Sally Rand: American Sex Symbol

by William Elliott azelgrove

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. 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.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2020

About the author

"An absolutely riveting story as only William Hazelgrove can write."
Janet Parshall The Janet Parshall Show Moody Radio

AS FEATURED ON JANET PARSHALL SHOW ON MOODY RADIO Propelled by idealism and determination, Jay and Lauren set out to cycle around the world. Believing in the essential goodness of humanity, the couple find kindness and hospitality while slogging through desert sand in Namibia, fleeing an enraged elephant in Botswana, and enduring freezing rain in Spain. William Elliott Hazelgrove's gripping account, reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, chronicles Jay and Lauren's epic journey toward an encounter with terrorists who decide that slaughtering these youthful seekers will serve ISIS's cause.” ―Doug Kari, author of The Berman Murders

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF EVIL ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
Novelist and historian Hazelgrove (Hemingway's Attic) recounts the fate of American cyclists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, who were slain by terrorists in Tajikistan in 2018, in this chilling true crime tale. Drawing from the couple's blog and interviews with their friends and family, Hazelgrove portrays Jay as a charismatic idealist who convinced Lauren to give up her job to follow him on a four-year bike trip around the globe, beginning in South Africa and ending in South America. In Africa, they faced charging elephants, flies, and malaria; in Europe, they dealt with suspicious officials and a few gnarly crashes. Still, they pushed forward for two years, winding up in Central Asia's Pamir Mountains (nicknamed the "Roof of the World"). In Tajikistan, a group of young men radicalized by ISIS stalked and ambushed the couple after encountering them on a highway; four were then killed by local police, while the ringleader died in an American prison. Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian ("Jay and Lauren ride on into Botswana, which proves to be flat, arid, wild, and hot"), letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward. For the most part, the approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast.



PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF DEAD AIR THE NIGHT ORSON WELLES TERRIFIED AMERICA 8/8/24
RELEASE OCT 30 2024
In this fine-grained account, historian Hazelgrove (Writing Gatsby) chronicles the mass hysteria that accompanied Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Hazelgrove presents Welles as an actor of immense ambition and preternatural talent, noting that by age 22, he had put on headline-grabbing plays (the government shut down his 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock, fearing its pro-labor themes would be incendiary) and traveled around New York City in a faux ambulance to move more quickly between his numerous radio and theatrical commitments. The author recounts the rushed scriptwriting process for War of the Worlds and offers a play-by-play of the broadcast, but he lavishes the most attention on the havoc Welles wreaked. Contemporaneous news accounts reported college students fighting to telephone their parents, diners rushing out of restaurants without paying their bills, families fleeing to nearby mountains to escape the aliens’ poisonous gas, and even one woman’s attempted suicide. Hazelgrove largely brushes aside contemporary scholarship questioning whether the hysteria’s scope matched the sensational news reports, but he persuasively shows how the incident reignited elitist fears that “Americans were essentially gullible morons” and earned Welles the national recognition he’d yearned for. It’s a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness. (Nov.)






WGN CHICAGO INTERVIEW ON WRITING GATSBY https://wgnradio.com/after-hours-with...

WRITING GATSBY THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE WRITING OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVEL
TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIewK...



ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT ON 160 MINUTES THE RACE TO SAVE THE RM

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a very well written book.

There are editorial errors that even a novice editor should have picked up.

Misspelled names in a book of this kind is absolutely unacceptable!

It is repetitious to the point of boring.

The narrative goes back and forth in a most confusing way.

The book description claims “Until now, there has not been a biography of Sally Rand” and then proceeds to quote from two such books.

This book is a muddled mess.

Sally Rand deserves better.

[Rena McGrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was always familiar with the name of 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 to find fame and fortune in the early part of the 20th century. A lot of other girls probably did too but there was something special about Sally. She has "chutzpah", a survivor's instinct, tenacity and a sureness in her heart that she would become world famous. When she did her fan dance and rode sidesaddle on a white horse in a long blonde wig into the Fair she made depression era weary audiences forget for awhile and be able to dream of something lovely and happy. (It also made a lot of money for the city of Chicago). All the obscenity fines and trials would come after the Fair. She also never depended upon anyone else all her life. She was a survivor and a woman way ahead of her time. Thank you Net Galley and Rowman & Littlefield for the pleasure of learning more about this fascinating woman.

[Debra Pawlak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an advance reading copy (ARC) of this book by NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair review. I opted to read this book because I knew very little about fan dancer Sally Rand. Sally Rand's story started out in the Ozarks and the author continually reminded us of her 'hillbilly' beginnings. She traveled to Hollywood where she found some success in the world of silent film, but once talkies came into vogue, her movie career was over. According to the author, she had a twang and a lisp--neither of which came across well on the silver screen. In order to reinvent herself, she bought two oversized fans made of ostrich feathers and created a 'fan' dance. Rand made her mark at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair when she arrived on horseback Lady Godiva-style--an event that the author brought up over and over throughout the book. Rand's entire career revolved around this fan dancing. She supported her family (parents and an 'adopted' son), but barely stayed one step ahead of the bill collectors most of her life. After three failed marriages and multiple arrests for indecency, she continued to take her show on the road--even in her sixties. The last chapter in the book compared her to Mae West, but there were very little similarities there. Although I learned a few things about Sally Rand that I didn't know before, I would have to read another biography about her in order to really get a feel for the woman behind the feathers.

[Anne Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to learning more about Sally Rand, one of the first women to be famous for being famous (or infamous). Sadly, this book didn’t really help me out. It was poorly written, with a lot of repetition and bouncing back and forth in its timing so that when the reader returned to the ‘present’ they had lost any narrative thread there was. Much of what I read seemed surface instead of getting into the mind and times of Sally Rand- part of which may have been lack of anything like diaries where we can get into Sally’s mind. About half way through the book I stopped, which is almost unheard of for me. But I just couldn’t take the writing anymore. Overall the book was highly disappointing and painful to read through because of the writing. If I decide to try learning more about Sally sometime in the future, I will try a different author to go to.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[J Earl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no doubt in my mind that Sally Rand was a fascinating person, unfortunately this book does little to support that idea. Though a great deal of archival research went into this book it did not translate into a particularly compelling story, more like a collection of anecdotes (many questionable and many demonstrably incorrect) and tidbits.

If you're unfamiliar with Rand or know little beyond her fan dance, this book may well present enough information to motivate you to seek out reliable biographies and/or accounts that include her. If you already have some knowledge of Rand, this book will likely add very little and infuriate you with its style and inaccuracies.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Goodreads.

[Cosima demaglie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I got to know so well someone I had never heard of, and now I admire her so very much. What a dynamo, what a fighter..what a fascinating life story. Read this book. Yes it is a bit repetitive in parts but it just hits home the unique and dynamic story of a woman who danced with two 7 pound Ostrich Fans across America for 40 years..and did so much more..she even saved the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Who Knew. Sally Rand you are super cool!

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband was familiar with Sally Rand from one of the worlds fair in Chicago. We heard the author speak via zoom on the Chicago worlds fair. Or course, Sally Rand name came up. Sally is the original fan dancer. My husband enjoyed this book , learning more about Sally. He is looking forward to more books by this author, one reason is that he is a local Chicago author.

[Joni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I had enjoyed the book, but it didn't happen. The "hillbilly from the Ozarks" was written poorly. She was interesting, but her story wasn't. Thank you for the opportunity through this giveaway.

[fhmltn · Rating 2 out of 5]

very thorough and informative but the author is quite frankly blatantly sexist throughout the whole thing and quite prone to repetition that borders on madness.