Ellen Kessler

Alice and Ellen Kessler born 20 August 1936 in Nerchau Saxony Germany are twin entertainers known in Europe especially Germany and Italy from the 1950s and 1960s for their singing dancing and acting They are usually credited as the Kessler Twins Die KesslerZwillinge in Germany and Le Gemelle Kessler in Italy where they remain popular The Kessler sisters enjoyed a significant degree of popularity in the US appearing on national television programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show The Kesslers made their American television debut on the CBS variety show The Red Skelton Hour They also appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and were featured on the cover of Life Magazine that same year Their parents Paul and Elsa sent them to ballet classes at the age of six and they joined the Leipzig Operas child ballet program at age 11 When they were 18 their parents used a visitors visa to escape to West Germany where they performed at the Palladium in Düsseldorf They performed at The Lido in Paris between 1955 and 1960 where they met Elvis Presley on leave from the Army on June 17 1959 and represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest finishing in 8th place with Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen gehn Tonight we want to go dancing They moved to Italy in 1960 and gradually moved to more serious roles They became very popular thanks to the RAI television variety show Studio Uno 19611966 At the age of 40 they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy That issue became the fastestselling Italian Playboy to that date They moved back to Germany in 1986 and live in Grünwald They have received two awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting GermanItalian cooperation through their work in show business Source Article Kessler Twins from Wikipedia in english licensed under CCBYSA 30