Sally Rand

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Sally Rand

Sally Rand (January 2, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was born Harriet Helen Gould Beck in Hickory County, Missouri. She also performed under the name Billy Beck. She was an exotic dancer and actress.

During the 1920s, she acted on stage and appeared in silent films. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand. 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 a few times due to indecent exposure while dancing, 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 died in 1979 in Glendora, California, aged 75.

She performed the fan dance on film in Bolero, released in 1934. In 1936, she purchased the club that would become the Great American Music Hall. She is portrayed by actress Peggy Davis in the 1983 film, The Right Stuff, fan-dancing for the first American astronauts and other dignitaries. That episode had also been discussed in the book, wherein author Tom Wolfe referred to the astronauts observing this sixtyish woman's "ancient flanks". She and her 1933 World's Fair fan-dance were mentioned in the 1972 episode of "The Waltons" entitled "The Carnival". A fictionalized version of her also appears in Toni Dove's interactive cinema project Spectropia, played by Helen Pickett of the Wooster Group.