This is a vintage original signed publicity photograph of Sally Rand (1904 – 1979) an American burlesque dancer, vedette, and actress, famous for her ostrich-feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance.

During the 1920s she acted on stage and appeared in silent films. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand, inspired by a Rand McNally atlas. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1927. After the introduction of sound films, she became a dancer, known for the fan dance, which she popularized starting at the Paramount Club, at 15 E. Huron, in Chicago.

Her most famous appearance was at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, known as the Century of Progress. She would play peek-a-boo with her body by manipulating her fans in the front and behind her, like a winged bird as she swooped and twirled on the stage. She was arrested four times in a single day during the fair due to perceived indecent exposure after a fan dance performance and while riding a white horse down the streets of Chicago, where the nudity was only an illusion, and again after being bodypainted by Max Factor Sr. with his new makeup formulated for Hollywood films. 

She also conceived and developed the bubble dance, in part to cope with wind while performing outdoors. She performed the fan dance on film in Bolero, released in 1934. She performed the bubble dance in the film Sunset Murder Case (1938).

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