Tag Archives: 20s

Dancing Duos

The Elegant Goode Sisters

1 Comment

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.

Continue reading The Elegant Goode Sisters →

Dolly Sisters

Mr Selfridge and the Dolly Sisters – a view

3 Comments

Mr Selfridge and the Dolly Sisters

Let’s get a few things straight immediately. Selfridge was obsessed with all things beautiful, this included glamorous women. He also had a passion for gambling and was quite reckless. Thankfully, all of these traits are vividily portrayed in the TV show Mr Selfridge. So why is his demise and eventually downfall blamed on others, specifically the beautiful Dolly Sisters?

Continue reading Mr Selfridge and the Dolly Sisters – a view →

Dolly Sisters

The Dolly Sisters biography out now in paperback and e-books

Leave a comment

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.

Continue reading The Dolly Sisters biography out now in paperback and e-books →

Venues

Sherry’s Restaurant, New York

5 Comments

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.

Continue reading Sherry’s Restaurant, New York →

Dancing Duos

The Dodge Sisters

2 Comments

The Dodge Sisters

Known in the USA and Europe during the Jazz Age as ‘the two birds of Paradise’, the Dodge Sisters sang, danced and dressed as birds and whistled. They emerged out of American vaudeville in the mid-20s with a singing and dancing act that took Europe by storm.

Continue reading The Dodge Sisters →

Film

The School For Scandal (1923)

1 Comment

The School For Scandal (1923)

A surprising British feature film released in 1923 was Bertram Phillips’ The School For Scandal starring Queenie Thomas based on a well-known British stage play by Richard Sheridan.

Continue reading The School For Scandal (1923) →

Dancing Duos, Dolly Sisters, Film

The Million Dollar Dollies (1918)

2 Comments

The Million Dollar Dollies (1918)

Produced by Emerald Pictures and distributed by Metro, The Million Dollar Dollies, was the first and only film that the Dolly Sisters appeared in together. It was released in early 1918 in the USA but did not surface in the UK until 1920.

Continue reading The Million Dollar Dollies (1918) →

Cabaret

The Ambassadeurs Show 1929

1 Comment

The Ambassadeurs Show 1929

The fourth Ambassadeurs show in Paris was presented by Edmund Sayag in the summer of 1929 with a vaguely oriental but again distinctively American content.

Continue reading The Ambassadeurs Show 1929 →

Film

Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923)

Leave a comment

Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923)

Herbert’s Wilcox’s second film with Mae Marsh, following The Flames of Passion, was Paddy the Next Best Thing, a romantic drama about a young tomboy and her growing love for a rich landowner set in Ireland and London, once again directed by Graham Cutts.

Continue reading Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923) →

Theatre

Broadway

Leave a comment

Broadway : a cabaret and boot-legging drama of New York night-life

‘Broadway’ was regarded at the time as one of the best and slickest crime plays seen on the stage, laying bare the gangster racket in New York at the height of Prohibition in the mid 1920s. It was staged in both New York and London and was described as a thoroughly modern melodrama, although Theatre World insisted that the correct description, although a hybrid expression, was in fact a comedy drama.

Continue reading Broadway →