Dolly Sisters

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Dolly Sisters

The Dolly Sisters, twins Rosika (Rose) and Jansci (Jenny) Deutsch, were born October 25, 1892 in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, and emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
in 1905. They perfected a single-sex "tandem" dance act - practicing in front of mirrors - under the name of 'The Dolly Sisters' they began earning money in beer halls as early as 1907.

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The Dolly Sisters, twins Rosika (Rose) and Jansci (Jenny) Deutsch, were born October 25, 1892 in Hungary

Hungary

United States

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
stage, they toured the Orpheum circuit until 1909 when they debuted on the Keith vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
circuit till 1911 when they signed with the Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway theatre in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
for two seasons.

In addition to making about a half dozen films from 1913 to 1920, they toured the theatres and dance halls of Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Sometimes they would appear with separate partners as "rival" acts to boost ticket sales. Their gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wikt:wager#Verb of money or something of material Value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods....
"career" was nearly as successful. They won $850,000 in one season at Deauville

Deauville

Deauville is a Communes of the Calvados d?partement in the Calvados d?partements of France in the Basse-Normandie r?gions of France of France....
and one evening in Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is a city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France in the region of Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur in southeastern France. It is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera....
, Jenny won 4 million francs, which she converted to a collection of jewelry; she then went on to win another 11 million.

Their private life was as melodramatic as their public life was stellar. Circa 1918, they became lovers of Harry Gordon Selfridge

Harry Gordon Selfridge

Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. was an American-born retail magnate, who founded the Great Britain department store Selfridges....
. One of their Ziegfeld friends, Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas was an United States silent film actress and socialite. She was a Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her untimely death....
, who had invited Rosie to tour the nightclubs of Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
with her in September 1920, would be found dying of accidental mercury bichloride poisoning, after drunkenly drinking from her husband's prescribed medication. Rosie, who had declined the outing, would instead see Olive in hospital just before her death.

Such would be merely a foretaste of the tragedy to come as in 1933, Jenny was involved in a serious car crash near Bordeaux

Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
with her former lover Max Constant. It took six weeks and fifteen painful surgeries and the sale of most her jewelry to restore her to some semblance of her former beauty but it left her ‘a broken shell' as she would say to friends. She lingered until May 1,1941 when she committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"....
, hanging herself in the shower of her apartment in the Shelton Hotel.

As is often the case with twins, Rosie would prove to represent the opposite of the manic highs and lows of Jenny's personality, living long enough to see a biopic made in 1945 of their lives called, inevitably The Dolly Sisters

The Dolly Sisters

The Dolly Sisters is a 1945 in film biographical film about the Dolly Sisters, identical twins who became famous as entertainers on Broadway theatre and in Europe in the early years of the twentieth century....
- starring June Haver and Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Betty Grable was an American dancer, singer, and actress.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era....
- but in 1962 she attempted to follow her sister in suicide. It was a failed bid and she would live on until January 1, 1970, succumbing to heart failure. Both sisters' lives and deaths were inaccurately covered in Hollywood Babylon 2.

External links

- Was Dolly Sister's London home in 1920s.