Those of you who are regular visitors to this site are aware that we were briefly inundated with pornographic spam. A couple of group members chimed in with possible solutions, both of which worked and we are now pornography free. Of course, this brings to mind an intellectual exercise which asks, “Exactly what is pornography?” I believe that definition goes far beyond Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous response, “I know it when I see it.” And of course, what was seen as pornographic back in the 1940s is clearly far more innocent today.
The famous fan dance, in which a supposedly nude burlesque artist dances while covering her body with a pair of fans, saw its origin in the late 1920s. Whether it was Sally Rand or Faith Bacon who originated the dance is something for historians and those addicted to court transcripts. In any case, both Rand and Bacon presented variations of the dance at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, known as the Century of Progress. Ironically, close to 10 years later each of the two shared their acts for the Soundies camera.
Five Soundies, three by Rand and two by Bacon, were produced in Los Angeles in July 1942. This appears to be a very conscious move by Soundies executives to include this type of burlesque performance in weekly releases. But this was not to happen. Local censors were unhappy with this type of material, and our Soundie today, Faith Bacon’s Dance of Shame, was ordered to be eliminated from the reel by five of the local boards. In addition, there is very little variety in this sort of performance, and when you’ve seen one of the five Soundies, you have pretty much seen them all. So, while the somewhat titillating nature of these five releases would have probably worked in bars and at army bases, interest in other locations would probably have been limited. In any case, the censors were unrelented, the novelty wore off and this type of burlesque dance was discontinued on the Panoram screen.
Faith Bacon is clearly clothed in this dance, although a great deal of skin is on view, hence the response by local censors. The accompanying melody, “Bolero,” was written by tunesmith Arthur Johnston, and is performed on soundtrack by none other than Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Because of the censorship concerns, release of the short was delayed for a year, and even then the censors had a fit.
The Soundies catalogue makes this short seem far more interesting than it actually is: “Faith Bacon, tantalizing dancer of stage fame, gives an artistic interpretation of this meaningful dance aided by her skillfully effective manipulation of a sheer but shadowy veil.” As “meaningful “as this short may be, it is not one that I return to often. Just too little is happening visually or musically. But it deserves to be seen, if only once, to help place this type of burlesque act within the Soundies total output.