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The Four Lee Sisters (aka Le Ahn Sisters) were rhythm singers who flourished during the Swing era of the latter 1930s and mid-1940s. Reference to "rhythm" means that they swung. They got their big break with Vaughn Monroe. At the end of their run with Monroe, they were replaced by the Moonmaids. The group started their professional career in 1936 on WLW radio in Cincinnati, WGN radio in Chicago as Little Women, then The Ahn Sisters, then around 1940, Le Ahn Sisters, then around 1943, beginning with with Vaughn Monroe, the Four Lee Sisters.

Career chronology[edit]

Growing up

In the Early 1930s, the Ahn sisters studied voice with Minnie Humphries of Bellevue, and performed at Sidley Memorial Hall, and the The Hotel Netherland, Cincinnati

Radio broadcasts from Cleaveland
  • April 6, 1934: Helen Mohr Ahn and her four daughters were featured as "The Musical Family From Bellevue, Ohio — Helen Mohr Ahn and Her Signing Daughters" on WTAM, Cleveland
  • 1936: The Ahn Sisters — Mary, Jean, Mariam, and Virginia — as "The Little Women," sang for WLW radio in Cincinnati WGN radio in Chicago[fee-based 1]
Bill Bardo

April 1939: Bill Bardo (Wilbur P. Bardo; 1905–1975), in Dallas, Hotel Adolphus, and around Texas

Horace Heidt
  • Tipped by a friend in Texas, Heidt, sometime in 1939, phoned the Ahn Sisters from New York while they were performing an engagement in Houston, and auditioned them over the phone[fee-based 2] The debuted with Heidt on the national broadcast Pot O'Gold, unaccredited, during the last week of August 1939.[fee-based 3] and, on October 13, 1939, entered into a five-year contract with Height.
  • 1 October 1939 – August 1940: Under the name, "The Ahn Sisters," joined Horace Heidt's Orchestra, with whom they broadcasted 5 times a with NBC Radio from the New York Biltmore Hotel.

The Ahn Sisters continued with Heidt through June 26, 1940. [free-online 1]

The Beachcomber, New York City
Monte Proser (1904–1973), operator and co-owner of the newly opened Beachcomber Restaurant, New York, auditioned the Ahn Sisters on June 20, 1940, and signed then to a contract.[free-online 2] They debuted there[a][1] July 2, 1940. The engagement drew a lawsuit from Heidt, who claimed that, under a contract signed October 13, 1938, they were bound to perform exclusively with him for five-years. Heidt filed suit July 13, 1940, in Supreme Court of New York County (Manhattan).[fee-based 4] The suit was a petition for temporary injunction, which, on August 2, 1940, Justice Felix Benvenga ruled in favor of the defendants. Managers of the Beachcomber were also named as defendants — Monte Proser, Walter Batchelor (né Walter Frederick Batchelor, Jr.; 1894–1950), and J.M. (Jack) Goddard. In 1940, the Beachcomber was the top nightspot according to Billboard.[free-online 1]
Ted Lewis
  • 1941-1942: Ted Lewis, at times, Le Ahn Sisters were a trio
Tommy Dorsey
Vaughn Monroe
  • 1942: Vaughn Monroe
  • April 1942: The Four Ahn Sisters were performing with the USO Unit.
  • December 1942: The Lee Sisters left Monroe to go into defense work. Only Maree remained in entertainment.[free-online 3]
  • Pot O'Gold Radio Program

Vaughn Monroe changes names of vocal groups[edit]

Because one or more ladies left Monroe's two first groups, The Four Lee Sisters, and the Norton Sisters. They got married, or couldn't take the grind of one-nighters, or went out as a soloist. Monroe decided on naming his third group Moonmaids so that he would own the name and keep name continuity when replacing a family artist who departed.[fee-based 5]

Members[edit]

The four sisters
Jean (née Jean Ahn; born 1918) left in 1944 to get married
Miriam née Miriam Florence Ahn; 27 January 1920 Girard, Ohio – 15 February 1994 Chatsworth, California married Francis Wendell Gross (1917–2001) in the Actors Chapel, Manhattan, New York, June 16, 1946, and subsequently moved to the British-American Compound in Iran, where Gross was a Warrant Officer affiliated with the United States Foreign Service.[fee-based 6]
Virginia (née Virginia Annabell Ahn; 13 September 1921 Delaware County, Ohio – 23 January 1986 Ventura County, California) eloped with John Weigel New Year's Eve 1944; They divorced in the mid-1960s; she then married Holcombe; after singing with the Four Lee Sisters, she sang with the Moonmaids, then spent a year with the Andrews Sisters, filling-in for Maxene Andrews; John Weigel was the founder of Weigel Broadcasting; The late Tim Weigel, a son, was a notable sportscaster; Rafer Weigel, a grandson (Tim's son), is a news anchor in Saint Louis for KTVI Fox 2, Jenniffer Weigel, a granddaughter (Tim's daughter), is a Chicago-based TV personality

Virginia is buried at Rio Verde Memorial Gardens in Rio Verde, Arizona,[fee-based 7] where Maree's husband John Egers is buried

Maree (aka Mary or Marie, née Maree L. Ahn; 11 April 1924 Delaware County, Ohio –2016)[b] currently one hundred years old, from Bellevue, Ohio, had been a singer with the Lee Sisters performing with Horace Heidt (beginning in 1940), Ted Lewis, Monroe, then as soloist with Dick Rogers (1912–1970),[c][free-online 4] then with the Norton Sisters, then, after the Moonmaids (who replaced the Norton Sisters) had been working with Monroe, she joined the Moonmaids, turning it into a quintet. In addition to her ensemble roles, she had been Monroe's lead singer. Soon after two Moonmaid singers left to get married, the quintet became a quartet again, with Maree Lee filling the third spot, replacing Katie Myatt, and June Hiett filling the fourth.[free-online 5] Lee left Monroe's band on December 20, 1952 to get married; and on December 21, 1952, she married[free-online 6] Warren Edward Grafe (1921–1973); she also had been married to George William Eger, Jr. (1918–2002)

Maree is the co-author with Robert H. Mason of Verde Valley Lore (1997), a history of Verde Valley, Arizona

Selected discography[edit]

      Horace Heidt
  1. "Piggy Wiggy Woo"
    Recorded October 5, 1939
    (audio on YouTube)
    Abel Baer (w&m)
    Ira Schuster (w&m)
    Paul Cunningham (w&m)
    Red Farrington (vocals)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: WCO 26159
    Columbia 35290
    OCLC 747729915


  2. "Baby, What Else Can I Do?"
    Recorded October 5, 1939
    (audio on YouTube)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: WCO 26158A
    Columbia CO35253
    OCLC 80645040


  3. "Down in the Alley and Over the Fence"
    Recorded October 25, 1939
    James Cavanaugh (w&m)
    John Redmond (w&m)
    Nat Simon (w&m)
    Matrix: WCO 26209
    Columbia CO35327
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    OCLC 772468677


  4. "I'm Just Wild About Harry"
    from "Shuffle along"
    Recorded December 28, 1939
    Los Angeles
    Noble Sissle (words)
    Eubie Blake (music)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: LA 2090
    Columbia 35781
    OCLC 815660070


  5. "It's A Blue World"
    Recorded December 28, 1939
    (audio on YouTube)
    Chet Forrest (w&m)
    Bob Wright (w&m)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: LA 2089A
    Columbia 35359
    OCLC 77648658


  6. "Say It" ("Over And Over, Again")
    Recorded January 18, 1940
    (audio on YouTube)
    From the 1940 Paramount film:
        Buck Benny Rides Again
    Frank Loesser (words)
    Jimmy McHugh (music)
    Virginia Le Ahn (vocal soloist)
    Henry Russell (vocal soloist)
    Matrix: 35412
    Columbia LA 2113
    OCLC 52779680


  7. "The Vocalizing Song"
    Recorded February 1, 1940, New York
    Miriam Le Ahn (vocal soloist)
    Columbia
    Matrix: LA 2135
    Columbia 35397
    OCLC 828098051


  8. "Nothing But You"
    Recorded March 20, 1940
    From the 1940 musical:
        Higher and Higher
    Lorenz Hart (words)
    Richard Rodgers (music)
    Larry Cotton (vocals)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: WC 3010
    Columbia 3544
    OCLC 758495702


  9. "On A Simmery Summery Day"
    Recorded May 21, 1940
    James Cavanaugh (w&m)
    John Redmond (w&m)
    Frank Weldon (w&m)
    Le Ahn Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: 27335
    Columbia CO35529
    OCLC 83194042


  10. "I Bought a Wooden Whistle"
    Roscoe ("Roc") Hillman (w&m)
    Jimmy Dorsey (w&m)
    Recorded May 21, 1940
    (the Sisters' last recording with Heidt)
    Art Carney
    Le Ahn Sisters
    Chorus
    Matrix: 27336
    Columbia CO27336
    OCLC 77818776
      Vaughn Monroe
  1. "Let's Get Lost"
    From the 1943 Paramount film:
        Happy Go Lucky
    (audio on YouTube)
    Jimmy McHugh (music)
    Frank Loesser (words)
    Vaughn Monroe (vocal solo)
    Four Lee Sisters (vocals)
    Victor 20-1524
    OCLC 839934304


  2. "After It's Over"
    Paul Brenner (w&m)
    Gilbert Mills (words)
    Ted Rolfe (music)
    Four Lee Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: 27958-B
    Victor 20-1596-B
    OCLC 78039761


  3. "You Were Never Lovelier"
    Recorded July 17, 1942
    From the 1942 film:
        You Were Never Lovelier
    Johnny Mercer (words)
    Jerome Kern (music)
    Marilyn Duke (vocalist)
    Four Lee Sisters (vocals)
    Matrix: 075433=1
    Victor 27958
    OCLC 900226334
      Lang-Worth radio transcriptions
  1. The Le Ahn Sisters, Program No. 722

    1. "Tired of Romance"

    2. "I Can't Blame It On a Thing"

    3. "Lazy Little Daisy"

    4. "Maybe I Had the Wrong Idea of Love"

    Matrix: YTNY 740
    OCLC 47739042
    LCCN 2001-661787

  2. The Le Ahn Sisters, Program No. 738
    1. "Lonely Little Robin"

    2. "People Like You"

    3. "Hawaii and You"

    4. "It Was Lovely While It Lasted"

    Matrix: YTNY 741
    OCLC 54897437

    LCCN 2004-651828


  3. The Le Ahn Sisters, Program No. 740
    1. "Save That Song For Me"

      2.  Ned Kaplan (words)
       Frederick Piket (music)
    2. "With You, Dear"

    3. "Half a Love, Half a Grapefruit"

    4. "You're Still On My Mind"

    Matrix: YTNY 742
    OCLC 47739063

    LCCN 2001-661791

Family[edit]

Parents

Their parents, Aaron Adam Ahn (1891–1980), and Helen W. Mohr (maiden; 1895–1980) married September 19, 1917, at Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lima, Ohio.

Father
Aaron had been been a Lutheran minister up until 1934. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister at Capital Theological Seminary in 1915. He also did post-graduate work at Columbia University in 1930.
Mother
Helen was a singer, pianist, and music educator. She was a 1914 graduate of Lima High School, Lima, Ohio, and had studied music at Woodville Seminary, Woodville, Ohio. And privately in Columbus, Ohio, she had studied with Ernestine Schumann-Heink.[fee-based 8]

In January 1934 — After 16 years of marriage, and when Jean, Miriam, Virginia, and Margee were 15, 13, 12, and 9, respectively — Helen filed for divorce, accusing Aaron of having had an affiar with Julia Donahue (1882–1955), a nurse. The divorce was granted in July 1934 and custody of the four daughters was assigned to Helen.[d][fee-based 9] Aaron married Julia sometime before 1944 and remained married until her death. Helen never remarried.

Disambiguation[edit]

The Three Lee Sisters, Peony Park, Omaha: 1942–1943

December 1942 – January 1943: Advertisement for Ted Cole[e] and His 16-Piece Orchestra plus 3 Lee Sisters, Peony Terrace Park, Omaha; April 1943, Morton Wells took over the 16-Piece Orchestra at Peony Park with the Three Lee Sisters still singing

  • Lee Sisters, two singers from the late 1920s, Mary and Billie Lee

References[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ The Beachcomber Restaurant, located in Manhattan on Broadway at 50th Street, opened in 1940 and closed in 1943 or 1944. Monte Proser (1904–1973) was one of the first to lift Donn Beach's Don the Beachcomber concept, and he lifted the famous Zombie drink right along with it. Proser was largely responsible for introducing the Zombie to the east coast. He started with "Monte Proser's Zombie," a bar created for the 1939 New York World's Fair. Based on that success, he opened Monte Proser's Beachcomber in 1940 in a space above the Winter Garden Theatre in Times Square (the same space later held Lanai, then Hawaii Kai). The interiors were created by Clark Robinson (1894–1943), a thespian and film set designer.

    Proser's chain of Beachcomber restaurants grew to include locations in Miami Beach, Florida, Boston, Massachusetts, Baltimore, Maryland and Providence, Rhode Island. His love affair with the Beachcomber concept didn't last long ... his attention was taken by his other, more famous New York nightclub, the Copacabana. By 1944, the location had become a new nightclub, Zanzibar. ("Monte Proser's Beachcomber," description by Humuhumu, retrieved online August 2, 2016)
  2. ^ Maree Lee's birth certificate is digitally indexed as "Marge L. Alm" born 11 April 1924 in Delaware County, Ohio (www.ancestry.com, retrieved July 28, 2016, subscription required)
  3. ^ Dick "Stinky" Rogers (aka Dick Robertson; 1912–1970), not to be confused with Richard Rodgers, was a lyricist, vocalist, comedian, band leader, and pianist. He had been a pianist and vocalist with Will Osborne; Osborne gave up his band to go to Hollywood in the latter part of 1940, Rogers took over as leader and continued its high musical quality through 1945, thanks in part to fine arrangements by Jerry Bittick (né Gerald R. Bittick); Stan Getz, at age 15, made his professional debut with Dick Rogers at the Roseland Ballroom in December 1942, and shortly after getting his AFM Local 802 union card on January 14, 1943, a truant officer yanked him off the job; meanwhile also in 1942, Osborne formed a new big band, and, in 1946, recorded for the Black & White Records, featuring vocalist Eileen Wilson, then disbanded after his last return to the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago in 1948; Rogers, as lyricist, and Earle Hagen, as composer, wrote "Harlem Nocturne," which, as an instrumental, became a jazz standard
    ("Rogers, Dick," ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, 1980; OCLC 12259500)
    ("Getz, Stanley 'Stan' (1927–1991)", The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955, by Lawrence McClellan, Jr. Greenwood Press (2004), pg. 210; OCLC 60590895)
    ("Stanley Getz," Inside Jazz, reprint of Inside Be-Bop, by Leonard Feather, Da Capo Press (1977), pg. 83; OCLC 3002272)
  4. ^ Helen Ahn filed for divorce from Aaron Adam Ahn January 1934 in the Common Pleas Court of Huron County (Norwalk); the divorce was granted July 1934 and custody of four Ahn sisters granted to the mother
  5. ^ Ted Cole (né Thaddeaus John Dziembowski; 1917–1989) was a tenor vocalist, popular emcee, and band leader who flourished in radio and big band from the mid 1930s through the 1950s

––––––––––––––––––––

General inline citations
  1. ^ Monte Proser's Copacabana: The Inside Story of New York's Iconic Gangster-Run, Star-Studded Nightclub, by Stephanie Ann Hoover (maiden; born 1960; husband's surname is Stump), Harrisburg (2016)

––––––––––––––––––––

Inline citations, sourced online for free
  1. ^ a b "Tops in Sixth Annual Survey," Billboard, September 2, 1944, pg. 25
  2. ^ "Gotham Grapevine," by Harold Conrad, Brooklyn Eagle, June 21, 1940
  3. ^ "Music Makers," by Daniel Richmond, New York Post, December 29, 1942, pg. 38
  4. ^ Serge Chaloff: A Musical Biography and Discography, by Vladimir Simosko, Scarecrow Press (1998), pg. 13; OCLC 38557354
  5. ^ "Moonmaids: Keeping the Big-Band Sound Alive," D Magazine, July 1984
  6. ^ "Lee Sisters," by Maree Lee Eger, June 2002, posted on the Vaughn Monroe Appreciation Society website, maintained by Louis J. Kohnen, Jr. (of East Rochester, New York) and Claire Schwartz (of Dearborn, Michigan) (retrieved 30 May 2013)

––––––––––––––––––––

Inline citations, sourced online from fee-based providers
  1. ^ "Sisters of Radio Note To Sing Over WTAX — Group Known As 'The Little Women' Here for Yule Holidays; Plan National Broadcasts," Illinois State Journal, December 25, 1936, pg. 15 (retrieved July 28, 2016, via www.genealogybank.com; subscription fee required)
  2. ^ "Showman Takes Bow; Bryson Here Thursday — Notes Off the Cuff," Dallas Morning News, February 4, 1940, Sec. 4, pg. 2 (end of article) (retrieved July 28, 2016, via www.genealogybank.com; subscription fee required)
  3. ^ "That Fellow is Here Again; Notes on Bands, Bandsmen — Notes Off the Cuff," by Victor Davis, Dallas Morning News, October 8, 1939, Sec. 2, pg. 3 (retrieved July 28, 2016, via www.genealogybank.com; subscription fee required)
  4. ^ "Vaudeville: Horace Heidt Sues to Restrain Le Ahn Sis.," Variety, July 17, 1940, pg. 37 (retrieved August 1, 2016, via ProQuest; fee required)
  5. ^ "Monroe Band Features Moonmaids," Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 23, 1950, pg. 92 (retrieved July 28, 2016, via www.genealogybank.com; subscription fee required)
  6. ^ "Couple, Recently Wed, to Make Home in Iran," Sandusky Register (Ohio), August 3, 1946, pg. 3 (retrieved July 27, 2016, via www.newspapers.com; fee required)
  7. ^ "Virginia Weigel Holcombe" (obituary), Chicago Sun-Times, January 24, 1986 (retrieved July 31, 2016, via www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3747660.html; fee required); OCLC 26166499
  8. ^ "Made Her Debut in Bellevue at Age of Two," by Earl Wilson, Sandusky Register (Ohio), November 30 1951, pg. 3 (retrieved July 27, 2016, via www.newspapers.com; fee required)
  9. ^ "Huron Co-Court Notes," Sandusky Register (Ohio), January 14, 1934, pg. 14 (retrieved July 27, 2016, via www.newspapers.com; fee required)
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