Starting with Adam and Eve, we are familiar with formidable couples – whether historical, mythological, or fictional – such as Antony & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Tristan & Isolde, Orpheus & Eurydice, Lancelot & Guinevere, and Victoria & Albert.
In many spheres of endeavor, people pair up to maximize their efforts to achieve their goals. So let’s take a look at some dynamic duos, past and present, be they crooners, comedians, colleagues, or collaborators, and see how they fit together hand in glove.
How dynamic duos fit hand in glove
In the realm of entertainment, well-known duos doing duets include Steve & Eydie; Sonny & Cher; Simon & Garfunkel; Donny & Marie; Hall & Oates; and Captain & Tenille.
Steve Lawrence (Sidney Liebowitz) and Eydie Gormé (née Edith Gormezano) began working together in 1954 on the TV talk show Tonight Starring Steve Allen. Steve and Eydie, both Jewish, were married in 1957. In a career spanning half a century, they were a prominent presence on records, television variety shows, and in nightclubs extending from the Catskills to Las Vegas.
A prominent pair on the keyboard were Ferrante & Teicher. The American pianists were known for their clever arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes, as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances. Over the course of their 40-year partnership, Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher – dubbed “The grand twins of the twin grands” – recorded 150 albums, amassed 22 gold and platinum records, sold 90 million records worldwide, and performed 5,200 concerts before retiring in 1989. The piano duo’s biggest hit was the instrumental version of “This Land Is Mine,” written by Ernest Gold, the theme song of the 1960 film Exodus.
In the early days of musical theater, Gilbert & Sullivan were best known in the Victorian era for their comic operas. Between 1871 and 1896, librettist W.S. (William Schwenck) Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan produced 14 operas. Among their most well-known comic operas are The Mikado; H.M.S. Pinafore; and The Pirates of Penzance.
When it comes to Broadway musicals, Rodgers & Hammerstein have been called the greatest writing team of the 20th century. Over the course of 17 years, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein wrote 11 musicals, the most famous of which are Oklahoma!; Carousel; South Pacific; The King and I; and The Sound of Music. Both Rodgers (Rogozinsky) and Hammerstein were born in New York City, the grandsons of European Jewish immigrants. All told, their oeuvre garnered 35 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards
Another pair of Jewish luminaries who illuminated the lights of Broadway were Lerner & Loewe. Spanning three decades, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe wrote nine stage musicals, such as Brigadoon; My Fair Lady; and Camelot, as well as the musical film Gigi.
Keeping the public well amused over the years are comedy teams. Duos such as Amos & Andy; Burns & Allen; Martin & Lewis; Rowan & Martin; and Penn & Teller delighted audiences on radio, television, in film, and in nightclubs.
Comedians Laurel & Hardy started their career in Hollywood silent films, and later transitioned to the “talkies.” From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, Englishman Stan Laurel and American Oliver Hardy were internationally renowned for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy’s pompous bully. They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. In the 1932 short MGM film The Music Box, the pair struggle to move a piano up a long flight of steps. That film won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy).
American comedians Abbott & Costello have long been remembered for their baseball skit, wherein Bud Abbot tries to explain to Lou Costello the who’s who of the game: Who’s on first. What’s on second. Third base? – I Don’t Know. Their work in radio, television, and motion pictures earned each of them three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Meanwhile, on the ballroom floor, no dancing partners could “cut a rug” like Fred & Ginger. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dazzled audiences in the 10 films they did together, such as Flying Down to Rio; The Gay Divorcee; and Top Hat. As astounding as Fred Astaire was, Ginger Rogers was no less impressive; for as it has been pointed out, she tripped the light fantastic backwards and in high heels.
Duos in the world of commerce
THE WORLD of commerce abounds with the names of enterprising business partners. High among such companies is Procter & Gamble. The multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, was founded in 1837 by brothers-in-law William Procter and James Gamble. Today, Procter & Gamble owns almost 80 brands. Some of their largest brands are household names, such as Tide, Crest, Gillette, Oral B, and Head & Shoulders.
Marks & Spencer is a British retailer based in London. The company was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Marks was a Polish Jew born in Slonim (now Belarus), who had migrated to Leeds; and Spencer was a cashier from the English market town of Skipton in Yorkshire. Marks worked for a company in Leeds called Barran which employed Jewish immigrants. He managed to secure a stall at Kirkgate Market in Leeds. Having arrived with little money and limited English, he built his success using the slogan “Don’t ask the price – it’s a ‘penny.” When he acquired a permanent stall in the Leeds covered market, he invited Spencer to become his partner. Today, with hundreds of locations worldwide, Marks & Spencer department stores specialize in selling clothing, beauty items, housewares, and food products.
In the rarefied realm of luxury brands, one could say that Van Cleef & Arpels is the jewel in the crown. The French jewelry company was founded in 1896 in Paris by Dutch diamond-cutter Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law, Salomon Arpels, both of whom were Jewish. The business partners opened Van Cleef & Arpels boutiques in holiday resorts such as Deauville, Vichy, Nice, and Monte-Carlo. In 1930, the company crafted the crown for Queen Nazli of Egypt, the wife of King Fuad I. And in 1966, the jewelers were commissioned to make the crown for the coronation of Empress Farah Pahlanim, the wife of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The task presented the jewelers with a significant challenge because all the gems had to be selected from the Imperial Treasury of Iran, and none of the stones could leave the country. So a team was sent to Iran to choose the major gems for the crown. After 11 months of work, the company presented the empress with a diadem made of emerald velvet set with
36 emeralds, 36 rubies, 105 pearls, and 1,469 diamonds. Today, Van Cleef & Arpels has 155 stores worldwide. Its products are sold in standalone boutiques, boutiques within major department stores, and in independent stores.
Another luxury brand is Dolce & Gabbana. The high-end Italian fashion house was founded in Legnano in 1985 by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The fashion house specializes in ready-to-wear garments, handbags, accessories, cosmetics, and fragrances.
In a different sphere, bookseller Barnes & Noble traces its beginnings to 1873, when Charles Barnes started a book business from his home in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1917 his son, William, went to New York to join G. Clifford Noble in establishing Barnes & Noble. During the height of the Great Depression, what later became the Barnes & Noble flagship store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The store developed a reputation for excellence by serving millions of customers with its comprehensive selection of general trade books, academic titles, textbooks, and medical books. Today, Barnes & Noble serves over 600 communities in all 50 states and remains the number one book retailer in the United States.
As for book publishers, Simon & Schuster is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, providing consumers worldwide with a diverse range of quality books across a wide variety of genres and formats. Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 by Jewish bookmen Richard Simon and Max Schuster. Their initial project was the original crossword-puzzle book, which was a bestseller. Among their other innovations was a line called Pocket Books, the first American paperback line, launched in 1939. Pocket Books produced the first mass-market pocket-sized paperback books in the United States, which revolutionized the publishing industry. The company’s mission statement is “to publish authors who have a purpose, a story to tell, and an unusual talent for making readers care about it.” As a footnote, singer-songwriter Carly Simon is the daughter of Richard Simon.
To find out how these and a myriad of other companies are doing, one can consult Dun & Bradstreet. The company, founded in New York in 1841 by Robert Dun and John Bradstreet, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of business information and research. Its global database contains commercial data on more than 240 million companies. Dun & Bradstreet also holds the largest volume of business-credit information in the world.
With regard to names of companies, some reference the founders but forgo the ampersand (&). For example, Dow Jones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), or Dow Jones, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. First calculated on May 26, 1896, the index was created by Charles Dow, co-founder of The Wall Street Journal, and his business associate, statistician Edward Jones.
In the case of Rolls-Royce, a dash is used in the company name to link the founders together. Rolls-Royce was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by Charles Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry Royce. Charles Rolls was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. Henry Royce was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and airplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. Rolls and Royce were committed to pushing the boundaries of technology and quality, so they created the concept of EX to investigate the realms of what was possible. And well they did. According to a 2025 listing of the 10 most expensive cars in the world, the Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail top the list.
Sometimes companies don’t use the names of the founders but just the initials of their surnames. A&W is a case in point. The origin of the American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its burger combos, draft root beer, and root beer floats dates back to 1919 when Roy Allen set up a roadside drink stand in Liso, California, offering root beer at a parade honoring returning WW I veterans. In 1923, he teamed up with his employee Frank Wright, and they founded their first A&W restaurant in Sacramento. Evolving into a franchise operation in 1926, A&W today has more 900 locations in 16 countries.
M&M’s is another example. Those tasty little candy-coated chocolate morsels that “melt in your mouth, not in your hand” were introduced in Newark, New Jersey, in 1941. The name M&M’s stands for Mars and Murrie. The iconic confection was the product of the collaboration between Forrest Mars, the son of the Mars Company founder Franklin Mars; and Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey Chocolate’s president William Murrie.
These are some of the many pairs who partnered together to great advantage. I could expand the horizon and delve into the domains that include the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, and the 1969 film about the swinging foursome, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. But in the context of this article, two is company, three’s a crowd, and four – well, that’s just two too many.■