For two days in April 1937, burlesque dancer and actress Sally Rand performed on stage at Shea’s Theater in Bradford wearing nothing more than a pair of pink ostrich feather fans and a smile upon her face.

She was already famous for seeming to dance completely nude behind those strategically placed fans. Bradfordians could hardly wait to buy tickets.

Needless to say, both shows were sold out.

Sally Rand was born April 3, 1904 in Elkton, Missouri. Her father was a West Point graduate and a retired U.S. Army colonel; her mother was a schoolteacher and part-time newspaper reporter. Rand’s real name was Helen Beck.

She studied ballet and drama in Kansas City, but at 16 years of age headed to Hollywood. In the early 1920s she briefly worked as an acrobat with Ringling Bros. circus and still later acted in summer stock, on stage and in the movies. Cecil B. DeMille cast her in more than 20 silent films, and suggested that Helen Beck change her name to Sally Rand. The first Rand McNally Road Atlas had recently been published, in 1924, and he liked the name.

During this period, she dated Charles Lindberg and he taught her how to fly an airplane. She became a licensed pilot and later broke the light plane speed record, flying from San Francisco to Reno in 1 hour and 54 minutes.

But Sally Rand never made the transition to motion picture “talkies”– she had a slight lisp that held her back. Looking for another way to make her fortune, 29-year-old Sally originated the idea of dancing in the nude with only ostrich feathers to conceal her body.

She performed dreamy, slow dances, usually to “Clair de Lune,” carefully swishing two large pink feather fans around her body in time to the music to prevent any actual glimpse of nudity.

Her first big success was at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. City decency ordinances had forbidden her from performing her famous fan dance but she showed up anyway, wearing a long blonde wig, riding in on a white horse, Lady Godiva style. She was arrested, of course, but the crowds loved it. She was soon hired to be a headliner at one of the fair’s exhibit halls, for $2,000 a week.

She performed her 8-minute act up to 16 times per day, and her performances became one of the fair’s most popular and profitable attractions. A constant source of controversy with city and fair officials, she was once arrested for obscenity four times in a single day. Rand always managed to persuade the judges that her dance was tastefully done – and after personally witnessing her show, they always agreed.

And she became famous. One critic wrote, “perfectly beautiful as presented. Airy, exquisite, artistic! So adept is Miss Rand with her fans, so cunning the hand at the colored light switch, that you are good if you can tell where the body starts, and her fans stop.”

Want proof? Several clips of Sally Rand performing her fan dances can be seen on YouTube.

By Monday, April 12, 1937, when she arrived in Bradford, Sally Rand was known nationwide. An astute businesswoman, she brought her own ‘all-star revue’ with 20 “Lovely Texas Rangerettes” and 30 other entertainers, including dancers, pianists, a comedic tumbling and acrobatic act, singers, and a roller-skating team billed as “The Thrillers.”

Shea’s Theater announced that it would be “the most spectacular stage show that had ever been presented in Bradford” and, in response to the large number of phone calls, reported that there would be no reserved seats. Matinee performances were held at 2:30 April 12 and 13 with evening performances at 8:01 and 10 o’clock. Matinee tickets were 42 cents for adults, and 21 cents for kids. Evening shows were 86 cents for the orchestra seating, and 57 cents for those up in the balcony.

Bradford had come to see Sally Rand, and they were not disappointed. The Bradford Era wrote, “Miss Rand, the girl who discovered that ostrich feathers could be useful as well as ornamental, pleased a capacity crowd with both a fan dance and a bubble dance.”

Dr. William Ostrander, a Smethport physician, was also in the audience at Shea’s Theater on Monday night, and was quoted as saying “After viewing the glamorous Sally Rand in her candid, delightfully intimate fan dance in Bradford, I am convinced that it is not Sally who needs the fans – censors to the contrary notwithstanding – but her spectators!”

She was also considered a remarkable businesswoman. Her all-star revue was entirely self-produced, designing all the costumes, supervising the construction of the scenery, hiring and selecting all the acts that appeared with her, and doing all her own booking and contracting. Rand was also a master of publicity, making outside appearances in every town she danced in, at stores, local fairs and radio shows, and speaking at local organizations.

Bradford was no exception. That Monday, Sally Rand spoke before the Kiwanis Club at its weekly luncheon at the Emery Hotel and Bradford merchants were eager to have Rand appear at their stores.

A.W. Wingard’s, an appliance store on South Avenue, bragged that “Sally says there is nothing she enjoys more after a hard day’s work than going to her Dayton refrigerator (sold by Wingard’s, of course) for a cold lunch or drink!” Wingard’s also boasted that “Miss Rand will be happy to meet our customers, autograph sales slips and discuss the new Dayton refrigerator.”

The Modernette Booterie, a shoe store at 46 Main St., advertised that Sally Rand would appear in person at the store, from 1:30 to 2 p.m., would “model the newest in Spring footwear and will be happy to help out patrons in their selection of their spring shoes.”

Butter-Krust Baking Co. boasted that “Sally Rand endorses the new Anderson’s Butter-Maid Bread – and will eat it during her stay in Bradford!” She also appeared at East Main Motors and “will be happy to discuss the new 1937 Oldsmobile, a car she greatly admires.”

It’s a wonder that she had time to actually perform at Shea’s!

As the years went on, she continued her famous dance, always with the question – was she really in the buff behind those fans or was she wearing some sort of transparent bodysuit? It was never answered.

She married three times, and had one adopted son. In 1962, at the age of 58, she did her famous dance for the Mercury Seven astronauts in Houston. She appeared on “What’s My Line?” in 1952, stumping the panel of Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis and Robert Lewis. And she continued to dance, until 1975.

She died in California in 1979 of congestive heart failure. Sammy Davis Jr. paid for her funeral. As a young performer on the road, Sally Rand had been kind to him and he never forgot it.