Although music halls were being eclipsed by cinemas in the 1920s, Christie refers to them occasionally in her early books. She also mentions twin acts, which were popular at the time, both in English music halls and in American vaudeville theaters.
In Murder on the Links, theatrical agent Joseph Aarons describes the Dulcibella Kids as “sisters. Acrobats, dancers and singers. Give quite a good little turn.” Hastings later says of the sisters: “There they both were, the pair of them, one flaxen haired, one dark, matching as to size, with short fluffy skirts and immense buster brown bows. They looked a pair of extremely piquant children.”
The Dulcibella Kids sound very much like the real-life Houstan Sisters. Part of a theatrical family, Renée and Billie Houstan had a routine in which they dressed as children and used over-sized furniture onstage in their act. They even made a film in 1926. Like the Dulcibella Kids, the Houstan Sisters emphasized their differences by having Billie dressed as a little boy to Renée’s little girl.
Other twin acts on stage and in early films include Madeline and Marion Fairbanks, Americans who were known as the Thanhouser Kids. They made a number of films from 1912 until 1929, most of which were musical theater performances first. Then there were the Rowe Sisters, Pauline and Betty, who were glamorous identical twin singers who performed in the Casino de Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s. But the most famous of all were probably the Dolly Sisters.
“Rosie” (Rózsika) and “Jenny” (Janka) were born in Hungary, but the family emigrated to the U.S. in 1905, and soon after started their stage careers. As young teens, they started dancing in vaudeville theaters and by 1911, they were performing with Ziegfeld Follies. Before long, they were commanding $2,000 a week.
While World War I kept them in the U.S., after the war, they toured Europe and became even more famous – as well as infamous. Casino gambling, affairs with royalty, and other scandals followed the exotic pair. Harry Selfridge, founder of the London department store was among the men who had an affair with Jenny – and some say with Rosie, too.
As the Dolly Twins popularity waned toward the end of the 1920s, another set of twins became the darlings of Paris – the Rocky Twins. Otherwise known as Leif and Paal Roschberg, the Rocky Twins were brothers from Norway who could sing and dance, and were extremely good-looking.
While talented, their rapid rise to fame was largely based on an act in which they dressed in drag and imitated the Dolly Sisters. “Scandalous” entertainment such as theirs was emblematic of the Jazz Age for certain classes of society, although there was still room for traditional acts such as the Dulcibella Twins.
It’s always interesting to me to wonder what inspired Agatha Christie when she was writing. Had she seen a twins act recently? Or read about a twins act in the newspaper? We may never know for sure, but it’s fun to speculate, isn’t it?
Photo Credit: Look and Learn