A costume from the estate of Dolly
🕑 Added 2021-05-18 12:01:56 +0000 UTCin 2017 I acquired this costume from a vintage dealer and quickly realized they were a multitude of costumes from the same performer. I had heard of the Dolly sisters Rosie and Jenny. These dancing dolls were wildly famous in the 1920’s and 30’s but I had never heard of a solo performer named Dolly.
Through research I came to understand that Dolly was in fact born in 1910 and started in vaudeville in 1918 at the age of eight.
Little Dolly had an aunt that cared for her and was a vaudeville performer so Dolly went out to vaudeville.
Sadly I do not know the name of little Dolly’s aunt but I’m still researching! I’m intent on finding who she was.
This aunt took dolly into her care on the road. As you could imagine life in vaudeville on the road was harrowing already, not to mention having an eight-year-old in tow.
I would imagine that Dolly’s aunt had no other option. Every once in a while you hear of performers taking their children on the road out of necessity such as Gypsy Rose Lee did, it’s not that rare, but it’s rare to hear of a relative taking a child on the road and putting them in vaudeville unless the parents are completely out of the picture. These were trying times though.
“The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.” CDC.org
Sound familiar?
My best guess is that Dollys aunt may have been her last surviving family member available to care for her and was left with no other safe option for Dolly.
Can you imagine traveling the circuit during this time?! Wow! It must have been so intense and ultimately scary.
But, alas, that is only my best guess.
The details are fuzzy at best beyond that but I do know that by the age of 20 Dolly had gone from vaudeville and was finding herself pulled towards burlesque.
Dolly was working in Burlesque long enough to acquire an incredible set of costumes!
Here is only just one example of her extraordinary collection of costumes.
The fact that Dolly was able to acquire such an incredible set of costumes hints at Dolly actually being a headlining performer.
Normally a dancers costumes are what set them apart from the other dancers and give them the title of a headlining performer.
Speaking from experience, When a performer starts out in striptease, normally they have a very small collection of inexpensive costumes, hand me downs, handmade low budget costumes, leftovers from previous dancers etc.
The fact that Dolly had such a vast collection of beautiful burlesque costumes speaks to how much she excelled in her art.
To be able to afford costumes such as these, she would have had her own finances which means that she was an extremely successful dancer or she would have had somebody, possibly a client, suitor, employer or lover purchase them for her.
Considering the aesthetic of the costumes and knowing that when she started into Vaudeville (which would shortly lead her to a burlesque career in her early 20s) it was 1918 I highly doubt that these costumes would have been handed down from her aunt who cared for her.
This costume in particular is extremely rare and very old, possibly 1920’s.
It is a very well constructed body of tan velvet with hammered silver sequins and glorious tiered lace bat wings.
The free flowing sleeves attached at the shoulder, are big ruffled netting wings with sewn in weights on the bottom bell of the sleeves featuring pointed tan velvet cuffs (cuffs not shown in these images) one still had the metal ring that goes over your middle finger to exaggerate the point of the cuff, other ring was missing. There was one seam at shoulder that had come undone.
This costume was in decent condition when I purchased it barring a few age related issues such as popped seams, dry rot in stitching and decades of dirt dust and general, gentle wear and tear.
This costume was sent to Jan’s dry cleaners in Michigan. Jan’s is one of the only cleaners I trust to fully restore and dry clean these type of costumes. Jan and her entire crew have been obsessed with vintage clothing, reconstruction, dry cleaning as long as I have known them. Since I met Jan I have not used another dry cleaner for my antique and vintage collection of burlesque and circus costumes.
For this costume because it was in fairly good condition when I purchased it, the restoration was not a heavy one. The crew at Jan’s cleaners had to take apart certain elements of the costume to re-stitch the costume with newer thread since the old thread had experienced a low level of dry rot. Another really incredible thing that Jan’s cleaners did was remove all of the silver sequins on this costume cleaned them each, cleaned the tan velvet fabric while the sequins were removed, removed the bat wings, fully cleaned them and then put everything back together.
Hand sewing each newly cleaned sequin in the exact same order that they took them off.
It’s always incredible to take apart these costumes and put them back together, it’s even more incredible to watch somebody else do it who has more knowledge.
Thinking back to the story I was told about Dolly by the woman who sold me this costume, really made me think of my own career. Dolly started out in vaudeville, Burlesque, striptease by the time she was 18, hoping and praying that she would be plucked out of obscurity by a famous Hollywood agent but never having that dream come true. She wanted to get into showbiz, you know real showbiz,. It’s clear that she enjoyed being front and center on stage but she really wanted those Hollywood lights.
At the beginning of her adult vaudeville career Dolly was able to find a few bit roles as an extra in productions but that was the extent of her Hollywood career. By her mid-20s she was doing Burlesque exclusively. Often times working in Vegas when the city of sin was still in its infancy. She must have loved the warm weather because Dolly spent the rest of her career touring through Las Vegas, LA and Hawaii.
Though she tried valiantly Dolly never realized her dream of being a big movie star and ended her career working strip clubs into her late 50's.
I’m currently working to figure out which clubs she performed in after her Hollywood dream died but I have no leads yet.
I have heard that she married several times, never having any children but always a little beloved dog by her side.
I’m happy to say that Dolly lived a long and amazing life well into her nineties.
Thank you for taking the time to read a little about Dolly ,even though we never knew her just thinking about her makes her star a little brighter.
Comments
Danielle Colby Striptease Historian
I love her story!
Danielle Colby Striptease Historian
Yes! I always need more help🙏 not many of these sources are available in libraries but I can post about my favorite sources again. It been a while since I’ve posted about books and archives.
John Brower
Danielle, I'm a librarian and I love all of the details you shared about your search. What sources did you look in? I know it can be hard to find things about people who lived on the "fringes" of society. they don't usually report on their lives. Let me know if you need help doing more research!
Steven Malc
It's fascinating to me to read about how Dolly was able to take control of her life and make a successful career (albeit not the career she had wanted). This costume is very beautiful and looks like it would have been very expensive. It doesn't look like something she would have bought off the rack. I also enjoy your enthusiasm in researching and sharing the details of Dolly's life. That enthusiasm comes through in your writing and makes it even more enjoyable. You are very special, Danielle!
