Posts Tagged ‘1920s’
The Dolly Sisters Biography
The Dolly Sisters: Icons of the Jazz Age

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The Dolly Sisters: The Legend
‘In more than one way the Dolly Sisters were original Glamor Girls of Cafe Society – even though theirs was an era -that fabulous period of the Roarin’ twenties – when the term Cafe Society had not yet been coined.’ Cholly Knickerbocker c.1945


View Page: The Dolly Sisters: The Legend
The Dolly Sisters: Tragedy
‘One appears as the reflection of the other and just as you could not see a man without his shadow, you could not conceive of how one of the Dolly Sisters could dance and live without the other’ Jazz Magazine 15 June 1927


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The Dolly Sisters: London
‘Two more electric personalities it has never been my fate to meet. They radiated personal magnetism, vibrant energy or whatever you like to call it and any revue benefited enormously by their presence on the stage… On the stage and off the Dolly sisters were unique.’ Charles B. Cochran
The Dolly Sisters arrived in London in 1920 to star in Albert de Courville’s revue Jigsaw at the Hippodrome becoming an instant hit. They didn’t particularly like De Courville or the parts alloted them and were elated when Charles B. Cochran took them under his wing and starred them in League of Notions (1921), a fleeting appearance in Fun of the Fayre (1922) and Babes in the Wood (1921/22). Cochran understood them.
The London trip was also an excuse to escape marital discord and by 1922 they were both divorced and immediately used their new found freedom to great advantage. Their popularity in a social sense blossomed in Europe and they genuinely believed that they were the first show business personalities to be accepted socially by English and European society. This ‘acceptance’ was largely measured by the fact that their beauty and effervescent personalities, not to mention their novelty value as identical twins, enabled them to become the objects of affection of numerous rich and successful men. Each vied with the other in an elaborate game of falling in love, engagement, rumours of marriage and then cold feet.
They were linked romantically with dozens of named and unnamed men of title or wealth. However, Jenny’s liaison with the famous London Department Store owner Gordon Selfridge and Rosie’s elopement with the Canadian multi-millionnaire Mortimer Davis Jr were the most widely publicised although they were also both chased around Europe by David the Prince of Wales later to become Edward V111.
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.

View Page: The Dolly Sisters: London
The Dolly Sisters: New York
‘You can’t tell one apart from the other. In conversational ability they are as entertaining as they are with their tootsies. No prettier, smarter, clever people were born than these two girls… the most charming tots on the American stage…. they have proven themselves a box office asset… greater things will be heard…’ Unidentified 1916


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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…)View Page: The Elegant Goode Sisters
The Dolly Sisters : Icons of the Jazz Age
The rags to riches story of identical twins Jenny and Rosie is set against the glittering backdrop of high society in America and Europe before the onset of the Second World War. They had a colourful life where nature’s duplicity enabled a highly successful career as dancers which made them ‘stars’. And yet, lurking behind their glamorous story of fame, fortune, mistaken identity, millionaires, love and sisterly devotion - that made them legends - is another of rivalry, duplicity and tragedy. (more…)View Page: The Dolly Sisters biography out now in paperback and e-books
Sherry’s Restaurant, New York
Canadian by birth, the thrifty and ambitious Louis Sherry originally opened an ice cream and candy store before giving Delmonico's a run for their money by opening his salubrious Sherrys restaurant in 1890 that became one of the most famous culinary landmarks in New York until the advent of prohibition. (more…)View Page: Sherry’s Restaurant, New York
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