Christine: December 28, 2018(2018-12-28) (aged92), Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. Dorothy: September 7, 2012(2012-09-07) (aged84), Paradise Valley, Arizona, U.S. Phyllis: December 29, 2020(2020-12-29) (aged89), Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Ruby[1] Christine McGuire (July 30, 1926 – December 28, 2018)
Dorothy "Dottie" McGuire (February 13, 1928 – September 7, 2012)
Phyllis Jean McGuire (February 14, 1931 – December 29, 2020)
Among their most popular songs are "Sincerely" and "Sugartime", both number-one hits.[2]
Early years
The McGuire sisters were born to Asa and Lillie (Fultz) McGuire[3][4] in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Miamisburg near Dayton. Their mother, Lillie, was a minister of the Miamisburg First Church of God, where, as children, they sang in church at weddings, funerals, and revivals. When they started singing in 1935, the youngest sister, Phyllis, was four years old. Eventually, they sang at occasions outside church, and by 1949 were singing at military bases and veterans' hospitals, performing a more diverse repertoire than they had in church.[5]
Career in show business
The McGuire Sisters signed with Coral Records in 1952. In the same year, they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, and Godfrey hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. The November 1953 issue of Cosmopolitan called them "Godfrey's Merry McGuires". The sisters often were compared to the Andrews Sisters. Maxene Andrews said in an interview with Joe Franklin on WOR (AM) radio in 1979, "The McGuire Sisters were fine once they stopped imitating the Andrews Sisters." While working on the Godfrey show, the McGuires befriended singer Lu Ann Simms and attended her wedding to music publisher Loring Buzzell in July 1956.[6] Buzzell's music publishing firm, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music (co-owned by Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster) provided two songs for the McGuire Sisters, "May You Always", which became the best-selling 45 and sheet music of 1959, and "Theme from The Unforgiven (The Need for Love)", which became another big hit in 1960.[7][8]
The McGuire Sisters were the Mystery Guests on the May 29, 1955 airing of What's My Line?Fred Allen guessed who they were. In 1958, their mother appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show To Tell the Truth. In December 1958 they appeared and performed as themselves in Season 4, Episode 11 of The Phil Silvers Show, "Bilko Presents the McGuire Sisters".
The McGuire Sisters and the Andrews Sisters met several times during their careers. Phyllis credited Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne Andrews during a television interview with Maxene in the 1990s, hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael, saying that her sisters and she met the Andrews Sisters in New York in the early 1950s and received important advice. The McGuires moved when they sang, often executing dance routines in lavish production numbers on countless television specials. The Andrews Sisters performed similarly in films in the 1940s, and were the first female vocal group to move when they sang, rather than just standing at a microphone. The sisters had mimicked that style, as well as those of the Mills Brothers and the Dinning Sisters ever since they were young, when they would perform short shows for family and friends in their parents' living room. Phyllis McGuire recounted that she and her sisters did not know any popular songs when they became famous, only the hymns taught to them by their mother. The trio imitated other singing groups long before their success.[9]
During the 1960s, the sisters maintained a busy television schedule, making frequent appearances on popular variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Danny Kaye, Milton Berle, Andy Williams, Perry Como, and Red Skelton. The trio was dressed and coiffed identically, and performed synchronized body movements and hand gestures with military precision. Their recordings of "Sincerely", "Picnic", and "Sugartime" all sold more than one million copies.[5]
End to the group's public appearances
They retired from public appearances in 1968, giving their last performance that year on The Ed Sullivan Show. Phyllis McGuire continued to perform solo for a time. The demise of the group is often attributed to Phyllis' long-standing personal relationship with mobster Sam Giancana (although for years she claimed that their friendship was strictly platonic), which reportedly led to the group's blacklisting.
During one of his 1960s court appearances for which Phyllis was subpoenaed, Giancana told reporters outside the courthouse, "Phyllis knows everything" about the rumored unethical behaviors of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. Giancana was shot in 1975 by an unknown gunman thought to be Dominic "Butch" Blasi, his closest confidante and right hand man of sorts.
Phyllis resided for decades in a famously showcased mansion in Las Vegas, boasting its own beauty parlor, a swan moat, and a replica of the Eiffel Tower which actually rose through the home's roof. When asked by Barbara Walters during a 1980s ABC-TV 20/20 interview from within the mansion if any of the money to build the lavish home came from Giancana, Phyllis denied the suggestion, claiming that she invested heavily in oil when the sisters were at the height of their popularity. In the same interview, she acknowledged that her relationship with Giancana was in fact a love affair, saying, "When I met him, I did not know who he was, and he was not married, and I was an unmarried woman. And according to the way I was brought up, there was nothing wrong with that. And I didn't find out until sometime later really who he was, and I was already in love."[9]
Singing their greatest hits as part of their act, they were also featured performing specialty numbers such as the frantic "I Love a Violin", the a cappella "Danny Boy", and a segment during which Phyllis retired backstage as Christine and Dorothy shared the spotlight playing a concert arrangement of "The Way We Were" on twin pianos. Other highlights in the act were a comical Trinidad-flavored tune, a soft rendering of "Memory" from Broadway's Cats, and a "Money Medley", which they also performed live on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in 1994. Since then, the sisters had made occasional public appearances together, including in 2004, when they reunited to perform in a PBS special Magic Moments: Best of '50s Pop.[11][12] The sisters' command of their vocal cords and harmonious blend, perhaps the most impressive of any trio before or since, had not significantly diminished.[9]
After their careers wound down, they opened a restaurant in Bradenton, Florida, calling it McGuire's Pub.[13]
Legacy
They were inducted into the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. They also have been inducted into the Coca-Cola Hall of Fame and the Headliners' Hall of Fame.[14] They were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2009.
Family
Christine was married six times. Her first marriage to Harold Ashcraft (1942 until August 16, 1950) she had two children, Herold and Asa. Christine later married John Henry Teeter (December 30, 1952 until December, 18, 1962), Robert Hugh Spain (December 12, 1967 until 1970), Guy Marks (from 1975 until unknown), George Rosenfeld (from?? until his death on August 23, 1996),[15] and David Mudd (2002 until his death on August 19, 2011). All the latter marriages remained childless.
Christine's grandson, Army Cpl. Evan Asa Ashcraft, aged 24, was killed in Iraq in 2003, when the convoy he was traveling in came under fire.[16][17]
On July 30, 1951, Dorothy married Sgt. John Henry Brown, whom she divorced on January 9, 1956. During their childless marriage, Dorothy was romantically linked with singer Julius La Rosa. On December 6, 1958, she married Lowell James Williamson, with whom she had two sons, Rex and David.
In November 1952, Phyllis married Cornelius (Neal) Anthony Burke Van Ells. They divorced in 1956. She had no children.[citation needed]
Deaths
On September 7, 2012, Dorothy McGuire died at her son's home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, after suffering from Parkinson's disease and age-related dementia; she was 84.[18] Dorothy's husband of 54 years, Lowell Williamson, died six months later on February 25, 2013, after sustaining a fractured back from a fall; he was 89.
Christine McGuire died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 28, 2018, at the age of 92. No cause of death was given.[19]
Phyllis McGuire, the last surviving member of the trio, died peacefully at her estate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 29, 2020, of natural causes; she was 89.[20][21]
Discography
Year
Single (A-side, B-side) Both sides from same album except where indicated
The McGuire Sisters, and most especially Phyllis McGuire, who lived in Las Vegas, were the subjects of the 1995 HBOmovieSugartime, which depicted a romantic relationship between Phyllis and mobster Sam Giancana. Giancana was played by actor John Turturro, and Phyllis was played by actress Mary-Louise Parker.
"Join the Club", the second episode of the sixth season of The Sopranos, references both The McGuire Sisters and Sam Giancana.
Related Research Articles
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (1911–1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (1916–1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie Andrews (1918–2013). The sisters have sold an estimated 80 million records. Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of jump blues. Other songs closely associated with the Andrews Sisters include their first major hit, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön " (1937), "Beer Barrel Polka " (1939), "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940), "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree " (1942), and "Rum and Coca-Cola" (1945), which helped introduce American audiences to calypso.
Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, professionally known as Keely Smith, was an American jazz and popular music singer, who performed and recorded extensively in the 1950s with then-husband Louis Prima, and throughout the 1960s as a solo artist.
The Lennon Sisters are an American vocal group that has been made up, at one time or another, of three or four sisters. The quartet originally consisted of Dianne, Peggy, Kathy, and Janet.
The 2nd Chapter of Acts was a Jesus music and early contemporary Christian music group composed of sisters Annie Herring and Nelly Greisen and brother Matthew Ward. They began performing in 1972 and enjoyed their period of greatest success during the 1970s. The group disbanded in 1988.
Anthony Joseph Accardo, also known as "Joe Batters" and "Big Tuna", was an American longtime mobster. In a criminal career that spanned eight decades, he rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately becoming the power behind the throne in the Outfit by 1972. Accardo moved the Outfit into new operations and territories, significantly increasing its power and wealth during his tenure as boss.
The DeCastro Sisters were an American singing group. They originally consisted of Cuban American sisters Peggy DeCastro (1921–2004), Cherie DeCastro (1922–2010) and Babette DeCastro (1925–1992). When Babette retired in 1958, a cousin, Olgita DeCastro Marino (1931–2000), replaced her and when Peggy later left the group to go solo, Babette re-joined Cherie and Olgita. Peggy eventually returned and Babette once more retired.
Sister Inez Andrews, born Inez McConico and better known as Inez Andrews, was an American gospel singer. Her soaring, wide-ranging voice—from contralto croon to soul-wrenching wail—made her a pillar of gospel music. The Chicago Tribune stated that "Andrews' throaty contralto made her low notes thunder, while the enormous range of her instrument enabled her to reach stratospheric pitches without falsetto". Her dramatic delivery made her a charismatic presence in church and on stage."
Ruth Esther Pointer is an American singer best known as the eldest and last surviving original member of the family vocal group the Pointer Sisters.
Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer was an American singer, best known for having been a member of the vocal group, the Pointer Sisters. Pointer scored several moderate solo hits after leaving the Pointer Sisters in 1977, including a disco cover of the Elgins' "Heaven Must Have Sent You" which became a U.S. top 20 pop hit on September 1, 1979.
"Sugartime" is a popular song written by Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols, and published in 1957. The biggest hit version was by the McGuire Sisters, whose recording of it topped the Most Played chart in February 1958. It was also the second number 1 Billboard single for the trio after 1954's "Sincerely". The song refers to the Jimmie Rodgers tune "Honeycomb", which had been recorded a few months earlier in 1957.
The Young Americans is a non-profit organization and performing group based in Southern California. First founded in 1962 by Milton C. Anderson, the group was credited with being the first show choir in America, mixing choreography with choral singing. While experiencing national television exposure early on, The Young Americans later taught music to students in the United States and other parts of the world as advocates of music education in their International Music Outreach Tours. The group has approximately 200 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 from nearly every US state and several other countries.
The Dandridge Sisters were an American all-girl singing trio, started in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, and ended in 1940, comprising the sisters Vivian and Dorothy Dandridge together with their friend Etta Jones. They had a short period of fame traveling around the United States performing for night clubs, theatres, radio shows, and eventually left the U.S. to tour in Europe. Dorothy Dandridge decided to become a solo artist, the band split, and each woman then pursued projects individually.
The Rambos were an American Southern gospel music group that was formed in the 1960s. They were one of the most successful Gospel trios of the 20th century. The group consisted of Buck and Dottie Rambo at first along with several various people singing with them and they were joined by their daughter, Reba, in 1965. They were a successful singing trio born out of the United Pentecostal Church. They were inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame in 2001.
James William Bailey was an American singer, film, television and stage actor, and female impersonator.
Salvatore Mooney Giancana was an American mobster who was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966.
The Montoya Sisters, AKA Las Hermanas Montoya, were a Latin music singing group consisting of four sisters; Mercedes, Ofelia, Emilia, and Esther.
Murray Kane was an American Corporal, composer and band manager. As a performer, he was a member of the Crew Chiefs vocal group and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
The Kim Sisters was a Korean-born American female vocal group who made their career in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. Formed in 1953, the group are known for being the first South Korean music group to achieve success in the U.S. market during the 1960s, and for performing more than 20 times on The Ed Sullivan Show. The group consisted of Sue, Aija and Mia.
Lu Ann Simms was an American singer well known in the 1950s. A performer since the age of three, she became an overnight star in 1952 after winning first place on the singing contest Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; she subsequently joined the Arthur Godfrey cast and appeared on his radio and television programs Arthur Godfrey Time, Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,The Arthur Godfrey Digest and King Arthur Godfrey and His Round Table.
Sugartime is a 1995 American crime film directed by John N. Smith and written by Martyn Burke. It is based on the 1991 book Roemer: Man Against the Mob by William F. Roemer Jr. The film focuses on the true story of the affair between singer Phyllis McGuire of The McGuire Sisters, and Mafia boss Sam Giancana, famous for his alleged connections to John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. It stars John Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Louis Del Grande, Deborah Duchêne and Larissa Laskin. The film premiered on HBO on November 25, 1995.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
