The Watson Sisters: Rare Comedy Sister Act
A Comedy Sister Act.
Kitty (1886-1967) and Fanny (1885-1970) Watson were both a sister act and a comedy duo, maybe the first such act I have come across in reading about thousands of acts, which is very odd if you think about it. They began as a children with a singing act in old style variety, and then evolved into laughmakers, first in burlesque (old style) and then by the teens, vaudeville. The eventually became headliners on the big time Keith Circuit, playing the Palace by 1915, playing a Royal Command performance in London in 1927, and keeping a hand in the biz at least until 1949. They also made a handful of talking movie shorts in the early 1930s, such as this 1933 Fleischer Screen Song Boilesk:
To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
Leave a Reply