***Ticket sales for this event are now closed. More great author luncheons are coming in the New Year!

Our DIESEL Author Literary Luncheon Series continues with Leslie Zemeckis for Feuding Fan Dancers: Faith Bacon, Sally Rand, and the Golden Age of the Showgirl on Thursday, November 8th at 12:00 pm. (Unfortunately,  the fan dancer that was scheduled to perform will no longer be able to.)

The luncheon will be held at Amici Brentwood, conveniently located a half a block from the bookstore at 2538 San Vicente Blvd. There is ticketed parking available at the restaurant or unlimited free parking along most of San Vicente Blvd. past 26th St. (please read the street signs). The cost for the luncheon with Leslie Zemeckis is $75, which includes one copy of the book. Please contact the store at 310-576-9960 to purchase tickets.

Leslie Zemeckis continues to discover the forgotten feminist histories of the golden age of entertainment, turning her sights on the lost stories of Sally Rand and Faith Bacon--icons who each claimed to be the inventor of the notorious fan dance.

Some women capture our attention like no others. Faith Bacon and Sally Rand were beautiful blondes from humble backgrounds who shot to fame behind a pair of oversize ostrich fans, but with very different outcomes. Sally Rand would go on to perform for the millions who attended the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, becoming America's sweetheart. Faith Bacon, the Marilyn Monroe of her time--once anointed the "world's most beautiful woman"--would experience the dark side of fame and slip into drug use.

It was the golden age of American entertainment, and Bacon and Rand fought their way through the competitive showgirl scene of New York with grit and perseverance. They played peek-a-boo with their lives, allowing their audiences to see only slivers of themselves. A hint of a breast? A forbidden love affair? They were both towering figures, goddesses, icons, then the world started to change. Little is known about who they really were, until now.

Feuding Fan Dancers tells the story of two remarkable women during a tumultuous time in entertainment history. Leslie Zemeckis has pieced together their story and nearly one hundred years later both women come alive again.

Leslie Zemeckis is the author of Goddess of Love Incarnate: The Life of Stripteuse Lili St. Cyr and Behind the Burly Q, the definitive history of burlesque. She wrote, produced, and directed the critically acclaimed documentary based on the book, which has been championed by USA Today and The New Yorker. Her most recent documentary is Mabel, Mabel, Tiger Trainer. She is an actress and filmmaker. 

Photo Credit - Douglas Kirkland