Sally Rand
American Sex Symbol
by William Elliott Hazelgrove
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Nov 01 2020 | Archive Date Nov 13 2020
Rowman & Littlefield | Lyons Press
Talking about this book? Use #SallyRand #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
She would appear in more than thirty films and be named after a Road Atlas by Cecil B Demille. A football play would be named after her. She would appear on To Tell the Truth. She would be arrested six times in one day for indecency. She would be immortalized in the final scene of The Right Stuff, cartoons, popular culture, and live on as the iconic symbol of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933. She would pave the way for every sex symbol to follow from Marilyn Monroe to Lady Gaga. She would die penniless and in debt. In the end, Sammy Davis Jr. would write her a $10,000 check when she had nothing left. Her name was Sally Rand. Until now, there has not been a biography of Sally Rand. But you can draw a line from her to Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, Ann Margret, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. She broke the mold in 1933, by proclaiming the female body as something beautiful and taking it out of the strip club with her ethereal fan dance. She was a poor girl from the Ozarks who ran away with a carnival, then joined the circus, and finally made it to Hollywood where Cecil B Demille set her on the road to fame with silent movies. When the talkies came her career collapsed, and she ended up in Chicago, broke, sleeping in alleys. Two ostrich feathers in a second-hand store rescued her from obscurity.
William Elliott Hazelgrove has a Masters in History and is the best-selling author of ten novels and five narrative nonfiction books: Madame President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson, Forging a President: How the West Created Teddy Roosevelt (Regnery Publishing), Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair (Rowman and Littlefield). He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781493038596 |
| PRICE | $26.95 (USD) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Karen K, Reviewer
A fascinating look at a woman I had not heard about before reading this book.
Interesting, sad and colourful.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.
Rena M, Reviewer
I was always familiar with the name Sally Rand, the famous fan dancer of the Chicago World's Fair of 1933 but the wonderful research done by Mr. Hazelgrove taught me so much more about the woman behind the feathers. She was a beautiful, petite girl from the Ozarks who ran away with the circus when she was just 15 to find fame and fortune. I'm sure in the early part of the 20th century many other girls did too, but Sally was different. She had ''chutzpah", a drive to succeed and she just knew in her heart that she would attain world fame. Her fan dance and entrance riding sidesaddle on a white horse as a sort of Lady Godiva at the Fair gave world weary depression era audiences the uplift and brief escapism into something lovely that they needed. (It also made a fortune for the city of Chicago). All the obsenity arrests etc. and fines came later on after the fair closed. Another thing Sally never did was depend on anyone else for her living. She, no matter how bad things later got depended on herself only and even supported her family who had in nowise helped her when she was young.. She was a woman ahead of her time and she was punished for sometimes but she is still fondly remembered.. I thank Net Galley and Rowman & Littlefield for allowing me the opportunity to get to know this fascinating woman.
Mina V, Reviewer
This was an excellently documented , interesting, and researched biography. The story would make an excellent movie. Hope that happens! I knew Sally for about 15 weeks in 1959 when she was doing her show at a cabaret in Chicago while I was a student at Northwestern University. She was a truly nice person in so many ways. Her body was in excellent shape and that of course was aided by her full body stocking.
Susan D, Reviewer
Thank you NetGalley and Roman & Littlefield for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.
Sally Rand (born Helen Gould) was a beautiful young girl who longed for stardom. With determination, she chose to leave her Ozark home and joined the carnival in search of fame and fortune. In her quest, she became an acrobatic performer for Ringling Brothers, performed in summer stock and was a silent film star for Cecil B. DeMille who changed her name to Sally Rand. Not possessing the best voice for the ‘talkies’, Sally became a dancer which would lead her to her most memorable performance at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. Her iconic image as a fan dancer celebrated the beauty of a woman’s body taking it out of strip clubs and the stages of Burlesque..
Sally lived a rags to riches to rags life. She had four husbands, several arrests for indecent exposure and many trials but she was a survivor who possessed strength, will and determination. Sally did not rely on others, only herself.
I am very grateful to Mr. Hazelgrove for giving Sally her due. His book is detailed, absorbing and a true testament to who Sally was. I think she would be quite proud. Well done!
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Sci Fi & Fantasy
