Exciting new Bulletins My Darlings!
- The upcoming Boston screening of The Nita & Zita Project is SOLD OUT!! WOOHOO!!
- As I dive even deeper into my research on Nita & Zita for my upcoming article in the Journal of Southern Jewish Research, I was thrilled to find a photo of Luisa de Lerma, a singer billed on the same flyer as the Gellert sisters. At that time, Nita & Zita were billed as Hnas. Gilbert, yet another misspelling of their names.
I had searched high and low to find images of Buenos Aires in 1936 so I could imagine what the Gellert sisters saw as they walked around the city between shows. It’s very difficult to find any images of the Montmartre nightclub where the sisters danced, or the other performers on the bill with them, but I had managed to find some photos of the street where they danced, Avenida Leandro Alem, and postcards and a few images of spectacular Art Nouveau buildings in Buenos Aires.
For my article, I was referred to a book called “Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires: 1910-1942, and on page 95-96, Walter writes that in the 1920s French-style clubs became popular, often with Middle Eastern themed decor, and a mix of wealthy and working class people dressed to the nines to spend their evenings drinking, eating, and dancing the tango and fox-trot. Can you imagine the smoky nightclubs with Nita & Zita performing their acrobatic contortionist dance to men wearing tuxedos and fedoras and women wearing silky gowns and pearls? Swoon! the glamour of it all!
Oh how I wish I could peek through time!
Below is an image of Zita, a 1936 postcard of Avenida Leandro Alem where they performed, a postcard of Luisa De Lerma, and the original flyer advertising the sisters and Luisa-saved in the sisters’ belongings now at teh Historic New Orleans Collection.
