Biography

The Great Ziegfeld discovered the Dolly Sisters - identical twins Jenny and Rosie - dancing in the middle rung of the vaudeville circuit and hired them for his 1911 Follies. With their dark olive complexions and diminutive statures, they exuded an elusive exotic allure, but in reality they were anything but. Born Jancsi and Roszica in Hungary, they had emigrated to New York's Lower East Side and soon morphed their amer-anglecized names. Flo Ziegfeld turned the act into a Broadway sensation and both girls were wined, dined and wooed by a seemingly endless string of millionaires and Stage Door Johnnies. Jenny was the wilder of the sisters, with an insatiable appetite for diamonds, made two silent films in 1915 and 1918, the latter with her sister. Together, they left for Europe - Jenny for the roulette tables while Rosie returned to Hungary and worked in an orphanage. They reunited in Paris and became a smash hit all over again by introducing the Charleston at the Casino de Paris. More well heeled admirers would follow. Jenny, dripping in diamonds across Europe, was romanced by no less than the Prince of Wales and King Christian of Denmark. They continued their dalliances across the continent, appearing on equal billing with Maurice Chevalier at the famed Moulin Rouge. Rosie married a wealthy Chicago businessman while Jenny had a tempestuous romance with aviator Max Constant. During one of their frequent outs, Jenny had a fling with British department store mogul Gordon Selfridge who offered her an enormous amount of money to marry. Torn between her love for Max and the desire for the good life she ran off for one last weekend with Max. The tryst was nearly fatal - they were involved in a terrible car accident outside Bordeaux. Jenny was critical, seriously disfigured and remained in the American Hospital in Paris for months. Once she was stabilized, Selfridge paid for the world's top plastic surgeons to restore her beauty, but without success. Eventually her sister and brother-in-law brought Jenny back to the U.S. where she spent the remainder of her life broken in mind and body. Sadly, she later committed suicide, hanging herself with a noose made from the drapes of her Hollywood apartment.