Although not part of the Rubin & Cherry series, I couldn’t resist including this TRU-VUE shot of Sally Rand doing her celebrated Fan Dance. This was probably taken in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress, where Sally was one of the major attractions. Born Helen Harriet Beck, she was given the stage name Sally Rand by none other than Cecil B. DeMille while appearing in silent films in Hollywood. (Supposedly DeMille got the idea from a Rand McNally atlas.) |
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Sally Rand #1
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Back during World War II, when San Diego was an even bigger Navy town than it is today, Jack White’s aunt operated a store that sold, among other items, TRU-VUE filmstrips. Years later, while going through the store’s inventory of unsold items, Jack found a good supply of the Sally Rand TRU-VUE titles, which apparently had sold well to sailors out on liberty. (There were also multiple unsold copies of Gypsy Rose Lee’s TRU-VUE filmstrip.)
One year long ago, Sally Rand was featured with the show that played our State Fair and the jumbo window cards used to advertise their coming had a large photo of Sally in a skimpy outfit.
Sandy McPherson, an old Corporation biller who later operated the local "snipe" was contracted by the Fair Board to advertise the Fair all thru Middle Tennessee.
Coming to one small town, he first made sure the officials of the town allowed cards on the poles and he then stapled one jumbo card on each of a number of poles in town and went on to the next town.
Later than day as he was on the way back to Nashville he passed thru the town mentioned above and to his dismay the poles had been cleaned- there was not one Sally Jumbo card to be seen.
He went to the one-man police force and reminded him that he had permission to tack the poles and asked why they had been removed.
The lawman said, "Come with me." They went to the local high school where the principal allowed the officer to use the P A system.
"I know who you are," the cop announced, "and I want every one of those posters here in the office in the next minute!"
All the cards were brought in by the older boys and Sandy retacked the poles.
Thus ended happily another day of billing the show.
Ain't show biz great?
In the early 1950s, Miss Rand did do one carnival tour with her own revue on the back end of the Royal American Shows. I saw her show at a very young age at the Mississippi State Fair in Jackson.
Gypsy Rose Lee did another season with Royal American, headlining her own show too.
Sally Rand dances with a very beautiful Balloon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MnA0sEetXM
Also see The Fantabulous Sally Rand
http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/sally/sallydex.html
Faith Bacon also played here with some show and worked very strong.
Bill Hartzman was the Treasurer for Cetlin and Wilson Shows for many years. His son, Bill Hartzman grew up around the show knowing Sally Rand as his godmother. Bill told me the last time he saw her was by accident in a hotel in some town, USA. He was working in the area and she just happened to stop for the night. They had a great evening, visiting and remembering one more time.
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