#connie martha and vet

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“Three Little Girls From N'awlins…” Pt. 5

Everyone has favorites, and I figured out of the relatively large output on record the Boswells had, I would post some of my absolute favorites in this chapter.

Why are these my faves? They showcase the jaw-dropping vocal gymnastics they were capable of, as well as the inventiveness of their arrangements.

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As a brunette, too...!

That's a very '30s look, partly brought on the scene by these "three little girls from New Orleans", with their matching spit-curls, The Boswell Sisters: Martha, Connie and Vet.

America's Sweethearts during the harsh early '30s. So popular they sold out Broadway, they travelled to Holland, and were even immortalized in what looks like a Fleischer Brothers cartoon short of the day, but I have not been able to find the source of the clip!

Fay Wray

[jwclapton]

The Boswell Sisters

From left to right: Vet, Connie & Martha Boswell

[hajime-isayama-official]

Hajimama!! Seedling here!~ Who would all the Survey Corps and Vets be in High School Musical? (I still sing those songs cause I'm just weird)

Mikasa: MarthaReiner: ZekeBertholdt: Library ladyAnnie: KelsiEren: JasonJean: RyanMarco: TroySasha: TaylorConnie: ChadHistoria: SharpayArmin: JimmieYmir: Jack BoltonLevi: TiaraHanji: Ms. DarbusErwin: PrincipalNanaba: Gabriella Mike: Lucille BoltonMoblit: Donnie

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Depression Era Darlings, The Boswell Sisters, were America’s Sweethearts a decade before the Andrews Sisters.  Martha, Connie, and Vet (Helvetia) were classically trained, and wrote their own arrangements.  They were a source of badly needed “good times are coming again” cheer.

My personal fave of their “antidepression” songs^^^

Depression era cartoon.

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And speaking of The Boswell Sisters...

I just got word from Joshua Tree Productions, the company who has been making the full-length documentary film "Close Harmony", the Boswells' story, literally working on it for the last ten years, that the film is finally complete!

I met the fellow who was going to be making the film back in December 2007, and then again in 2013 (or was it '14?) when a group of us truly dedicated Bozzie fans converged on N'awlins for special Boswell events. In '07 it was for the 100th anniversary of Connie's birth. He announced his intention to start making the docu in '07, and began the heavy lifting about ten years ago.

It has taken a rather insane amount of time due to life and copyright permissions and the remaining Boswell family.

I've been told I'll be getting to see the film early as a perk for having thrown in some bucks all those years ago, along with a film poster, and a few other goodies.

And SO, in honor of all this, I will be dedicating tomorrow as A Bozzie Celebration, posting the music as well as my musings from my own scholarship of the Bozzies and the Andrews from the past 40-50 years.

G'night y'all...Tomorrow, we get Bozzed to the max...!

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“Three Little Girls From N'awlins…” Pt. 4

The Boswell Sisters were unlike the singing trios that came before them. Martha, the oldest, played the piano, while Connie, the next oldest (who could not walk) sat next to her, while Vet (Helvetia), the youngest, stood directly behind and between them. This was their "standard formation" when making public appearances or recording. It is how America really came to know them, via their appearance in "The Big Broadcast" in 1932, with Bing Crosby and a host of others.

They shot two songs for that film: a shortened version of their "good luck tune" Heebie Jeebies, and "Crazy People". This version of Heebie Jeebies was featured in the first commercial American television telecast, as well.

They begin "Crazy People" with a slightly altered version of their "shout sister" signature while the announcer introduces them:

You'll see as we go along that Hollywood just didn't quite know what to DO with the Boswells. That Connie couldn't stand or walk was something they went to GREAT LENGTHS to hide. She would either be seated next to Martha, or as in this next clip from "Moulin Rouge" (1934) even ON the piano!

Those "french maid" get-ups were actually made out of VINYL, and they couldn't move freely, thus Vet's "arms hanging limp" stance! Vet said they were so incredibly stiff she HAD to stand like that!

In this next clip, from the film "Transatlantic Merry Go Round" they were in rowboats for "Rock and Roll" (historically the first use of the term!).

And in this clip, also from Transatlantic Merry Go Round, all we see are the girls seemingly standing together. In reality, Martha and Vet are supporting Connie as THEY stand. The clip begins at the 40 minute mark:

Other than a few one-off promo films early on, that pretty much is everything they did together on film.

One of those early films was a short called "Close Farmony", which is corny as all get-out, but marks the only appearance of Connie "walking" (actually supporting herself with her arms).

And one last little tidbit of film, a promo by Brunswick, featuring a song that they did not officially record! The song is "Louisiana Waddle":

They would also make a "Screen Songs" (Fleischer Bros) film for their song "Sleepy Time Down South", which Fleischer Bros built a cartoon around the song. Here is the full cartoon; you'll note that it starts off with their "good luck signature" of the Shout,Sister introduction.

There are a few other extremely rare clips which I have seen, but am not at liberty to post, as they have never been officially re-released or published in the modern era. This includes a very strange little clip with the three of them doing an interview that morphs in to a surreal little story involving a lion (?)!

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“Three Little Girls From N'awlins…” Pt. 3

Even though the peak of their career only lasted for five years (1931-1936), the trio would become the basis for all "girl harmony" groups that followed.

Their originality was such that everything they put down on record was utterly new and un-heard-of at the time. Nobody was doing what they did. Yes, there were trios before them, but none as original or harmonically inventive.

The girls had, as David McCain put it, a literal telepathy with one another as a trio, a unit. Vet recalled that when they were younger, and the three of them in would be in different parts of the house, they would all begin singing the same song at the same time.

The early '30s were hard times for most Americans, but they were high times for the Boswells. In the process of making all the radio shows, the commercials, and public appearances, they became, literally, America's Sweethearts during the worst of the Great Depression. They were a bit of joy in a joyless world.

Legislators can't quite catch the rhythm there...lol.

And yes, they began to be featured in movies in 1932, as well. All in all they were in four different films, which I'll cover in Pt. 4.

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"Three Little Girls From N'awlins..." Pt. 2

With their first record taking off across the country via radio, the Boswells were quickly becoming "celebrities" on the level of movie stars. More records and more radio shows, some sponsorships by Fleischman's Yeast (where their father worked as a salesman), and Chesterfield cigarettes would follow.

They sold out performance halls wherever they would play, even on Broadway. In the mid-to-late '80s, when Vet Boswell was the only surviving sister, a fellow named David McCain visited her one day. He would go on to become one of Vet's closest confidantes during her last days, and would go on to set down their history via countless hours of research and talks with Vet. His liner notes for the 5-CD set of the Boswells' complete recordings are essential history and "must reads" for all interested in The Boz.

The girls would continue to record with The Dorsey Brothers and their gang of cohorts whenever they could, "whenever they were in town", as Vet put it. They would go into the studio in the wee hours, after "the boys" had played their evening gigs, so they were loose and warmed-up. The recording would go long into the night.

Their second record for Brunswick was an absolutely rocking version of "Roll on, Mississippi", backed with the song that would become synonymous with the trio: "Shout, Sister, Shout".

The introduction to "Shout, Sister" became a musical signature of sorts. It, along with "Heebie Jeebies", they would consider their "good luck tunes".

The band is HOT HOT HOT, featuring Joe Venuti (violin) and Eddie Lang (guitar) prominently.

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"Three Little Girls From N'awlins..." Pt. 1

On a late night in March 1931, in New York City, a trio of singing sisters from New Orleans went into the Brunswick studios to record their first record for the lable.

The "house band" at Brunswick was composed of a pair of young brothers and their jamming buddies; the young brothers were Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Also there were Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and others who would go on to great heights in the Jazz world.

By 1931, recording technology had become "electrified", with microphones to catch the notes, rather than the primitive horns of the recordings of the '20s. It was worlds better, as far as capturing the sound and the overall "vibe" of the musicians.

The girls, Martha, Connie, and Vet (short for "Helvetia") Boswell, were savvy to the music via the classical training they received as youngsters. They grew up singing together, and began improvising and doing their own arrangements of tunes that defied convention.

Tempo changes, rhythm changes, key changes, modulations from major to minor and back again, unusual percussion, syncopated scat-singing, and seeming endless (and UTTERLY NEW!) harmonic creativity, all in the span of three minutes or less.

The girls and the band had never worked together before. The Boswells had made some radio transcriptions in 1930 that consisted of just them and Martha's piano playing, a couple with an orchestra, so this would be their first time playing with a full "jazz band".

The first tune they put down on shellac 78 that night was an old tune called "When I Take My Sugar To Tea". The flip side of the record would be a tune called "What'ja Do To Me?". The girls outlined their arrangement and off they all went.

When they finished "Sugar To Tea", the band stood up and gave the girls a standing ovation right there in the studio.

One take. Flawless and inspired.

This 78 RPM bit of shellac would become the springboard for some of the greatest musical careers of all time, and put The Boswell Sisters on the map, world-wide.

So...with no further ado, here is the record that launched these "three little girls from N'awlins" to international stardom, and into the hearts of Americans, becoming "America's Sweethearts" during the Great Depression:

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Tuesday, 12-03-24, 2pm Pacific

Aaaaand a good afternoon to all, Mr. Baggins here with your Afternoon Stack of Classic Wax! Today I'm settin' the dial on my Wayback Machine ALL the way back to 1931, when three girls from N'awlins took the country by harmony. They were backed by a bunch of young jazz lions who would eventually make their mark on music as well, headed by the young Dorsey Brothers. Their very first recording session in NYC yielded this double-sided hit.

Classically trained, telepathically linked, and harmonically and rhythmically from another world, The Boswell Sisters took Jazz to new heights with their arrangements, which THEY wrote. They also singlehandedly founded the "girl group" phenomenon to become America's Sweethearts during the worst of the Great Depression. Their career was only five brief years, but they left an indelible mark on music. Their next record was equally as successful and influential.

By the middle of the year, they had concquered the charts and the radio waves, with sponsored radio shows and appearances on other famous folks' radio shows. Every single record they made was so innovative and so fresh, and have withstood the decades to remain fresh when heard today. Case in point, their hits "It's The Girl" and "It's You".

The sides we've heard so far are all from 1931, these next sides will progress from 1932 through their last hit in 1936 when they decided to officially quit the biz. While Martha and Vet both got married and left the biz completely, Connie continued with an impressive solo career that lasted through the 1940s and into the '50s. Frank Sinatra himself said "Everybody wanted to sing like Connie Boswell!"

There's only room for one more hit in today's show, and there are at least another ten tunes I wanna add! I've settled on this, their absolutely amazing arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo"

We'll have to have another installment on The Bozzies, as they were so prolific in their five years, and there are so many arrangements that have become legendary over the decades. I do hope you've enjoyed this little timewarp back to the only bright spot in the 1930s! This is Mr. Baggins signing off for now; I'll be back at 7pm Pacific with a set to soothe your achin' nerves and help ease us all into a good night.

Until then, be kind, babies, be kind.

Baggins out.

[jwclapton]

The Boswell Sisters

From left to right: Vet, Connie & Martha Boswell

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From a Boswell Sisters exhibition in N’awlin’s a few years back.  A fan letter from a very talented fan...

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The Boswell Sisters

Orpheum Theatre – New Orleans, Louisiana – 1925

From left to right: Vet, Martha & Connie Boswell

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The Boswell Sisters - NBC publicity photo - 1931

From left to right: Martha, Connie & Vet Boswell

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A tiny snippet of some 1930s cartoon...this is obviously meant to be Connie, Martha and Vet, The Boswell Sisters.

ANYBODY KNOW WHAT CARTOON THIS IS FROM?????