Sally Rand

Sally Rand was born on 3rd April, 1904 in Hickory County, Missouri. Sally Rand performed under the name “Billie Beck”; she was an actress and burlesque dancer and well known for her ostrich feather balloon bubble dance and fan dance. Sally Rand acted on the stage and worked in silent films during the 1920s. “Cecil B. DeMille” gave her the name as Sally Rand, inspired by a “Rand McNally” atlas. In 1927, she was also chosen as one of the “WAMPAS Baby Stars”.

Sally Rand became a dancer after the introduction of “sound film” and well liked as “fan dance”, which she popularized initial at the “Paramount Club”. The most popular appearance by Sally Rand was at the 1933 “Chicago World’s Fair” entitled “Century of Progress”. Sally Rand arrested 4 times in a single day in the fair because of apparent offensive exposure as riding a white horse down the streets of Chicago but the nakedness was only a delusion. Sally Rand conceived and developed “Bubble Dance” in part to deal with wind whilst performing outdoors. In 1934, Sally Rand performed the “Fan Dance” on movie in Bolero.

Sally Rand bought “The Music Box” burlesque hall in San Francisco in 1936 which would afterward become the “Great American Music Hall”. Sally Rand starred in “Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch” at the “Golden Gate International Exposition” in San Francisco in 1939-1940. Into her sixties, Sally Rand sustained to appear on stage doing her fan dance and appeared in many shows. She died in the age of 75 on 31st of August, 1979 in Glendora, California.

Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand