I promised I would write about my deep love for Nita and Zita
a while back, and as these mysterious ladies have been
haunting my dreams and acting as my muses lately, I
reckon I had better share their story here. I remember
first discovering the magic of these bohemian legends
at Judy’s Collage, an amazing junk-haven that used to
be on Chartres and Frenchmen. Man, I miss that place!
It was so packed with the most incredible stuff, you could
barely move around. Stalactites of flotsam hung from the
ceiling in a dimly lit mermaid’s cavern crammed with
jettisoned treasures. There was an odd little corner with
some of Nita and Zita’s costumes stuck on old mannequins
in kind of a chicken wire shrine. There were so many
fascinating characters in the Marigny and Bywater,
burlesque dancers and faded old queens with creole
cottages brimming with old photos and stories – I was
very blessed to meet and become friends with some of
them, and hear their stories. But oh! What I wouldn’t have
given to have been able to meet Nita and Zita! How
wonderful to have visited them in their amazing polka-dot
house, and taken dance and exercise classes from them!
It hurts my heart to think of them being buried in pauper’s
graves with only the Rabbi and a neighbor come to pay
their respects! It kills me to think of them so friendless,
when now their old neighborhood is full of people who
revere their memories, write plays based on their lives,
and fight over their tattered belongings and who loved
them best. Flora and Piroska Gellért were born in the
Jewish shtetl of Nagybánya, Hungary – which apparently
is close to Szatmárnémeti (now you know!) They immigrated
to America in 1922 to become Nita and Zita, exotic dancers
and acrobats of international renown. They traveled and
performed all over the world, their passports a patchwork
of stamps from Shanghai, Panama, Paris and Egypt.

“Nita and Zita were sisters. They were also exotic
or interpretive dancers (‘Hawaiian, Oriental, waltz,
veil dances,’ reads one of their old cards), and they
spent their last years in a small shotgun
house on Dauphine Street.

Nita and Zita had come originally from Romania (Hungary!)
and were often referred to in their old New Orleans neighborhood
as ‘The Gypsy Ladies.’ They danced on Bourbon Street toward the
end of their careers and gave dance and fitness lessons in one room
of their home: ‘Nita and Zita International Dancers. Health exercise
studio for 25 years till 60 years old persons for body and mind
improvment. Everybody need to exercise but persons in their
middle years need mild and slow exercises to have normal
blood circulation.’ How true. How very true.”

- From VOICES, The annual report of the North Carolina
Folk Art Society, Vol. 1: 1992. By Howard Campbell

This is Piroska (Zita) Gellért. Piroska (Pir-osh-ka) is the Hungarian name for Little Red Riding Hood.

While I was in the midst of writing this, I received an email from my
dear friend in New Orleans, the inimitable Marquis Déjà Dû, which
included this amazing video from 1922 (the year the sisters came
to America!) showing the belles of the day posing and preening
in glorious color! I was just conversing with my sweetheart on how
odd it is to see these rare images the pre-technicolor era – we were
amazed by the photos from Russia in Color, a Century Ago. We
were musing on about how strangely shocking it is to
see color photographs from that time. It makes it all seem
so much closer, more real somehow, and – although
we know better, it’s easy to think of the world as being all
black and white back then. How odd, to see the blue of
an eye, the blush of a cheek. It shouldn’t be, but it is!

(Photograph from FLY)

Sort of unrelated, but still – my friend Masha Yakovenko is a model
in New York, and I just stumbled across this photo of her that I think
is just so exquisite. Doesn’t she look like a Louise Brooks sort of girl?
I think she would look amazing in one of Nita + Zita’s dresses like
this one that was being sold by Paisley Babylon a while back:

I love the hand stitching on these. I remember seeing the
famous portraits of Nita and Zita decorating Paisley
Babylon, which was such fabulous vintage store that
used to be on Decatur Street, but now exists only online –
I wonder if she’ll ever put up any more of Nita and Zita’s
fabulous wardrobe? I can only wish and dream!

Not that I could have filled this frock out! Va-va-va-voom! Bazongas!

“I don’t know all the facts of Nita & Zita’s life (nobody does, really;
they have become mythic), but have pieced together a history
from the designs that they left behind. They were real bohemians:
they lived art, did everything in an artistic manner. They even repaired
their ramshackle Marigny home with needle and thread, sewing up
holes in the walls! Same with their clothing: they made and mended
them. In fact, it seems like they made nearly all of their dresses by
hand, or redesigned store-bought dresses, and would continue to
work on them until they were perfect! Sort of like those crafty hippies
did with their jeans! Embroidery is very Hungarian!
Dancers, contortionists, folk artists, above all Nita and Zita were seamstresses!”
– Paisley Babylon

Brings to mind the new project from the lovely trans-continental
ladies, Drucilla & Mathyld, who are debuting Ragtime Seance,
“Part e-course, part secret club”, joining their forces to teach us
about embroidery and sewing! They are drawing inspiration
from the flappers of the 1920′s, so hopefully Saints Nita + Zita
will bless and inspire their endeavors! Sok szerencsét kivánok!
(A légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal!)