The Rocky Twins: Norway’s Outrageous Jazz Age Beauties by Gary Chapman
Admired for being stunningly handsome, the Norwegian Rocky Twins were dancers who had a ten-year career in Europe and America appearing on stage and in film between 1927-1937. Their beauty, their androgynous look and their outrageous antics made them legendary
The Norwegian Rocky Twins (born Leif and Paal Roschberg) were deliciously handsome, outrageous and lived life to the full. They made a name for themselves as dancers in the Paris music hall in the late 1920s at the tender age of eighteen. Their act took Paris by storm because in one of their numbers, they dressed up in drag and imitated the famous Dolly Sisters, who had just retired. Their unique performance enabled them to star on the stage and in film across Europe and America (Paris, London, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, New York and Los Angeles) and at the same time their good looks became highly sought after by connoiseurs of the body beautiful of either sex.
The first illustrated biography of the dancing Norwegian Rocky Twins who were stars of film and stage in the Jazz Age on both sides of the Atlantic.
- Based on extensive research over 30 years.
- Includes over 100 photographs (80 b&w and 34 colour)
- Insight and detail about nightlife and the entertainment world in London, Paris, New York, Vienna, Scandinavia, New York and Hollywood in the golden age of stage and screen.
- Exposes some of the secrets of pre-code Hollywood in the early 1930s.
- Explores the secret gay world on both side of the Atlantic and the ‘Pansy Craze’ in America in the early 1930s.
- They were regarded as two of the best dressed and most handsome men in the world.
- Their impersonation in drag of the Dolly Sisters became legendary.
- A colourful life story that has made them ‘gay legends.’
- They were once called ‘The Black Orchids of the North.’
- Covers their career as the Rocky Twins and their later life during and after World War Two.
About the Author
Gary Chapman has always been fascinated by the 1920s and the Jazz Age, and his degree in archaeology left him with a passion for uncovering the truth about his subjects. After living and working for many years in London, Gary now lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He is fortunate in being able to pursue his various passions – publishing, marketing books, writing, the Jazz Age and cake decorating.
A 1930 French newspaper mentions that the Rocky Twins appeared in a movie called “La Grenouille”, described as a 20-minute sound documentary that tells the story of a frog with the eyes of Arturo Lopez and the legs of the Rocky Twins. Perhaps a satirical description but cannot find any other mention of this movie, which was show at Colisée in Paris, as one of two openers for the movie “La Maison de la Flèche”. Any thoughts?