 The
Lane Sisters were four siblings who achieved success
during the 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity
leading to a series of successful films. The sisters were Lola
(May 21, 1906 - June 22, 1981), Leota (died on July
25,1963), Rosemary (April 4, 1914 - November 25, 1974),
and Priscilla (June 12, 1915 - April 4, 1995).
Lola was born in Macy,
Indiana and Leota, Rosemary, and Priscilla were born
in Indianola, Iowa. They changed their surname from
"Mullican" when they began their careers.
Lola began her career
as an actress in 1929 and made several films during
the early 1930s. She was actor Lew Ayres's first wife.
By 1932 she had joined her three younger sisters to
form a singing act. First performing as a quartet with
a dance band in 1932, the sisters toured the United
States, and gradually their popularity grew.
In 1937 Priscilla was
signed to a contract with Warner Brothers Studios. She
and Rosemary made their film debuts together in Varsity
Show in 1937. In the same year Lola played a strong
supporting role in the Bette Davis crime melodrama Marked
Woman, as the type of hardboiled character that exemplified
many of her later roles with Warner Brothers. The following
year Davis was offered a role in the film version of
Fannie Hurst's novel Sister Act and when she turned
down the part, Lola suggested to Jack Warner that the
Lane Sisters would be suitable.
Each was tested for the roles of the four sisters, with
only Leota being rejected as unsuitable. The film was
released in 1938 as Four Daughters with the fourth sister
played by Gale Page. The three Lane Sisters were promoted
as "The Picture of American Girlhood" and
the film was a great success, leading to more joint
film appearances by the three sisters in sequels. Daughter's
Courageous, and Four Wives, (both 1939), and Four Mothers
(1941) were popular successes.
By this time Priscilla
was being recognized for her individual potential. While
the sisters were all regarded as beautiful, Priscilla
conveyed the softest and most wholesome quality, and
was also seen as having the most natural talent. For
that reason she was able to emerge as a personality
in her own right. She was considered for the role of
Melanie in Gone with the Wind, and although she did
not won the role, she impressed several producers. She
was cast in such successes as Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur
(1942) and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
While her career was building, she was suspended several
times by Jack Warner for refusing to take roles she
did not want. Her older sisters Rosemary and Lola were
finding the quality and frequency of their roles steadily
decreasing. Leota's attempt at a film career had failed
completely. Despite Priscilla's successes, by the end
of the decade each of the sisters had retired from films.Leota
married once and died in Glendale, California on July
25, 1963.
Lola married five times,
and was married for two years to the actor Lew Ayres.
She died of arterial disease in Santa Barbara, California
at the age of 75.
Rosemary died from diabetes
and pulmonary obstruction in Woodland Hills, California
at the age of 60.
Priscilla never acted
after her retirement but made a comeback as a hostess
for a Boston, Massachusetts talk show some years later.
She died from lung cancer in Andover, Massachusetts
at the age of 79.
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
More Articles..
|
