Two Boobs Good, Four Boobs Better!

When you hear the phrase “publicity stunt” these days, it tends to apply to stuff as unimaginative and tacky as Paris Hilton’s sex tape, or Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, or Lindsay Lohan’s sex tape, or…well, you can see where I’m going with that.

"I haven't been out of work since the day I took my pants off." - Sally Rand

It seems the default method nowadays for aspiring actresses, singers or whatever it is that Kim Kardashian actually does, to garner attention for themselves is to pretend to freak out that there’s a grainy, unflattering video clip of them giving their boyfriend a blowjob. Anyway. What I actually want to talk about are some of the brilliant and saucy publicity stunts undertaken by some of the famous sexy women of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, who made a name for themselves thanks to carefully crafted and perfectly staged stunts.

In 1933, Sally Rand was a struggling dancer and actress, whose Hollywood career had fizzled out thanks to the combination of talkie films taking off and her having a slight lisp. In a case of perfect timing, Sally was drifting around Chicago as part of a touring burlesque show, right when the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair exposition was taking place. In a last-ditch attempt to get her name out there, Sally crashed a massive party at the fair, storming in atop a white horse, dressed as Lady Godiva (i.e. starkers, save for a strategically arranged long blonde wig and a ring of flowers around her ankle). The stunned partygoers, thinking it was part of the entertainment, burst into applause and the press went nuts. Sally was promptly arrested on obscenity charges and by the next day had been offered a headline slot at the fair’s Streets of Paris revue, making her a household name and burlesque legend.