Jazz Age Club

Archive for the ‘Personalities’ Category

Frank Leveson

Frank Leveson (Frankie) was described as a ‘Dapper Dane’ by the entertainer Billy Milton and was part of the smart society set in Jazz Age London with the likes of Noel Coward, designer Gladys Caltrop, Gladys Cooper and Ivor Novello. He made a name for himself as an exhibition dancer in the 1920s but had another career as an interior designer eventually becoming manager for Syrie Maugham’s business in the late 1920s. (more…)

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Tags: ballroom dancing, exhibition dancer, Frank Leveson, Frankie Leveson, Ivor Novello, Syrie Maugham

The Elegant Goode Sisters

The Goode sisters (Cynthia and Iris) were a glamorous dancing act that became well known in Paris and other continental resorts in the early 1920s. My interest was piqued because Cynthia Goode seemingly became a life-long friend of the costume designer Dolly Tree about whom I am writing a biography. (more…)

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Tags: 1920s, 20s, Ba-ta-Clan, Ben Greet, Casino de Paris, Cynthia Goode, Dolly Tree, Elaine Muriel Goode, Folies Bergere, Goode Sisters, Irene Marguerite Goode, Iris Estelle Goode, Iris Goode, Jazz Age, Joseph E. Robbins, Mme Rasimi, Paris Music Hall, Walter Wills

Josephine Earle

Josephine Earle was an American actress who made a name for herself at Vitagraph in a series of Vamp movie roles from 1915. She then made herself thoroughly at home in England during the 1920s appearing in British silent films, legitimate stage shows and cabaret. (more…)

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Tags: 1920s, 20s, A.E. Coleby, Albert De Courville, Alexander Butler, Around the Town, Arthur Klein, Betty Balfour, Betty Compson, Branded, Break Down the Walls, British Screencraft, British silent film, Bromhead Brothers, C.B. Cochran, cabaret, Captain C.C. Calvert, Captain James Alpheus Glen, Ciro's, Dallas Anderson, Dolly Tree, Dolly's Revels, Edward Dolly, Ernest Marini, Fantasia, Fred Paul, G.B. Samuelson, Gaumont, Gaumont Film Company, Graham Cutts, Harry Lorraine, Hazel Shelley, Hello Grafton, Jazz Age, Josephine Earle, Josephine MacEwan, Leap Year, Lilac Domino, Lillian Hall-Davis, Little Nellie Kelly, London cabaret, Marion Forde, Murray's, Nunky's. Sometime, Paris cabaret, Put and Take, Raise the Roof, The Edge of Youth, The Fall of the Saint, The Hotel Mouse, The Knockout, The Punch Bowl, The Purple Lady, The Trix Sisters Blues Room, The Way of the Man, Trix Sisters, twenties, Unto Each Other, Walls of Prejudice, Walter Summers, Will Kellino, William J. Wilson, Woman to Woman

The Incomparable Joe Zelli

Joe Zelli, sometimes called the Kings of Cabaret Keepers, was undoubtedly one of the best-known and most popular characters in Montmartre during the 1920s and his nightclub the Royal Box was a firm favourite not just with visiting Americans but all nationalities out for a good time. (more…)

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Tags: Americans in Paris, Charles K. Gordon, Eugene Bullard, Fifty Million Frenchmen, Gloria Grafton, Grock the clown, Ivan Kahn, Joe Zelli, Josephine Baker, La Feria Cafe, Mr Papavert, Next Door to Zelli's, Nudist Revue, Owney Madden, Paris cabaret, Paris nightclubs, Paris nightlife, Rue Fontaine, Texas Guinan, the Royal Box, The Smart set, Tourne de Grands Ducs, Zelli's, Zelli's Royal Box, Zig-Zag Club Band, Zito

Nina Payne

Nina Payne was an eccentric, futurist American dancer who, after long years in vaudeville travelling across the USA, made a trip to Europe and became an instant hit in Paris where she remained throughout the 1920s. (more…)

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Tags: A La Broadway, Arnold Jazz-band, Barbette, Charles A. Bostwick, Chic Sale, Cleopatra En Masque, Dorel Sisters, En Pleine Folie, Fay Harcourt, Folies Bergere, Folies Sur Folies, G. Molasso, Harry Pilcer, Henry Harris, Irma Rubenstein, Jean Gabriel Domerque, Jessy Lasky, Joe Jackson, Joe Niemeyer, L’Hermitage, L’Ours, La Somnambule, Le Jardin De Ma Soeur, Marie Bishop, Mrs Chic Sale, Nina Payne, Palace Theatre Paris, Paris Voyeur, Pavilion Dauphine, Pre-Catalan, the Ad-Libs, Vivian Kennerly

Miss Florence

The stunningly beautiful and dark haired ‘Miss Florence’ startled Parisian audiences as a member of the Gertrude Hoffman troupe in 1924 when she came on stage on an elephant as the Queen of Sheba. She became a popular celebrity in her own right, before teaming with Julio Avarez in a dancing partnership that proved highly successful mainly in New York and Miami cabarets in the 1930s. (more…)

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Tags: Alex Rzewuski, Anna Pavolva, Artists and Models, Casino de Paris, Florence and Alvarez, Florence Kolinsky, Florenz Ziegfeld, Gerlys and Zoiga, Gertrude Hoffman, Gypsy Rhoumage, Hal Sherman, Harry Pilcer, Jacques Charles, Josephine Baker, Julian Wylie, Julio Alvarez, Leap Year, Les Ailes de Paris, London Hippodrome, Maurice Chevalier, Miss Florence, Moulin Rouge, New York-Montmartre, Paris Qui Remue, Paris-NewYork, Passing Show of 1923, Phil Baker, the Dodge Twins, The Dolly Sisters, Yvonne Valle, Ziegfeld Follies

Gypsy Rhoumaje

Shrouding herself with an exotic sounding name and persona, Gypsy Rhoumaje struck the big time in London and Paris from 1926 and delighted fashionable continental audiences with her exotic style of dancing and her own personal beauty. Of course nobody, least of all journalists, could spell her name right with several attempts that included Gypsy Rohoumage, Gypsy Roumahje, Gypsy Rhouma-je and Gypsy Rhouma (all with Gipsy variants). (more…)

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Tags: Alf's Button, Atlantic, Barrie Oliver, Dodge Twins, Dolly Tree, Doreen Reed, E.A. Dupont, Florence Walton, Frances White, Gypsy Rhouma, Gypsy Rhouma-je, Gypsy Rhoumaje, Gypsy Rohoumage, Gypsy Roumahje, Hal Sherman, Hank the Mule, Harry Foster, Harry Pilcer, Harry Reso, Henri Varna, Irwin Sisters, J.B. Williams, John Hamilton, June Roper, Kenneth Kinney, Leo Leitrim, Leon Gordon, Leslie Faber, Luxe de Paris, Mary Francis Grant, Maurice Evans, Max Wall, Miss Florence, Orvil Lynch Grant, Piccadilly Hotel, Piccadilly Revels, Playtime at the Piccadilly, President Ulysses S.Grant, Raquel Meller, Tubby Eldin, W.P. Kelleno, White Cargo

The Tragedy of May Vivian

May Vivian (1903-1924) was a vivacious actress and dancer who had just made a name for herself in London cabaret and was destined for bright things, but her life was cut short when, with all the dramatic intensity of a film tragedy, she was shot dead in the Spring of 1924 by a jealous suitor in the South of France. (more…)

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Tags: Beausoleil, Camille Blanc, Carl Hyson, Flora Lea, Gaby Deslys, Georges Fontana, Georges Paul Chedanne, Gustave Eiffel, Henry de Bray, Hotel Metropole, Irene, Jack Buchanan, Jack Hylton, Marjorie Moss, Mary Francis Smith, May Vivian, Michael Rinder, Monte Carlo, murder, One O'Clock Revue, Queens Hall Roof, Rector's Nightclub, Rectors, Riviera Palace Hotel, Sirello, Suzette, Tim O'Connor, Trix Sisters, Vincent Sirello, Vincenzo Sirello

Dancing Dora Duby

The dark, glamorous and exotic sounding Dora Duby was an outstanding American solo dancer who found fame in Europe during the 1920s particularly in Paris where she was called the ‘Pet star’ of the famous Le Perroquet cabaret. (more…)

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Tags: Al Johson, Albert De Courville, Alexander Morgan Hamilton, Anna Pavlova, Bernard and Rich, Bombo, Casino de Paris, Charlotte Greenwood, Club Daunou, Cortez and Peggy, Dolly SIsters, Dolly's Revels, Dora Duby, Edmonde Guy, Ernest Van Duren, Excelsior Lido, Fred Astaire, Harold Grier, Harry Pilcer, Jack Forrester, Le Perroquet, Linger Longer Letty, Luigi Albertieri, Madeleine Loys, Mary Wigman, Maurice Chevalier, Paris En Fleurs, Rowe Sisters, The Lady in Red, The Midnight Rounders of 1921, The Whirl of the World, Tomson Twins, Villa des Fleurs, Wien Lacht Wieder, Yvonne Valle

Bee Jackson and ‘Hey! Hey! Charleston’

The blond and vivacious Bee Jackson was described as the Charleston Queen and was certainly one of the more prominent advocates of the dance in America and Europe but did not ‘invent’ the dance itself. In the midst of a brilliant, international career she died tragically in her mid twenties. (more…)

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