Nude dancer drew Richmond fans to see fans and bubbles

In 1933, the Chicago World's Fair celebrated "A Century of Progress" at the same time the Great Depression blanketed the country with despair.

Through the fair's gates rode a nude Lady Godiva astride a rented white horse. The bold young woman was 29-year-old Sally Rand, an unemployed actress and aspiring dancer desperate for work.

Her stunt won her a job at the fair's "Streets of Paris" concession, where she danced provocatively in little more than white body makeup while artfully waving two 7-foot, ostrich-feather fans to conceal her apparent nudity.

When the fair closed in 1934, she took her act on the road. Her controversial career as a fan and bubble dancer lasted until her death at 75.

Fresh from her highly publicized Chicago run and at the height of her fame, Rand came to Richmond in 1936 for two Jan. 11 shows at the Mosque, now the Landmark Theater.

"The tour of the fan dancer's show is now entering its second year and is already booked solid for another year," said a Richmond Times-Dispatch report.

But on Jan. 7, The Richmond News Leader reported police were poised to close the show. "Sally Rand, sensational nude dancer of World's Fair fame, will do well to have a care how she uses her fans and bubbles when she appears here," the report said.

"We do not expect to censor Miss Rand's show before it goes on," Richmond Police Chief Robert Jordan said. "The dancer will be arrested if there is any indecent exposure. Of course, if Miss Rand wears tights, we don't care how much or how little she uses the fans and bubbles."

Rand was rumored to wear sheer body stockings, a claim she neither confirmed nor denied. "The Rand is quicker than the eye," she teased.

In response to the police chief's threats, The News Leader contacted Rand, who was dancing in Tennessee. "The fan and the bubble dance require freedom of motion, but that does not mean they are vulgar," she said.

The News Leader asked Mosque manager Frank Corley about the simmering showdown. "If there is anything indecent about it, I certainly have been misled," he said. The controversy increased ticket sales and both shows sold out before opening.

"Well, Sally Rand has come and Sally Rand has gone," began a review in the Jan. 12 Times-Dispatch. "Richmond's morals are still intact, and folks who witnessed last night's performance at the Mosque in the hope of getting caught in some sort of a raid were woefully disappointed."

Nothing else disappointed: "Sally Rand and company put on a fast-moving, novel revue." The show featured magicians, singers and comedians.

"When it came to dancing, it was Sally Rand that the audience was waiting for," the reviewer wrote.

"Now, it really doesn't matter a lot whether Miss Rand had anything on or whether she didn't," continued the review, "and people who saw her last night are still undecided on that subject. What does matter is that her two dances were small interludes of grace and rhythm, with a large slice of beauty thrown in."

Rand did not return to Richmond until the 1950s, when she danced at the State Fair of Virginia. By then, she was more an aging curiosity than a star, but she still managed to snare headlines.

When Rand appeared at the State Fair in 1957, a sociology professor at Richmond Professional Institute, now Virginia Commonwealth University, invited her to talk to a class about her career. She accepted.

"Sally reminisced about how she was flat broke in the 1920s and slept on a park bench," said a News Leader report. Her resourcefulness changed that, she told the class.

At the 80-minute session's end, Rand departed in haste.

"Now I've got to go to work," she said.