Rose’s Royal Midgets

Rose’s Royal Midgets was a troupe of 25 little people gathered together from across Europe (mostly Germany) by American impresario Ike Rose (Isaac Rosenstamm, 1865-1935), who had previously worked for Gus Hill and the Irwin Brothers, and had represented and booked such acts as Saharet (his wife), Ruth St. Denis, the Hilton Sisters, the Blazek Twins, Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, Florence Bindley, Ed Latell, The Baggesens,and Charles T. Aldrich.

The act was formed around the time of the First World War and played vaudeville throughout the 1920s and early ’30s. Company members danced, did acrobatics, performed magic tricks, juggled and played musical instruments. After Rose died in 1935, the act was managed by his widow Carla, playing mostly fairs, carnivals and circuses through the end of the 1950s. Ike’s younger brother Lew Rose (Louis Rosenstamm, b. 1868) became an important burlesque producer himself, and husband and manager of Millie DeLeon, a pioneer of the strip tease. 

For the definitive account of this  historic troupe and its founder Ike Rose please check out our book Rose’s Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville.