A white bird flying in the moonlight?
In Brooklyn, where she was appearing at the paramount Theatre, famed Fan Dancer Sally Rand revealed that she had been offered "a big sum" to indorse nudism. Said she: "The offer shocked me. I knew that if I endorsed it, a lot of fat old men would join the cult just to see me without fans. It made me sick that my lovely dance should be confused with such things. All the nudists I ever saw had scratches all over their rear ends where they had been sitting on thorns."
To a World-Telegram interviewer Sally Rand explained that the makeup she uses on her body makes her itch. Said she: "Doesn't it feel good to scratch?" Her description of her dance: "It is just my interpretation of a white bird flying in the moonlight at dusk." Her tribute to Henry Sittenberg, who makes her fans: "Henry has been in the business for 40 years and since I began my dance at the World's Fair last summer his business has picked up 100%. He estimates that I have 1,000 competitors...He makes the best fans for me." Her family: "I bought my mother an orange grove near Los Angeles and I gave her a tractor for a birthday present. Her real name is Annette Kisling. My real name is Helen Beck, and I was born in Hickory County, Missouri. My mother has been married twice. We grow the best apples in the world in Hickory county." Her career: "I have been having such a good time." Other Rand observations: "It shouldn't cost anything to go naked. I like to be as naked as possible....I think my dance is the most beautiful thing in the world.....I could just stretch out and sleep forever...."
Article on page 56 of Time magazine
March 12, 1934
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