About this item
Leslie Zemeckis continues to discover the forgotten feminist histories of the golden age of entertainment, turning her sights on the lost stories of Sally Rand and Faith Bacon -- icons who each claimed to be the inventor of the notorious fan dance Some women capture our attention like no others. Faith Bacon and Sally Rand were beautiful blondes from humble backgrounds who shot to fame behind a pair of oversize ostrich fans, but with very different outcomes. Sally Rand would go on to perform for the millions who attended the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, becoming America's sweetheart. Faith Bacon, the Marilyn Monroe of her time--once anointed the "world's most beautiful woman"--would experience the dark side of fame and slip into drug use. It was the golden age of American entertainment, and Bacon and Rand fought their way through the competitive showgirl scene of New York with grit and perseverance. They played peek-a-boo with their lives, allowing their audiences to see only slivers of themselves. A hint of a breast? A forbidden love affair? They were both towering figures, goddesses, icons. Until the world started to change. Little is known about who they really were, until now. Feuding Fan Dancers tells the story of two remarkable women during a tumultuous time in entertainment history. Leslie Zemeckis has pieced together their story and -- nearly one hundred years later -- both women come alive again.
About the Author
Leslie Zemeckis is an entertainer, author and award-winning documentarian, specializing in early American forms of entertainment (from burlesque to the circus) . With an impressive burlesque collection that streteches from the 1920s through the 1960s, with items from Gypsy Rose Lee to Blaze Starr. Zemeckis wrote/produced/directed the critically acclaimed documentary shown on Showtime "Behind the Burly Q" the true story of old-time burlesque. Her second film, "Bound by Flesh" about Daisy and Violet Hilton, sideshow "freaks" won many festival awards as both best documentary and best director and can be seen on Netflix. Her second book "Goddess of Love Incarnate; the Life of Stripteuse Lili St. Cyr" was published Fall of 2015 by Counterpoint Press and is the in-depth story of Hollywood in the '30s-50s, Montreal nightclubs, and Swinging 52nd Street in New York as Lili dances and strips her way to great fame and fortune, shedding 6 husbands and numerous lovers, such as Orson Welles and Artie Shaw along the way.
