Part of special program Italian Jews During Fascism

Tulip Time is a fascinating profile of Trio Lescano, a musical group of Dutch Jewish sisters who could really swing. Stylistically similar to the Andrews Sisters, the three Lescanos were enormously popular in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s; their career took off in 1938 with the songs “Anna” and “Tulip Time.” Sandra, Giuditta and Caterinetta, daughters of Hungarian circus artist Alexander and Dutch operetta singer Eva Leschan, grew up in Holland but performed widely. They were discovered in a circus near Verona by Italian impresario Carlo Prato, who changed their name to Lescano. Their meteoric rise was strangely simultaneous to the ascent of the fascist regime and was surprising even to the sisters, one of whom said, “We were welcomed in the best houses; us—the Jewish daughters of a clown.” Ultimately their recording contract was cancelled in 1943 because their songs were declared anti-Fascist. The Trio was arrested and held in custody for weeks. The sisters had a complex relationship to their Judaism, which was at times downplayed when convenient. Marco De Stefanis and Tonino Boniotti’s first-rate documentary features rare found footage from the Fascist period in Italy and entertaining film sequences of these unique performers.

—Nancy K. Fishman

Presented with Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans

Presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco.

Free Wednesday Matinees are generously supported the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation.

Co-presented by Jewish Music Festival, Jewish Partisans Educational Network and Museo Italo Americano