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.
Billed as twins, Beth and Betty Dodge were born Dora Beth and Betty Jane a year apart and were thus sisters not twins but continued the façade of being twins throughout their professional career. Betty Jane, the eldest was born 1/4/1909 in Sprague, Washington State and Dora Beth was born 2/9/1910 also in the same place. To maintain the illusion of the sisters being twins they listed their birth in such places as passenger lists, as being 1/4/1909. Their parents were Dorothy (nee Cannon) a music instructor and Charles Dodge who was a dentist. They also had a young sister Adah Lou Dodge born 6/2/12 in Pend, Oreille county, Washington.
In 1910 the family were living in South Sprague, Lincoln, Washington but by 1920 they had moved to Winthrop Avenue, Chicago. Shortly afterward in mid-1922 Beth appeared on a radio programme recorded in Chicago as a whistler in two numbers entitled Sing Sing, Birds on the Wing and Russian Rag. Whether the sisters performed in Chicago thereafter is not known but it wasn’t until early 1924 that they were reported as an act with a very strange story. In March 1924 a report in Los Angeles suggested that the ‘twins’ were sometimes compared to the Duncan Sisters and that they were to be the feature of a new motion picture company that was being organized. This suggests that they already had made an impact on the stage prior to this development, which did not materialize.
A little later in the summer of 1924 the Dodge Sisters were the lead performers in several Fanchon and Marco picture house presentations including Oriental Love Dream and Miss Summer at the Granada Theatre and toured elsewhere on the West coast. They were described as ‘very clever dancing leads, bewitchingly pretty and present a stage presence that is both attractive and charming.’
Perhaps, prior to the summer of 1924 they had been cast in earlier Fanchon and Marco show units.
Clearly, their allure as a ‘twin sister’ act emulating the hugely successful Dolly Sisters, made them a valuable property and by 1925 they had relocated to New York. In the summer they were featured along with Billie Carpenter in An Intimate Revue at the Rialto theatre with Mrs Dodge at the piano. They then joined the cast of Earl Lindsay’s cabaret floor-show at the Riverglades. A little later in October 1925 they appeared in John Cort’s musical comedy Suzanne staged at the Majestic Theatre in Buffalo and in November 1925 they were appearing in Ben Bernie’s A Silver Revue staged at the Rialto theatre. In December 1925 they were in a vaudeville show called Off Highway in Newark and also appeared in Bob Murphy’s cabaret at the Murphy Cellar (formerly the Wigwam).
In the ‘Castles in Spain’ scene with Miss Giannina Doria and a chorus costumed in Spanish dresses, the Dodge Sisters appeared in ‘some striking creations’ designed by Dolly Tree. One of these costumes had a train designed on the principle of a peacock tail either to trail on the ground or to stand up as a background for the wearers. This ‘peacock’ dance and the’peacock’ costume became one of the Dodge Sisters enduring dances and costumes throughout their career. Turned Up did well at the New Oxford, but after 90 performances, any chance of a longer run was terminated when the freehold of the theatre was sold and as a result the show was sent out as two touring companies.
The Dodge Sisters meanwhile had already been snapped up by C.B. Cochran and doubled in his new cabaret show at the Trocadero Grill Room called Supper Time (that ran from February until October 1925) with costumes designed by Doris Zinkeisen.
The show featured Kingsley Lark as compere and vocalist along with the Mathano Brothers (comedy skaters), Danny Graham (eccentric dancer also from Turned Up) and Marjorie Robertson. There were three main ensembles: ‘Scotch and Irish’, ‘Venetian Carnival’ with a series of delightful eighteenth century venetian costumes and ‘The Progress of the Dance’ which started with the graceful minuet of 1816 and was followed by the waltz of 1859, the polka of 1885 and finished with the jazz dances of the time. The Stage thought that Dodge Sisters act were ‘the usual American ‘sister’ one, unmusical, high speed, bizarre’ but added that they were ‘full of pep’.
At the same time the sisters were also featured in The Empress Rooms (in the fashionable Royal Palace Hotel in Kensington) in their one-off Sunday night cabarets along with Hatch and Carpenter (an act like Layton and Johnson), Huxter brothers (comic acrobats) and Carr and Parr (eccentric comedians).
By the early summer of 1926, the Dodge Sisters had left Cochran’s Supper Time show and had joined the management of the New Princes Restaurant. This prestigious cabaret venue in Piccadilly had taken a three-year lease on the old Karsino casino on Tagg’s island in the Thames near Hampton Court, and after refurbishment, re-opened as The Palm Beach on 8th May 1926.
The intention was to convert this island into a miniature version of Palm Beach, Florida by placing thousands of tons of sand, palm trees, sunshades, beach chairs and a fleet of motor-boats, punts and canoes for river merrymakers. Guests were picked up from central London and conveyed by motorcar free of charge, although one wonders how much admission, lodgings and refreshments cost.
Beaumont Alexander, MD of the New Princes put on a nightly show in the famous ballroom featuring Jack Smith, an American gramophone and radio star known as ‘the whispering baritone’ singing the latest American popular songs, Frank Masters, White Bud, the horse with a human mind, the dancer Terpsichore, Jean Rai and Alfredo’s band. The Dodge Sisters delighted audiences with their ‘Peacock dance’ from Turned Up, wearing their amazing ‘peacock gowns’ designed by Dolly Tree. But the experiment in creating an out-of-town summer rendezvous simply did not catch on.
On 12th July the Dodge Sisters began a short season at the Coliseum variety theatre in London before leaving for Berlin. On 18th August 1926, they opened in Herman Haller’s spectacular revue An Und Aus (In and Out) at the Admiral Palast, Berlin along with La Jana, Alice Hechy, Trude Hesterberg and Ruth Zackey. The show ran through until 22nd March 1927 and was then transferred to the Apollo Theatre, Vienna (25/3/27 – 28/4/26) and in a theatre in Dresden for a short run from 1st May 1927 (in which the Sisters did not appear). During their stay in Berlin they were lured into German movies and appeared in Conrad Wiene’s Unter Ausschlub Der Offentlichkeit (1927) and Willi Wolff’s Dei Schonsten Beine von Berlin (1927). In the former, they appeared in their ‘peacock dance’ as seen in two magazine photographs advertising the film.
The Dodge Sisters in the Herman Haller Revue An Und Aus at the Admiral Palast,
Berlin (1926)
Arriving back in New York on 25th January 1927, the Dodge Sisters secured a run at the Palace Theatre in vaudeville before a short tour of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit from mid-April 1927. Variety observed ‘they played over here without attracting attention but abroad they caught on with a bang’ and thought they had ‘class’. The act seemingly was derived from some of their ‘turns’ in London and Berlin and included a boy and girl flirtation number in German, a sort of dance while seated in chairs, a whistling number and an odd routine of splits. They sang in German, French and English terminating with their own ideas of a dance number by twins. They seemingly toured through the early part of the summer and in mid-May jumped from Philadelphia to Oakland, California opening at the Orpheum Theatre.
Back in New York the Dodge Sisters headed across the Atlantic once more aboard Mauretania arriving in Southampton 23rd August 1927 and took up their parts in the new musical Oh Kay staged at His Majesty’s Theatre from 21st September 1927. With music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse it had originally opened on Broadway in 1926, with Gertrude Lawrence and Victor Moore. The London run, a year later, also starred Gertrude Lawrence with John Kirby. The plot revolved around the adventures of the Duke of Durham and his sister, Lady Kay, English bootleggers in Prohibition Era America. Kay finds herself falling in love with a man who seems unavailable. The Dodge Twins were given dramatic parts in the production as the Ruxton Twins besides offering their usual dance routines and once again they were seen in their ‘peacock’ dance and Dolly Tree creations. According to Theatre World, the dancing of the Dodge Sisters was the best non-Gertrude Lawrence feature.
By October, the Kit Cat club had secured them to double in their prestigious cabaret in the Haymarket, but the management of His Majesty’s stopped them and a row broke out about their contract which the sisters claimed allowed them to perform in cabaret. Clearly they were not able to get out of the enforcement.
Despite assurances in late 1927, following serious illness, that the Dolly Sisters would retire, they had signed to headline in the new Folies Bergere show in January 1928. Seemingly they must have been able to wriggle out of their contract because at the last minute the Dodge Sisters took their place in La Grande Folie that opened 8th February 1928.
As usual for the Folies Bergere, La Grande Folie was a huge production with 2 acts and 60 tableaux produced by Louis Lemarchand with a host of stars including Smolinska, Randall, Colette Jove, Tamara and Roberts and Georgie Graves. Oddly, the Dodge Sisters only appeared in three scenes: Passez Muscade (Hey Presto) with Randall; A Tire D’Ailes (On the Wing) as feathered canaries and Les Elegantes aux Eventails (the Elegant Fans). Perhaps because they stepped into the Dolly Sisters shoes at the last minute this was all that could be rehearsed and staged given the time constraints.
Equally strange are the credits in the programme. Dolly Tree is credited as providing costumes. The designer for each scene is listed but there is no scene listing for Dolly Tree, except that the three scenes with the Dodge Sisters lack a credit. It is therefore more than likely that Dolly Tree dressed them in these scenes as stylistically one of the main costumes is an adaptation of Dolly Tree’s costume for the ‘peacock dance.’
The show achieved the usual success and the Dodge Sisters swiftly became part of the American contingent in Paris and in June 1928 took part in the American ball at Claridges with fellow Americans Harry Pilcer, Miss Florence and Gypsy Rhoumage.
After nearly two years in Europe the Dodge Sisters returned to New York aboard Majestic ready to appear in the Shubert revue A Night in Venice (21/5/29 – 10/29) at the Shubert Theatre. Staged by Busby Berkeley, the show also starred Ted Healy and Ann Seymour and featured the Chester Hale troupe and the Allan K. Foster Girls. The Dodge Sisters were featured in six numbers : a dancing introduction; Fans (which was an interpretation of their peacock dance); the Grand Staircase; the Lido Shores; Loose Ankles and Lessons in French.
After their success for the Shubert’s they seemingly returned to vaudeville and then in early February 1930 were hired by MGM to appear in a big all star cast musical. The story of the making of this film is fascinating. Metro’s part-Technicolor cavalcade of the entertainment business from 1890s to the present was originally called From Broadway to Heaven but renamed The March of Time (production 462). The plot concerned three generations of one family, the Hacketts, a popular literary and stage theme of the period and had a vast cast including Van and Schenck, Weber and Fields, Marie Dressler, The Duncan Sisters and dozens of other leading players. It was planned to make the film in two sections: the past and the present.
Filming began on ‘the past’ segment in December 1929 and stopped at the beginning of February 1930 while additional numbers were added to ‘the present’ sequence. This included The Dodge Sisters in two numbers ‘A Girl, a Fan ( once again an interpretation of their peacock dance), and a Fella’ and ‘Lock Step Prison’ and sequences with the Albertina Rasch dancers and production resumed.
During filming the title was changed again to The Revue of 1930 and it was completed in June 1930. However, when previewed there were serious concerns about the film in light of a sharp decline in audience interest in musical films and the fact it was thought that many of the vaudeville performers did not register well and lacked screen technique. MGM decided against releasing the film and planned instead to cut up the musical numbers for interpolation in musical shorts.
At the end of March 1931, MGM released a German Version of the film called Wir Schalten Un Auf Hollywood (We Are Switching Gears to Hollywood) containing three of the 2-Strip Technicolor numbers ‘Lock Step’ and ‘The Fan Episode’ with the Dodge Sisters and ‘Poor Little G String’ with the Albertina Rasch Girls. One wonders if this release had anything to do with the fact that the Dodge Sisters had been highly successful in the Haller revue in Berlin a few years earlier. However, this was not the end of the story and in 1933, MGM revived the production with a new cast playing the original characters and some of the original footage retained. It was released as Broadway to Hollywood in September 1933.
When Clarence married Beth in May 1930, Beth announced that when they finished their current engagements she would leave the stage behind and become a housewife. Claude beleived that twins were a bad matrimonial risk and told the happy couple his opinion. ‘They ought not to have done it. It’s risky enough for ordinary people to get married these days but when anybody marries a twin the risk is prohibitive. Don’t I know? I am a twin myself. And when a twin marries another twin it is simply flying in the face of providence. I ought to know.’ Later, he forgot his words advice and in 1941 married twin Gloria Brewster. Beth’s marriage to Clarence was all too brief and within a short space of time the couple were divorced as Claude predicted.
In early 1931, the Dodge Sisters were lured back to vaudeville once again in a new act assisted by Jack Allen and Moe Kent. Their routine was well mounted and beautifully costumed and included their bird imitations and whistling in an attractive spring-time woodland scene. Despite performing through the Spring, in May1931 the Dodge Sisters filed a petition of bankruptcy with $4,863 liabilities.
Then, the following year on 15th May 1932, Beth remarried Clarence in San Francisco and had two children Beth (born 1933) and Charles (born 1936). Things did not last the second time around and in April 1938 living with her mother in Chicago, Mrs Clarence Stroud won her second divorce from her talkative radio-comedian husband on grounds of cruelty and was granted $30 weekly for her two children.
Sadly, tragedy struck in March 1933 when Adah Lou Dodge, the younger sister, fell to her death from their apartment in mysterious circumstances. By 1940 Beth Dodge (Mrs Stroud) was living with her mother and her two children in East 6th Street, Santa Ana, Orange County, California and she was listed as a vocalist and entertainer.
Betty Jane was elsewhere and in August 1937 married Samuel Layden Stroud in Tulsa. Presumably this marriage did not last because in 1945 she married Calvin Perry Taylor in El Paso.
What happened thereafter to both Beth and Betty is not known.
Sources
The Encore, The Stage, New York Times, Dancing Times, Variety, Paris Plaisirs, Theatre World, Chicago Tribune
Clippings file NYPL
Clippings file Shubert Archive
British Pathe Beauties On the Beach / the Dodge Sisters on Taggs Island, 1926
The Dodge Sisters in the Lock Step number
Well thank you for this bit of cinematic history. I had wondered about this duo and their contributions to the movie musical since That’s Entertainment part III.