher Rand McNally . In 1927 she was chosen to be one of thirteen so-called WAMPAS Baby Stars who were predicted to have a great film career. In the same year, Rand received an extra role in the monumental film King of Kings by Cecil B. DeMille. In 1928 she was seen as an exotic woman in Blue Boys - Blonde Girls .

After the introduction of the talkie, Sally Rand began a career as a burlesque dancer at the Paramount Club in Chicago . A trademark of Rand became her fan dance with one or two oversized fans, in which she was sometimes only scantily clothed. She achieved great fame as a dancer in 1933 when she performed at the world exhibition A Century of Progress in Chicago. Here, the edge was arrested four times because of their freedom of movement, including as it only with one of Max Factor -made body painting "clothed" was or as Lady Godiva rode on horseback through Chicago. Rand continued to appear occasionally as an actress and dancer in films, for example in a leading role in the music film Bolero in 1934 .

In 1936, Sally Rand became the owner of The Music Box Burlesque Hall in San Francisco , later known as the Great American Music Hall . In 1939 and 1940 she had her own stage show at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, entitled Sally Rand's Nude Ranch .

In 1946, while performing at Club Savoy in San Francisco, Rand was arrested again for her revealing performances, but was later acquitted by the court. In the 1950s, she appeared as a guest on several television programs , including the advice show To Tell the Truth (broadcast in Germany under the title Sag die Truth ).

Sally Rand remained active as a dancer into old age. She performed at the Mitchell Brothers Club in San Francisco in the early 1970s and in Madison Square Garden in 1972 . Your entire creative period spans more than 50 years.

On August 31, 1979, Sally Rand died of heart failure at the Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora, California, at the age of 75. Since she was heavily in debt in the last few years of her life, her funeral was paid for by musician Sammy Davis, Jr. Her grave is in Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora .

Sally Rand was married a total of four times and had a son.

Others

Sally Rand was one of the caricatured celebrities in Tex Avery's 1941 animated short Hollywood Steps Out , which parodied her appearances as a burlesque dancer.

1979 Sally Rand is mentioned as a dancer in Tom Wolfe's novel The Heroes of the Nation . In the 1983 film version with the German title The Stuff the Heroes Are Made of , their role is played by Peggy Davis . She is also mentioned in the Nathan Heller book series by the author Max Allan Collins and was the model for several characters in the novels of Robert A. Heinlein .

In June 2004, Sally Rand's 100th birthday celebrations were held at Town Hall in New York City . The guests included the dancers Bebe Neuwirth and Marge Champion .

Filmography (selection)

• 1925: Fifth Avenue Models
• 1925: The Dressmaker from Paris
• 1925: The Road to Yesterday
• 1925: Braveheart
• 1926: gigolo
• 1927: The Night of Love
• 1927: Getting Gertie's Garter
• 1927: King of Kings (The King of Kings)
• 1927: His Dog
• 1927: The Fighting Eagle
• 1928: Blue Boys - Blonde Girls (A Girl in Every Port)
• 1932: Under the Sign of the Cross (The Sign of the Cross)
• 1938: Sunset Murder Case

Web links

Commons : Sally Rand  - Collection of Images

• Sally Rand at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Obituary in the New York Times (English)
• Sally Rand in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mark Masek: Sally Rand April 3, 1904 - Aug. 31, 1979. In: cemeteryguide.com. October 19, 2011, accessed September 8, 2017 . 
2. ↑ INGENIOUS 1930S BURLESQUE QUEEN, THE GREAT SALLY RAND. In: dangerousminds.net. September 13, 2016, accessed September 8, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Burlesque Arrests: Mae West & Sally Rand. In: Pin Curl Magazine. December 31, 2010, accessed September 7, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Lee A. Daniels: Sally Rand, Whose Fan Dancing Shocked Country, Is Dead at 75. In: The New York Times . September 1, 1979, accessed September 7, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Victor Minx: Sally Rand Arrested in Body Suit and Long Underwear, Dies Broke True Burlesque. In: True Burlesque. Retrieved September 8, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Vincent Canby: FILM: 'RIGHT STUFF,' ON ASTRONAUTS. In: The New York Times . October 21, 1983, accessed September 9, 2017 . 
7. ^ JL Bell: Sally Rand as an Opening Act. In: Oz and Ends. June 24, 2011, accessed September 9, 2017 . 
8. ^ Sylviane Gold: DANCE: THIS WEEK; The Figure Behind the Fan: Celebrating Sally Rand. In: The New York Times . June 27, 2004, accessed September 7, 2017 .