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MOTION PICTURE NEWS
The DUNCAN SISTERS
Rosetta and Vivian Stage and Screen
"TOPSY and EVA"
United Artists
*«
Coming
"THE HEAVENLY TWINS"
I Biographical Sketch
T AIT'S RESTAURANT in San Francisco in 1916 was situated opposite the Orpheum in O'Farrell Street, and at that time was the nearest thing they had out there to the present New York night club.
It was at Tait's Restaurant that Rosetta and Vivian Duncan got their start professionally. That was in 1916. Rosetta and Vivian had gained some local fame in amateur theatricals in Los Angeles, where both were born. Their friends thought they were good and they believed it, so Rosetta disappeared one night when she was fifteen and wended her way to San Francisco, where she immediately got a job as a Dutch kiddie at Taits. She wrote Vivian of her triumph and Vivian promptly joined her.
Vaudeville was their "groceries," however, and they signed for a tour of the tanks on a small-town circuit that took in Northern California and Nevada. They pleased the tanks and then started for the big league. In Chicago they appealed to Mort Singer for some big time. They were turned down, but told Singer that some day he would be after them to play KeithOrpheum time. Their prophecy was fulfilled sooner, perhaps, than even they suspected.
The sisters moved on to New York and were engaged for a Gus Edwards review and later appeared at the Winter Garden. This was followed by a four months' tour in the Charles Dillingham show, "She's a Good Fellow."
Then came their first London appearance. They were an instantaneous success, but they returned to America with their own act and went into the Palace Theatre, New York. At the end of their engagement they returned to Los Angeles to prepare for "Topsy and Eva." Under the management of Tom Wilkes it was a tremendous success. Their clever performance brought a contract from Joseph M. Schenck to picturize the play for United Artists. It has been as successful as was the musical version, and the sisters are now on tour with it. This has been the only picture in which the Duncan Sisters have appeared, but they seem assured just as many more lucrative contracts as they care to accept.