Patty Andrews - #43

Patty Andrews of the last living memeber of the Andrews Sisters, has died, She was number 43 on the list.

Patty Andrews, Singer With Her Sisters, Is Dead at 94

Patty Andrews, the last of the Andrews Sisters, the jaunty vocal trio whose immensely popular music became part of the patriotic fabric of World War II America, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94.

Lynda Wells, a niece, confirmed the death.

With their jazzy renditions of songs like “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B),” “Rum and Coca-Cola” and “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me),” Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews sold war bonds, boosted morale on the home front, performed with Bing Crosby and with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, made movies and entertained thousands of American troops overseas, for whom the women represented the loves and the land the troops had left behind.

Patty, the youngest, was a soprano and sang lead; Maxene handled the high harmony; and LaVerne, the oldest, took the low notes. They began singing together as children; by the time they were teenagers they made up an accomplished vocal group. Modeling their act on the commercially successful Boswell Sisters, they joined a traveling revue and sang at county fairs and in vaudeville shows. Their big break came in 1937 when they were signed by Decca Records, but their first recording went nowhere.

Their second effort featured the popular standard “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” but it was the flip side that turned out to be pure gold. The song was a Yiddish show tune, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You’re Grand),” with new English lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and the Andrews Sisters’ version, recorded in 1937, became the top-selling record in the country.

Other hits followed, and in 1940 they were signed by Universal Pictures. They appeared in more than a dozen films during the next seven years — sometimes just singing, sometimes also acting. They made their film debut in “Argentine Nights,” a 1940 comedy that starred the Ritz Brothers, and the next year appeared in three films with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello:“Buck Privates,” “In the Navy”and “Hold That Ghost.” Their film credits also include “Swingtime Johnny” (1943), “Hollywood Canteen” (1944) and the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy “Road to Rio” (1947).

After selling more than 75 million records, the Andrews Sisters broke up in 1953 when Patty decided to go solo. By 1956 they were together again, but musical tastes were changing and they found it hard to adapt. When LaVerne Andrews died of cancer in 1967, no suitable replacement could be found, and Patty and Maxene soon went their separate ways. Patty continued to perform solo, and Maxene joined the staff of a private college in South Lake Tahoe, California.

Patricia Marie Andrews was born on Feb. 16, 1918, in Minneapolis. Her father, Peter, was a Greek immigrant who changed his name from Andreos to Andrews when he came to America. Her mother, Olga, was Norwegian.

Like her older sisters, Patty learned to love music as a child (she also became a good tap dancer), and she did not have to be persuaded when Maxene suggested that the sisters form a trio in 1932. She was 14 when they began to perform in public.

As their fame and fortune grew, the sisters came to realize that the public saw them as an entity, not as individuals. In a 1974 interview with The New York Times, Patty explained what that was like: “When our fans used to see one of us, they’d always ask, ‘Where are your sisters?’ Every time we got an award, it was just one award for the three of us.” This could be irritating, she said with a touch of exasperation: “We’re not glued together.”

The Andrews Sisters re-entered the limelight in the early 1970s when Bette Midler released her own recording of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” modeled closely on theirs. It reached the Top 10, and its success led to several new compilations of the Andrews Sisters’ own hits.

The previous year, Patty Andrews had appeared in a West Coast musical called “Victory Canteen,” set during World War II. When the show was rewritten for Broadway and renamed “Over Here!,” the producers decided that the Andrews Sisters were the only logical choice for the leads. They hired Patty and lured Maxene back into show business as well. The show opened in March 1974 and was the sisters’ belated Broadway debut. It was also the last time they sang together.

The sisters got into a bitter money dispute with the producers and with each other, leading to the show’s closing in January 1975 and the cancellation of plans for a national tour. After that, the sisters pursued solo careers into the 1990s. They never reconciled and were still estranged when Maxene Andrews died in 1995.

Patty Andrews’s first marriage, to the movie producer Marty Melcher, lasted two years and ended in divorce in 1949. (Mr. Melcher later married Doris Day.) In 1951 she married Wally Weschler, who had been the sisters’ pianist and conductor and who later became her manager. They had no children. Mr. Weschler died in 2010. Ms. Andrews is survived by her foster daughter, Pam DuBois.

A final salute to the Andrews Sisters came in 1991 in the form of “Company B,” a ballet by the choreographer Paul Taylor subtitled “Songs Sung by the Andrews Sisters.” The work, which featured nine of the trio’s most popular songs, including “Rum and Coca-Cola” and, of course, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” underscored the enduring appeal of the three sisters from Minneapolis.

Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne appeared in 17 Hollywood films. Their first picture, Argentine Nights, paired them with another enthusiastic trio, the Ritz Brothers. Universal Pictures, always budget-conscious, refused to hire a choreographer, so the Ritzes taught the sisters some eccentric steps. Thus, in Argentine Nights and the sisters' next film, Buck Privates, the Andrews Sisters dance like the Ritz Brothers.

Buck Privates, with Abbott and Costello, featured the Andrews Sisters' best-known song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." This Don Raye-Hughie Prince composition was nominated for Best Song at the 1941 Academy Awards ceremony.

Universal hired the sisters for two more Abbott and Costello comedies and then promoted them to full-fledged stardom in B musicals. What's Cookin'?, Private Buckaroo, Give Out, Sisters (in which they disguise themselves as old women as part of the zany plot) and Moonlight and Cactus were among the team's popular full-length films.

The Andrews Sisters sing the title song as the opening credits roll and also perform two specialty numbers in the all-star revue Hollywood Canteen (1944). They can be seen singing "You Don't Have to Know the Language" with Bing Crosby in Paramount's Road to Rio with Bob Hope, that year's highest-grossing movie. Their singing voices are heard in two full-length Walt Disney features: "Make Mine Music", in a segment which featured animated characters Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet; and "Melody Time", in the segment Little Toot (both of which are available on DVD today).

Film, theatre, and television

(partial list)

 

Filmography

Argentine Nights (Universal Pictures, 1940)

Buck Privates (Universal Pictures, 1941)

In the Navy (Universal Pictures, 1941)

Hold That Ghost (Universal Pictures, 1941)

What's Cookin'? (Universal Pictures, 1942)

Private Buckaroo (Universal Pictures, 1942)

Give Out, Sisters (Universal Pictures, 1942)

How's About It (Universal Pictures, 1943)

Always a Bridesmaid (Universal Pictures, 1943)

Swingtime Johnny (Universal Pictures, 1944)

Moonlight and Cactus (Universal Pictures, 1944)

Follow the Boys (Universal Pictures, 1944)

Hollywood Canteen (Warner Brothers, 1944)

Her Lucky Night (Universal Pictures, 1945)

Make Mine Music (Walt Disney Studios, 1946) – voices only, as singers of one segment

Road to Rio (Paramount Pictures, 1947)

Melody Time (Walt Disney Studios, 1948) – voices only, as singers of one segment

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975) – newsreel archive footage only

 

Soundtracks

Breach (background music) (2007)

Land of the Lost (2009)

Fallout 3 (2008) (Civilization)

Fallout 4 (2015) (Civilization-Pistol Packin' Mama)

Mafia II (2010) [Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy – Rum and Coca-Cola – Straighten Up And Fly Right – Strip Polka – Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (with Bing Crosby) – Victory Polka (with Bing Crosby)]

Bioshock (2006)

Fallout 76 (2018)

Broadway

Over Here! (1974; Shubert Theater, New York City, 9 months)

Dance

Company B (1991); Choreographed by Paul Taylor, Performed by Paul Taylor Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

 

Television

Appearance on The Joey Bishop Show

They were parodied on Sesame Street as the Androoze Sisters (Muppets), named Mayeeme (Audrey Smith), Pattiz (Maeretha Stewart), and Lavoorrnee (Kevin Clash).

Patty Andrews appeared in season two, episode six, of Here's Lucy, entitled "Lucy And The Andrew Sisters", in which Lucy, Kim, and Craig help Patty recreate the Andrew Sisters with Bing Crosby for a one-night only performance at a convention of the Sisters' oldest fan club.