Jazz Age Club

The Dolly Sisters: The Legend

What was it that made the Dollies so successful and popular? For a start they were unusually beautiful. They did not conform to the full bloomed figure that was the accepted vision of beauty of the time with pink and white skin. Instead they were small and dark with an oriental grace that made them exotic. Their dancing delighted audiences and critics alike with the sheer flamboyance of their elaborate and identical costumes and perfectly matched routines. They also had extraordinarily vibrant personalities that made them quite simply irresistible. But most importantly they were not just sisters but identical twins, one the mirror image of the other – and this was the real secret of their allure. At their peak in Paris during the 1920s they were continually in the news for their extravagant living, gambling, predilection for jewellery and high profile love affairs with the rich and famous, as much as for their talent as entertainers. Although they were completely devoted to one another, a degree of tension emerged between them as they reached adulthood often seen as an on-going game of rivalry. This could be explained by the fact that although they were identical in appearance they were completely different in personality. Over the years many myths have developed about the Dolly Sisters, myths that were accentuated by the 1945 musical The Dolly Sisters released by Twentieth Century Fox and starring Betty Grable and June Haver which was not an accurate representation of their lives but merely a musical loosely based on their career. Some of the myths were reflected by Robert Wennersten who interviewed Rosie before her death and decided that the Dollies didn’t live to dance but used their talent as a calling card and entree to good times. Author Meredith Etherington-Smith believed rather caustically that all they did was walk on and off stage in a succession of superbly extravagant clothes and were kept by a series of rich protectors. Yet it was undeniable that they loved their career and loved performing. They clearly had talent otherwise they wouldn’t have been as successful as they were. The fact that rich suitors besieged them with requests of marriage and showered them with gifts was simply a reflection of the fact in those days every young actress aspired to marrying a millionaire and every young millionaire aspired to marrying a gorgeous actress! Even in recent years the magic of the Dollies is undimmed. After Rosie’s death in 1970 there were rumours that a TV musical based on their lives was in production and in the 80s a play was staged about them in New York. Angela Carter’s Wise Children was undoubtedly influenced by the story of the Dolly Sisters and even Bill Bryson fell under their spell by explaining in Notes From a Small Island that Gordon Selfridge fell into rakish ways with a Dolly Sister on each arm. Their legend continues. ‘Perfect Mirror Images – whose Gold Sister Fever during the Scott Fitzgerald days infected an already dizzy, reeling generation. The sisters’ plumed fans, fabulous diamond headdresses and reckless nights at Monte Carlo’s casino underscore a bitter showbusiness tango that fatally seduced the beautiful bodies who danced it.’ Press Release for Yesterday is Over, a play inspired by the Dolly Sisters, staged June 1980 in New York. Check out the webpage for the biography of the Dolly Sisters here The new book The Dolly Sisters in Pictures All images and content must not be reproduced without prior consent. All images are under licence to the Mary Evans Picture library for commercial re-use.

The Dolly Sisters: Tragedy

Divorced from their first husbands, they scandalised society with their much publicised liaisons with rich suitors. As Jenny procrastinated over marriage to Gordon Selfridge or Jacques Wittouck, Rosie was betrothed to the French businessman Francois Dupre but sneaked off and attempted to acquire a fortune when she married but then swiftly divorced, Sir Mortimer Davis Jr, the heir to an estate worth $150m and affectionately called ‘The Fat Boy’. Alas gold was not at the end of the rainbow and they were swiftly divorced. The whole episode marked a crucial point in their lives as the idea of the Dolly Sisters as an act would finally end because of marriage. At the end of 1927, after more than twenty years under the footlights they retired from the stage. Jenny bought a fabulous chateau in Fontainebleau, opened a couture establishement and adopted two young girls who she hoped would become the ‘New Dolly Sisters’ Throughout their stay in Europe the Dollies were regarded “as the most inveterate and nonchalant gamblers and most lavish money spenders” in Europe and were very popular at all the French casino’s. They followed the social seasons of the day spending time at St Moritz in January, Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in February and March, Paris in June for the horse racing, Deauville in August and then Biarritz and Le Touquet in the gaps. Unfortunately tragedy struck. In the midst of an affair with French avaitor and film star Max Constant, Jenny suffered serious injuries as the result of a car accident in eearly 1933 near Bordeaux. Her financial and emotional condition was already poor and the accident accentuated the need for her to sell her jewellery reputed to be the largest collection in private hands in the world. Moving back to America without her fortune, Jenny married attorny Bernard Vissinsky but durig a trip to Los Angeles in 1941 she committed suicide, confirming the generally held view that Rosie was regarded as the lucky one and Jenny the less fortunate. In the meantime, Rosie had already settled into the later stages of life with a new, rich, husband – Irving Netcher from Chicago, spending most of her time travelling before her death in 1970. Check out the webpage for the biography of the Dolly Sisters here The new book The Dolly Sisters in Pictures All images and content must not be reproduced without prior consent. All images are under licence to the Mary Evans Picture library for commercial re-use.