Tag Archives: Andre Charlot

Midnight Follies First Edition 1921

Midnight Follies First Edition 1921

The Whitehall Room within the Hotel Metropole became the site of one of the first true cabarets in London that transformed London’s nightlife in the 1920s. On the 2nd November 1921, the ‘Midnight Follies’ was inaugurated at the Metropole with a show that was called a ‘super dansant.’ With glorious costumes designed by Dolly Tree it became an overnight hit with all of smart London flocking to see the show designed to ‘brighten London.’

Continue reading Midnight Follies First Edition 1921

The Cabaret Follies

The Cabaret Follies 

When Jack Hylton’s Cabaret Follies show made its debut in London in the autumn of 1922 it was one of four big cabaret shows that made a Brighter London, the others being located at the Grafton Galleries (Midnight Revels), Murray’s Club (Murray’s Frolics) and the Hotel Metropole (the Midnight Follies). At first its status and popularity amongst London’s high society was unassailable, but when Jack Hylton relinquished control at the end of 1923, it floundered and ceased to be by the summer of 1924.

Continue reading The Cabaret Follies

The Outrageous Rocky Twins

The Outrageous Rocky Twins

The Rocky Twins were deliciously handsome, outrageous and lived life to the full but never maximized their obvious talent and so never really attained star status. They were a pair of Norwegian brothers who made a name for themselves in the Jazz Age 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 in stage shows all over Europe and America and at the same time their good looks became highly sought after by connoiseurs of the body beautiful of either sex.

Continue reading The Outrageous Rocky Twins

Marcelle de Saint Martin

Marcelle de Saint Martin

French born Marcelle de Saint Martin was creative, talented and a striking beauty who found great success designing costumes for the stage in London at the end of the First World War and later became chief designer and head of one of the first British film wardrobe departments. And yet her career was sadly all too brief and short-lived.

Continue reading Marcelle de Saint Martin

Tricks and the Trix Sisters

The Trix Sisters

The Trix Sisters (Helen and Josephine) were an American vaudevillian team who made it big in Europe after the First World War. Although they appeared in some successful shows, their unique inimitable style of playing the piano, dancing and singing found even greater favour in the burgeoning cabaret circuit in London and Paris and their recordings became hugely popular. Continue reading Tricks and the Trix Sisters