McGuire Sisters

Remembering Dorothy McGuire, Lia Lee, Russell Train

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• published: 18 Oct 2012
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A Cultural Revolution In Medicine As a baby, Lia Lee came with her family to the United States as Hmong refugees. Her medical story was chronicled in Anne Fadiman's classic book The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. The book increased cultural sensitivity and awareness in the medical community and changed the way medicine is practiced. Dorothy McGuire was part of the 1950's trio, The McGuire Sisters. They were the top female singing group of the 1950's, a bridge between the 1940's Andrews Sisters and the 1960's girl groups. Russell Train was among the first major government officials to use legislation to protect the environment. The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: Christine McGuire (born July 30, 1926); Dorothy McGuire (February 13, 1928 -- September 7, 2012); and Phyllis McGuire (born February 14, 1931). Among their most popular songs are "Sincerely" and "Sugartime". In 1952, they signed with Coral Records. That same year, they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and, as a result, Godfrey hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. Cosmopolitan's November 1953 issue called them "Godfrey's Merry McGuires". The sisters were compared often to The Andrews Sisters. Maxene Andrews once said, "The McGuire Sisters were fine once they stopped imitating The Andrews Sisters", during an interview with Joe Franklin on WWOR-AM Radio in 1979. In early McGuire recordings, Phyllis' voice can almost be mistaken for that of Patty Andrews'. The McGuires and Andrewses met several times throughout their careers, and Phyllis credited Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne during a television interview with Maxene in the 1990s, hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael, saying that she and her sisters met the Andrews Sisters in New York in the early 1950s and received important advice. Much like The Andrews Sisters, the McGuires moved when they sang, often executing dance routines during lavish production numbers on countless television specials (something The Andrews Sisters had originated in films during the 1940s, really becoming the first female vocal group to move when they sang, rather than just standing at a microphone). Phyllis and her sisters mimicked the singing style of The Andrews Sisters, as well The Mills Brothers and The Dinning Sisters, from very young ages when they would perform short shows for family and friends in their parents' living room. While Phyllis is fond of saying in interviews that she and her sisters did not know any popular songs when they became famous (only the church hymns taught them by their minister mother), the trio often imitated other singing groups long before their success. They performed for five Presidents of the United States (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush) and for Queen Elizabeth II. In 1958, their mother appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show To Tell the Truth. The sisters maintained a busy television schedule, making frequent appearances on popular variety hours 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 their synchronized body movements and hand gestures with military precision. Their recordings of "Sincerely," "Picnic," and 1958's "Sugartime" all sold more than one million copies. In 1968, they retired from public appearances, 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 she has always claimed that their friendship was strictly platonic), which reportedly blacklisted the group. During one of his 1960s court appearances for which Phyllis was subpoenaed, Giancana told reporters outside the courthouse that "Phyllis knows everything" about the rumored, unethical behaviors of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. Phyllis has resided in a famously showcased mansion in Las Vegas for decades, boasting its own beauty parlor, a swan moat, and a replica of the Eiffel Tower which actually rises 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 innuendo, claiming that she invested heavily in oil when the sisters were at the height of their popularity. On September 7, 2012, Dorothy McGuire died at her son's home in Paradise Valley, Arizona[9] after suffering from Parkinson's disease and age-related dementia. She was 84