The Tomson Twins were British performers who became famous during the Jazz Age in London, Paris and New York. Their varied career was as varied as their marriages and they not only danced and sang but also became nightclub and theatrical managers. From the evidence they may have been described as loveable rogues .
Tag Archives: 1920s dancing
Seeing Double: Twin, sister and brother acts in the Jazz Age
One of the most obvious fad or trend in the entertainment industry in the Jazz Age was that of twin, sister and brother acts. From the turn of century, and through the 1920s and beyond, dozens and dozens of acts became famous on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Fidi Grube
Fidi Grube
Fidi (Fidy) Grube was a talented dancer who rose to fame in the 1920s of Weimar Berlin dancing alongside Kathleen (Kitty) Zammit and toured Europe. The dancing team of Zammit and Grube was most certainly one of the best and most successful of all German dancing teams in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Joe Strassner
Joe Strassner
Joe Strassner was a German costume and fashion designer who made his name in Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s designing couture and dressing a huge number of German films. He visited Hollywood with Lillian Harvey in 1933 and after the Nazi’s took power he fled first to Paris and then London. He replicated his Berlin success in London in the 1930s before leaving for New York in the 1940s where he ventured into the ready-to-wear market. It is also likely that in the 1920s he took the pseudonym of Ipsen Andre to perform as a dancer in cabaret where he frequently danced with Jenny Steiner, who became his wife.
Ipsen Andre
Ipsen Andre
The enigmatic Ipsen Andre was an elegant German dancer who seemingly emerged out of nowhere dancing mainly in Berlin cabaret revues from 1924. His dancing career lasted until the late 1920s when he simply disappeared. Frequently paired with Jenny Steiner, they became a prominent dancing pair in Berlin nightlife.
Jenny Steiner
Jenny Steiner
Jenny Steiner was one of the most exotic and glamorous stars of Jazz Age Berlin. Largely a dancer, she was also a model, a singer and an accomplished impersonator. Well known as one of Rudolf Nelson’s leading stars, her legacy has survived in numerous images and yet her importance has been somewhat marginalised. She was partner to several dancers but the most prominent association was with the somewhat mysterious Ipsen Andre who was most likely a pseudonym for the famous dress designer Joe Strassner whom she married in 1932.
The dancers Ernest and Yvonne
The Dancers Ernest and Yvonne
One of the most popular and prestigious ballroom dancing acts in Germany in the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 1930s was that of Ernest and Yvonne who seemingly emerged out of nowhere in about 1925 and danced not just in Germany but also France, Holland, England and other parts of Europe.
Hanns Gerard
One of Germany’s leading exponents of dance in the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 1930s, alongside Mary Wigman, Harald Kreutzberg and Rudolf von Laban, was Hanns Gerard who created his touring company the Ballett Gerard out of Berlin. His performance style was totally distinctive, unique and different. Although described as ballet it was also more akin to pantomime and revue with themed ‘stories’ supported by distinctive costumes and décor.
Florida Tanzpalast, Berlin
The Florida Tanzpalast in Berlin was only open for a short period of time from late 1927 to 1928 and then ownership changed and it became Himmel und Hölle. Nevertheless, it was one of the premier night rendezvous in Berlin during the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 1930s.
Palais Heinroth and The Valencia, Berlin
The Valencia was a smart dance-restaurant in Charlottenburg, Berlin popular in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. It was opened and owned by George Tichauer and his brother Dagobert, who also ran the famous Barberina and Kakadu. Prior to this it had been the Café of the Theater des Westens and then a fashionable restaurant called the Palais Heinroth.
