1937
In 1937 the Brian Sisters appeared in four films. They had also appeared in many clubs and possibly in radio broadcasts.
The most notable film was
Sunday Night At The Trocadero, a short (20 minute) film sponsored by
Connie Boswell, who had met the girls previously and saw in
them all the things that she had experienced in her years
with her own sisters, The Boswell Sisters.
In this film they sing so well that the orchestra stops and
listens! So should you - they're very good.
Miss Boswell was so impressed by the girls that she proactively
'plugged' them for months. As a result, they were wanted for
Broadway Jamboree
by Buddy De Sylva and for
Behind the Mike by Lou Brock, but neither of these
resulted in an appearance.
Nevertheless, they appeared in
many other movies and in radio broadcasts. Throughout 1937 they had a 15minute radio show titled
“Brian Sisters' Trio”.
Sing While You're Able, with
Pinky Tomlin, has a really delightful appearance by The
Brian Sisters in which they sing I'm Just A Country Boy At
Heart while Pinky ‘repairs’ the car. This must have
been familiar stuff for the girls, who had to service their
own family car - their earnings were insufficient to pay
someone else to service the car as well as to pay the rent.
It's unlikely that they found in their car some of the
oddities extracted by Mr Tomlin, though...
In
Thanks For Listening, again with Pinky Tomlin, we get two songs from the girls:
Listen To Me and
The Love Bug Will Bite You.
The sound and picture quality is poor, but the
singing more than compensates. It's a shame we don't hear
more of The Love Bug
from the girls - it is sung right though earlier in the same film by the composer,
Pinky Tomlin, who is also the film's main character.
New Faces Of 1937
was meant to be the first of a series of showcase films for new
talent. It succeeded in being the first, but was a box-office flop so was also the last!
The Brian Sisters make a very short appearance; they were
certainly not responsible for the film's failure!
The Texaco Town radio series
was sponsored advertising for Texaco fuel. It seems that,
due to the influence of the girls' admirer Connie Boswell,
The Brian Sisters had an appearance on the show that was
broadcast on March 28th 1937, when, apart from cheeking
Eddie Cantor, they sang Mister Paganini
most competently and delightfully.
This performance reveals just what the girls could do when
not fettered by the whims of movie directors.