George
and Sam at the Fort Worth Frontier Centennial or Tu Casa Manana es Mi Casa Manana by George Lester
"If you want education, go to Dallas. For entertainment, come
to Fort Worth." - Billy Rose
"Dallas has all that historical stuff,
so we don't have to worry about that."- Billy Rose
Sally
Rand's Nude Ranch
Photo Courtesy Amber Di Giovanni
The
year was 1936 and I was ten. We traveled out west in one car to meet our two brothers
that lived in Wink, Texas.
In the car were the other three brothers (including me), two sisters, one with
a baby and my dad making the arduous trip long before the days of air-conditioning.
I remember the highlight of the trip as our stop in Ft.
Worth where we spent the night and took in the Casa Manana show at the fair
grounds.
My dad and my adult brother decided see the Billy Rose production
called Sally Rand's Nude Ranch.* It was very
mild by today's standards compared to what you now see on television. My brother
Sam was only a year older than me, so our dad gave us money for the rides while
they went to see the show.
We chose to start with the Ferris wheel. On
our first ascent we discovered something the producers of the event had overlooked.
From high above we could look down onto the roofless show below and see all the
scantily clad ladies. We kept riding until we ran out of money. I don't think
we ever told our dad why we liked the Ferris wheel so much.
*Sally
Rand's Nude Ranch as well as the entire story of Fort Worth's rival Centennial
is described in detail in Amon: The Texan Who Played Cowboy for America
by Jerry Flemmons (Texas Tech Press, 1998).
The "Ranch" was described
as "18 girls - each dressed in boots and a hat with a green bandana and a skirtlet."
To add to the ranch effect - each girl was "branded" (rubberstamped) with a large
SR in the appropriate place.
Sally Rand reportedly made $1000 a week.
More importantly - she made a name for herself - as did the then unknown Billy
Rose.
