She Burned Bright

The Sally Rand Silent Flame Lighter

The Lighter:

This Silent Flame Table Lighter was manufactured by Dunhill and Parker Beacon (owned by Dunhill). The majority of the Silent Flame Table Lighters were manufactured by Parker Beacon in New York (U.S.A.) between 1935 and 1944 and were almost identical to the more expensive Dunhill versions, and was available in chrome plate and gold-tone plate. The base was made of black or dark brown Bakelite, measuring 5 inches (13cm) tall, 3 inches (8cm) wide and 3.5 inches (9cm) deep.

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This lighter takes two size C batteries in the base and the wand has a removable cap so that it could be filled with lighter fluid. To light, the wand is pulled out from the base and touched against one of the rails and the figure (tip on figure, side on rail). This makes a circuit with the batteries and heats a small coil in the wand hot enough to light the wick. To better understand, please take a look here. 

The Silent Flame Lighter came in many figures, incorporating everything from the Statue of Liberty to Superman. This model was the most popular and was known as the “Fan Dancer,” but more commonly the “Sally Rand” who was the most famous fan dancer on the 1930s burlesque scene.

The Cultural Icon:

Sally Rand: Born Helen Gould Beck in April 3, 1904 in Elkton, Missouri and Died August 31, 1979 in Glendora, California.  Helen Beck left home at the age of thirteen to work as a cigarette girl in a nightclub in Kansas City and bounced around the country before arriving in Hollywood where she would start her journey in becoming the cultural icon, Sally Rand.

It was the founding father of the American cinema, and the most commercially successful producer and director in film history, Cecil B. DeMille who would give her the name Sally Rand. She acted on stage for him and appeared in silent films right up the introduction of “talkies.”

Leaving Hollywood, she went on to dance as a chorus girl in various Broadway plays and eventually, she started doing dance in Chicago speakeasys in 1932.  Her Chicago dancing would eventually turn her into a legend. In Chicago she manipulated ostrich feathers (seven-pound fans) by swooping and twirled the fans in front of her and behind her as she spun and moved giving the audience a playful peek-a-boo with her body. She developed an eight-minute routine that got her cast in the “Streets of Paris” exhibition at the 1933 “Century of Progress” World’s Fair. Rand’s fan dance caused a huge sensation at the Fair. Attendees packed the theater to catch a glimpse of the famous dancer and she performed as many as 16 performances a day to keep up with the demand. While at the Chicago World's Fair, she ran into issues with the law and was constantly arrested for her performance. She once was arrested four times in a single day due to perceived indecent exposure of her fan dance performances. Later it was while riding a white horse, while allegedly “nude” down the streets of Chicago, and then again after being body painted by Max Factor Sr. showing off his new makeup formulated for Hollywood films. 

Twenty-two million people visited the World’s Fair in 1933 and ’34, and almost all of them saw Sally Rand, launching her into American popular culture.

After the World Fair Sally Rand bought a burlesque hall in San Francisco, but unfortunately her legal issues followed her. In the 1940s, burlesque censorship tightened, and in 1946 she was arrested at the Club Savoy by the six police officers that were in the audience as she danced. The judge, Daniel R. Shoemaker, granted her immunity should she be arrested for the same offense while on trial however despite immunity, she was arrested during one night of the trial while performing her act. The judge decided to view her performance at the Savoy and cleared her of all charges after deeming that "anyone who could find something lewd about the dance as she puts it on has to have a perverted idea of morals."

Sally Rand continued to do her famous fan dance for decades and into her seventies with her last performance in 1977, two years before she died. Describing her 40-year career, Rand said, "I haven’t been out of work since the day I took my pants off.” Despite all the notoriety, the flash and feathers, the endless products like clocks, lamps, and this unique lighter, she struggled to define and monetize her own culture icon status, and she died destitute. Sammy Davis Jr. stepped in and wrote a $10,000 check which took care of Rand's expenses when she died. When Davis was a young performer on the road, he remembered Sally Rand being kind to him.

Personal Thoughts:

When I was a freshman in high school, I ran across a playbill in my house advertising one of Sally Rand’s local tour performance. I asked my dad about it and he said he had seen that show, and lovingly described the feather dancing and the hints of nudity. He said it was not just sexy, but mysterious and artistic. He then went on to tell me how my generation would never understand how sensual the hint of bareness was over the quick access to nudity men get today.  He made this statement in 1990, and would pass on in the 90s never even hearing of the internet. The internet, and all it had to offer, dominated my twenties. I think my father might have had a point, and there might just be a cheapening of experiences, because in comparison, it sounds like he witnessed an exhibition, performed by a true master of her craft.

Where to see one:

Volker Putz Lighter Collection, Hamburg, Germany