The Borden Twins
Roz and Marilyn
-Our Story-
The Borden Twins have been in show business the major part of their lives. At the age of four they were performing on a local radio show with Ed Begley in their hometown of Hartford, Connecticut. While still in their teens, their family moved to Los Angeles and, naturally, they headed for the nearest theatrical agency. In high school they started doing network television.
 
Their first show was with Spike Jones and his zany group. From there they went on several of the "Colgate Comedy Hour" shows, one of which was the Ed Wynn Show, where they worked with Lucille Ball. She was so impressed with the Twins that she asked them to appear on I Love Lucy, which they did with Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, as pictured here.
 
In the early fifties the Girls began an association with Jimmy Durante that would span seven years, appearing on many of his TV shows and travelling in his nightclub act, as featured below. They were still sharpening their wits and adding to their own act between the Durante stints by playing local nightclubs and travelling with the U.S.O. to entertain servicemen in Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.
 
San Francisco was always a terrific nightclub town, so in the late fifties the Twins decided to move there. They played many nightclubs in North Beach, including the Moulin Rouge and the Purple Onion. They opened the Hotsy Totsy Club in San Francisco and became known as "Hotsy and Totsy". When the club closed, the Girls had built quite a reputation and continued to work in the area, as well as in Hawaii and throughout the States.
 
In the late sixties, the Twins got a call from an old acquaintance, Marty Pasetta, who was Executive Producer at KGO-TV in San Francisco. He was getting a daytime game show together and wanted Roz and Marilyn to appear as the host's (Bill Gordon) "Girls Friday". Of course they said "Yes!" and were with the show (LUAU) from its inception until it went off the air a year later.
The Twins both married, but continued their show biz endeavors, appearing on such TV shows as "Maude", "Rhoda", "The Ropers", "CHiPs", "The New Phil Silvers Show", "Lottery" and "Out Of This World". In the early eighties, they met Bob Newhart and worked with him for two years in his nightclub act, appearing with him in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel and at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, as shown here.
 
The Girls decided they would like to entertain on Cruise Ships, and as a result of achieving this goal, they found themselves booking people on the cruises and escorting groups as large as seventy people. Of course, everyone wanted them to do a show on board. As a result, they built a successful Cruise Only Travel Agency and entertained on the ships.