Wonderland Burlesque's Down The Rabbit Hole: The Kessler Twins

Wonderland Burlesque's

 Down The Rabbit Hole: 

The Kessler Twins

Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.

Today, we take a look at the Kessler Twins.

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Alice and Ellen Kessler, usually credited as the Kessler Twins, are German twin sisters who entertained the world, singing, dancing, and acting. Appearing in films and on numerous television programs throughout their lengthy career, they were popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, during the 1950s and 1960s.

The sisters enjoyed a significant degree of popularity in the US as well, making their American television debut on the CBS variety show The Red Skelton Hour and appearing on a number of national television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Danny Kaye Show. They also appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and were featured on the cover of Life Magazine that same year.
 
The girls began ballet classes at the age of six, joining the Leipzig Opera's child ballet program at age 11. When the twins were 18, their parents used a visitor's visa for the family to escape from East Germany.

Arriving in Düsseldorf, the sisters performed at the Palladium before moving on to Paris. Between 1955 and 1960, they performed at The Lido in Paris. There they met American singer Elvis Presley, who was on leave from the army. The twins represented West Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1959, finishing in 8th place with Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n (Tonight We Want to go Dancing).

From 1955 to 1964, they appeared in over a dozen films, primarily produced in Germany and Italy. 

In 1960, the twins moved to Italy, where they became incredibly popular due to their frequent appearances on the television variety show Studio Uno. 

The Kesslers rebuffed the advances of various prominent American actors, including Elvis Presley. An exception was a brief liaison between Ellen and Burt Lancaster, later chronicled in 1996 for the German Stern magazine.

At the age of 40, they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. The issue became the fastest-selling Italian Playboy to that date.

The Kessler twins returned to Germany in 1986, living in Grünwald, Bavaria and continued to make the occasional television appearance. They have received awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting German-Italian cooperation through their work in show business.

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Das Posthaus Im Schwarzwald - The Kessler Twins

(1958)

Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n

(Tonight We Want to go Dancing)

The Kessler Twins

1959

Sunday Boy - The Kessler Twins

(1961)

Bons Baisers a Bientot (Kisses & Farewells) - The Kessler Twins

(1961)

Quando, Quando - The Kessler Twins

(1963)

On How To Be Lovely - The Kessler Twins

(1964)

The Best Is To Come - The Kessler Twins

(1964)

 Boy From Ipanema - The Kessler Twins

(1967)

Da-Ba Da-Ba Dab - The Kessler Twins

(1967)

Mas Que Nada/The Look Of Love - The Kessler Twins

(1970)

The Look Of Love - The Kessler Twins

(1975)

New York, New York - The Kessler Twins

(1983)

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Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: All That Is Gay Edition- Part 2 of 6

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

All That Is Gay Edition- Part 2 of 6

As explained previously, month was Gay Pride Month - and I had planned to do these posts to honor that celebration - but due to timing, and the previous series of posts running long, I ran a bit behind. Oh, well... it's not like gay pride is only for one month. No, it's a lifelong thing. So, let's keep celebrating!

This week Hollywood goes all gay in a very man-about-town kind of way. Yes, most of these films are gay in name only, but... isn't it it the thought that counts?

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The Gay Deceiver

(1926)

"The true story of a husband with young ideas!"

 (Paris' premiere matinée idol finds himself embroiled in absolute scandal; an illicit love affair which leads to blackmail! The deceiver is revealed to all and the public outcry is swift and loud... that is until   until he promises to mend his way for the sake of his daughter.)

(This American silent romantic drama was directed by John M. Stahl and stars Lew Cody and Carmel Myers.)

(With no prints located in any film archive, this is now considered a lost film.)

(Carmel Myers was a popular actress during the silent era. She rose to fame and was best known for her roles playing a Vamp. During her career she worked opposite the likes of Rudolph Valentino, Ramón Novarro, Norma Shearer, Lon Chaney, Sr., and Joan Crawford. She and her second husband purchased Gloria Swanson's Sunset Boulevard house and when she married for a third time it was to Paramount Pictures executive Alfred W. Schwalberg.)

Carmel Meyers

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The Gay Divorcee

(1934)

"The king and queen of Carioca."

"Introducing the new dance sensation, 'The Continental'.

(The wife of an ever-absent geologist decides to seek a divorce. Her much-married aunt suggests she consult one of her former  fiancées, an inept lawyer, who arranges for the neglected wife to spend a night at a seaside hotel. There, she is to meet a man hired to play her 'lover' and be 'caught' having an adulterous affair. The woman agrees and leaves for the seaside hotel, however... the bungling lawyer neglects to hire a man to play her 'lover'. When the woman arrives, she bumps into a professional dancer who she met once, but has since forgotten. The same cannot be said of the dancer, who is besotted with her. Given the man's rhapsodic attention, she mistakes him for the would-be 'lover'. Comedy, complications and dancing ensue.)  

(Based on the Broadway musical, Gay Divorce and an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners, this musical comedy was directed by Mark Sandrich and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes.)

 (Astaire and Rogers' first feature, Flying Down to Rio, had  proven to be a huge success, leading RKO's head of production, Pandro S. Berman to purchase the screen rights to Dwight Taylor's Broadway hit Gay Divorce.) 

(The Broadway version includes a number of songs by Cole Porter which are not in the film. The exception, the ever-popular Night and Day. However, they did use the same plot, along with three members from the original production: Astaire, Rhodes, and Eric Blore. The film's The Continental would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Song.)

(The Hays Office insisted that RKO change the name from Gay Divorce to The Gay Divorcee, for while a divorcée could be gay or lighthearted, the censors would not allow the film to make light of divorce.  According to Astaire, the change was made proactively; the director, Mark Sandrich, told him that The Gay Divorcee was selected as the new name because the studio "thought it was a more attractive-sounding title, centered around a girl." However, in the UK? No such problem - the film was released as The Gay Divorce.)

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The Gay Deception

(1935)

(An office secretary wins the lottery and decides to live the highlife at The Waldorf-Plaza, a luxurious New York hotel. She quickly bumps heads with the bellboy - who is more than he appears to be. It turns out the bellboy is really a prince, who is now smitten with the recently wealthy woman. Will love bloom and will our secretary end up being Queen for more than one day?)

(This romantic comedy is an early work of famed director William Wyler and stars Francis Lederer and Frances Dee.)

(Screenwriters Stephen Morehouse Avery and Don Hartman were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story.)

Frances Dee

(Frances Dee began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when she, still working as an extra, she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris. Her chemistry with her co-stars on screen landed her two more romantic comedies before being cast in the controversial film An American Tragedy. Other notable features include: Little Women, Of Human Bondage, and Becky Sharp. In 1933, she married actor Joel McCrea.)

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The Gay Falcon

(1941)

(A high society grand-dame, who hosts charity parties in her home, finds herself mixed up with a group of jewel thieves who defraud insurance companies. When another socialite is murdered, The Falcon and his assistant are brought in on the case. The pair are aided by a beautiful debutante, who has eyes for the detective, despite the presence of his fiancée.)

(This B-film, a detective yarn, is the first in a series of 16 films about super suave detective, The Falcon. It was directed by Irving Reis and stars George Sanders and Wendy Barrie.)

(Pre-Falcon, Sanders had starred as The Saint in a series of detective films. For this film, he was reteamed with Barrie, who had worked opposite him in three of The Saint films.)

(In March of 1941, the studio bought the rights to Michael Arlen's story The Gay Falcon. Filming started May of 1941. In June, that same year, RKO announced The Falcon would be a series. In September of 1941 RKO officially dropped The Saint series.)

 

(RKO purposely bought the rights to The Falcon, with plans to have it replace The Saint, because working with Leslie Charteris, writer and creator of The Saint, had become too difficult. Charteris sued RKO contending that The Falcon was simply a rip-off of The Saint. To this day, the outcome of the suit has never been disclosed.) 

(Though the series of films proved very popular, Sanders tired of the role quickly, handing it over to his real life brother, actor Tom Conway after the two played brothers in the fourth film of the series, 1942's The Falcon's Brother. And though the entire series was based on Michael Arlen's character The Falcon, this film, The Gay Falcon, was the only one actually based on an Arlen story.)

(Film historians and viewers agree that actor Hans Conried, a familiar face and voice in numerous television programs and films - typically playing a highly-cultured, well-bred, well-educated sort - had the funniest scene in the film playing a crime sketch artist - yet he never received screen credit. The same would be true when he appeared - uncredited - in two additional films in the series - 1941's A Date With The Falcon and 1942's The Falcon Takes Over.)

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The Gay Deceivers

(1969)

"In absolutely divine color."

"Is he? Or isn't he?

"Only the draft board and his girlfriend know for sure."

(Danny and Elliot avoid military service by pretending to be gay, but they have to act the part when the recruiting officer doesn't buy it and threatens to visit them in their home. The two move into a gay neighborhood and mix with the locals - all the while trying to hide their scheme from friends and family.)

(This comedy was written by Jerome Wish and directed by Bruce Kessler. It stars Kevin Coughlin, Larry Casey, Brooke Bundy, Jo Ann Harris and Michael Greer.)

(Kent McCord was originally approached to play role that went to Larry Casey.)

(The title used in Spanish-speaking territories roughly translates to English as The Third Sex Having Fun.)

"When you have girls like these.. what do you do about the draft board?"

"Hilarious... Coughlin and Casey are the oddest couple since Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and their 'marriage' is just as funny. - Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times."

(Originally rated X, they trimmed it down to resemble an episode of Love American Style.)

.

"They had to keep their hands off girls in order to keep the Army's hands off them."

"What kind of movie is this??"

(The film is often condemned for all its offensive stereotypes. Actor Michael Greer, who is gay, did his best to work with the scriptwriter to tone down some of the more offensive moments.) 

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

The Continental

from the motion picture musical The Gay Divorcee

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Josephine Baker

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Josephine Baker

In my own personal big gay church there are many wings. In one such wing reside those who have forged careers by marching to a beat only they can hear. They are originals - unlike any other. Their styles created archetypes upon which many careers were built, but it all began with them. They created it. They own it.

Has there ever been one as beguiling as... 

Josephine Baker.

Call her what you will... Black Venus, Black Pearl, Bronze Venus , or  Creole Goddess.

She spoke her truth.

Whether dancing, singing, or telling her story...

She spoke her truth.

She had always been one with the music, it reverberated through her body and left audiences in awe.

Her sense of style, bigger than life. 

Her singing, melodic and rhapsodic.

Her energy, as inescapable as her many charms.

And charm she did. She could wrap the world around her little finger with a wink. 

Even when she became a worldwide sensation, she didn't shy away from who she was... she still spoke her truth. 

Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, and she wasn't afraid to say why - her contributions to the civil rights movement? Undeniable.

That was her power. Her dignity. 

She may have chosen to jump around in outrageous outfits in order to entertain. But that was her choice - her joy. No one may deny her humanness. 

And in the end, before the applause, you must acknowledge exactly that.

This courageous human.

Who shared her gifts... and truth, with the world. 

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Racism In America

 

When I was a child and they burned me out of my home, I was frightened and I ran away. Eventually I ran far away. It was to a place called France. Many of you have been there, and many have not. But I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen, in that country I never feared. It was like a fairyland place.

 
I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.
 

I ran away from home. I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States of America, because of that terror of discrimination, that horrible beast which paralyzes one's very soul and body. 

The hate directed against the colored people here in St. Louis has always given me a sad feeling because when I was a little girl I remember the horror of the East St. Louis race riot.
 
Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.

 

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.
 
All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.
 
I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be let alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other.
 
All men can live together, if they wish to.

Americans, the eyes of the world are upon you. How can you expect the world to believe in you and respect your preaching of democracy when you yourself treat your colored brothers as you do?

You must get an education. You must go to school, and you must learn to protect yourself. And you must learn to protect yourself with the pen, and not the gun.

My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.

Let us stop saying 'white Americans' and 'colored Americans,' let us try once and for all saying... Americans. Let human beings be equal on Earth as in Heaven.

God dislikes evil, and no happiness can be built on hate. Love one another as brothers. 

C'est Lui - Josephine Baker

(1934)

Medley - Josephine Baker

(1955)

Royal Variety Performance - Josephine Baker 

(1974)

And one more parting shot...

"I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on."

Weekend Onesie: The Pine Walk Collection

Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah!

You know I am all about preserving and enjoying gay cultural history. Well, have I got a treat for you!

Head on over to Mixcloud and get yourself a free account. 

Then, use the search engine and type in The Pine Walk Collection.

Talk about your hot summer nights! 

You will be instantly transported to another time, another dimension, when all things were happy and gay. (We'll ignore the reality of the times, my dears, and simply concentrate on the wonderful music.)

The Pine Walk Collection features  DJ Sets from Fire Island Pines & New York City, from 1978-1999!

This is the equivalent of finding a gay disco's lost ark.

Seems these tapes were found in a recently purchased house on Pine Walk. There are over 200 tapes in total and they have all been carefully digitized and remastered and offered to stream for free on Mixcloud (with permission from all of the living DJs they were able to contact.)

I am not well-versed in DJ Culture, but some of those spinning include: Richie Bernier, Jim Burgess, Michael Jorba, Teri Beaudion, Chuck Parsons, Shaun Buchanan, Jonathan Porter, Warren Gluck... to name but a few. 

I am in heaven. And wished I owned CDs of every single one of these incredible sets.

Current fave? 

A set at The Ice Palace by DJ Roy Thode (Side B), which includes:

1. Change - Paradise
2. Feels Like I'm In Love - Kelly Marie
3. Hit 'N Run Lover - Carol Jiani
4. Give Me A Break - Vivien Vee
5. Dancin' The Night Away - Voggue
6. Dance, Its My Life - Midnight Powers

Another bonus? The comments made by those who were there, sharing memories of those fabled nights of old. 

Honey, if they still played music like this in the clubs, I'd slip into my tightest jeans, put some glitter on my cheeks, step into my dancing shoes and be there every night!

Yes, the party The Pine Walk Collection has to offer is never ending, so give your spirit and your heels a lift and check it out. 

(Shout out to my dear sister, Randall, who turned me onto this disco-very!)

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend.

Don't let the parade pass you by!

Dance, dance, dance!

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

Feels Like I'm In Love - Kelly Marie

Hit 'N Run Lover - Carol Jiani