Faith Bacon

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Birth Name: Frances Yvonne Bacon

Born: 19 July 1910 Died: 26 September 1956

Country of origin: United States

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Actresses And Models_22_1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s (7 items)
list by rickterenzi

Published 11 years, 1 month ago

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Stars who died due to a fall........ (35 items)
list by Brian G

Published 9 years, 7 months ago

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Faith Bacon Videos

Fan Dance Faith Bacon 1942

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Added 12 years ago

FAITH BACON "lady with the Fans" Soundie 1942

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Added 12 years ago

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Description: Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. once billed her as "the most beautiful girl in the world". Burlesque dancer Faith Bacon, and not the much better known Sally Rand who worked for Bacon in the early 1930s, is genuinely considered the lady who originated the "fan dance" during "The Jazz Age". The Los Angeles-born dancer was born Frances Yvonne Bacon on July 19, 1910. Her career began on the Paris stage (she had no formal dance training) in one of Maurice Chevalier's popular revue shows. She returned to the States, specifically the East Coast, where the fetching 18-year-old wavy blonde won a chorine spot Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. once billed her as "the most beautiful girl in the world". Burlesque dancer Faith Bacon, and not the much better known Sally Rand who worked for Bacon in the early 1930s, is genuinely considered the lady who originated the "fan dance" during "The Jazz Age".

The Los Angeles-born dancer was born Frances Yvonne Bacon on July 19, 1910. Her career began on the Paris stage (she had no formal dance training) in one of Maurice Chevalier's popular revue shows. She returned to the States, specifically the East Coast, where the fetching 18-year-old wavy blonde won a chorine spot for "Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1928" and returned for his 1930 show. It was she who suggested to Carroll to allow her to undress all the way during the show (save some teasing ostrich features and a smoky spotlight) and, thus, introducing the art of the fan dance. Other shows also included "Fioretta" 1929, "Earl Carroll's Sketch Book of 1929," "Earl Carrol''s Sketch Book of 1930" and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931".

Elsewhere, Faith took her scantily-clad act to the Chicago World's Fair in the mid 1930s where Sally Rand, now infamous for her own fan dance act, also performed, and the two rivals "competed" with their respective shows. At a 1936 performance at the Chicago State-Lake Theatre, Faith crashed through the glass box she was performing in during the show. Covered in blood, she collapsed then and there and spent a month in the hospital. The accident left her with deep, ugly scars on her legs. It was this terrible misfortune that triggered Bacon's slow but firm decline.

Faith's film work was very brief. She made her debut in the secondary role of Maxine in the "poverty row" crime drama Prison Train (1938) starring Fred Keating and "Citizen Kane" co-star Dorothy Comingore (who was billed, at the time, as "Linda Winters") and that was it! Other than starring in two short, cheap, grainy burlesque films, Dance of Shame (1942) and A Lady with Fans (1942), in which she demonstrated her art of fan dancing, Faith was pretty much dismissed as a controversial specialty act and was not seen on film again. Her later on-the-road engagements increasingly digressed in quality and amounted to performances in carnivals, dives and strip joints.

In 1940, Faith had to have major surgery for a glandular problem. For the rest of the decade, she was plagued by this and other illnesses, which left her so drained physically, mentally and financially that she attempted suicide with an overdose of pills in 1954. Although the struggling entertainer survived that attempt, she succeeded two years later when on September 27, 1956, she threw herself out of a third-story Chicago hotel window. She died later that evening from a fractured skull and perforated lung.

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Tags: Suicide (1), 1930s (1), Vaudeville (1), Born 1910 (1), Died 1956 (1), Big Eyes (1), Ziegfeld (1), Burlesque Dancer (1), Fan Dance (1), Earl Carroll (1), Vaudeville Actress (1), "the Most Beautiful Girl In The World" (1)

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1. Prison Train (1938)

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Stars who died due to a fall........ (35 person items)

"Bacon jumped out of her hotel room window in 1956 at the age of 46. Her roommate attempted to grab her, but Bacon fell two stories and died of her injuries at the hospital later that night. "


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