For the Betty Brian Centennial: On The Brian Sisters

July 10, 2023 would have been the centennial birthday of Betty Brian (1923-2015), who, with her sibs Doris (1926-2018) and Gwen (1928-1990) was one third of the juvenile sister act trio The Brian Sisters.

There were actually five singing Brian Sisters, but the two others Berenice and Norma were a bit older and had their own lives when their mother Meda (1893-1995) began presenting the younger three at social events and the like. Originally from the Pocatello, Idaho area, the family was in Salt Lake City by 1930, and the girls were performing on local radio there within a couple of years. The youngest, Gwen was about four years old at that time. With vaudeville all but dead then, most of their work was on radio, with live engagements at supper clubs and similar venues supplementing that.

Today the Brian Sisters are best known for their Hollywood period, when they enjoyed national fame for nearly a decade. They never became actresses per se, but performed as a musical specialty act in films. These included,Our Gang Follies of 1936; New Faces of 1937; the all-star Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937); the Pinky Tomlin films Thanks for Listening and Sing While You’re Able (both in 1937); Kentucky Moonshine (1938) with the Ritz Brothers and Tony Martin; the 1938 remake of Sally, Irene and Mary; Little Miss Broadway (1938) with Shirley Temple; Second Fiddle (1939) with Sonja Henie; Love Affair (1939) with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer; High School (1940) with Jane Withers; Tin Pan Alley (1940) with Alice Faye and John Payne;Music in My Heart (1940, uncredited) with Tony Martin again; and Beautiful But Broke (1944) with Joan Davis and Jane Frazee. In 1942 they made a short Soundie film of the the song “Boogie Woogie Man” (it’s available to watch on Youtube — a fun Halloweeny hoot). In 1944 they recorded their only single, “Swinging on a Star”, which was a bigger hit for Bing Crosby.

In 1940 and 1941, they were on the weekly radio show Dick Roselle and The Brian Sisters. In 1942, they got their own show, The Brian Sisters, with Skitch Henderson (later the leader of TheTonight Show band during the Steve Allen years) as their accompanist. Their numerous appearances as guests on other radio shows date back to around a decade prior to that. Their appearance in the 1940 radio adaptation of Love Affair for Lux Radio Theatre was a notable one. They were also on Texaco Town with Eddie Cantor and many others. Connee Boswell of the Boswell Sisters mentored them.

In the final years of their act, the sisters also entertained troops with the U.S.O. They were still going great guns as a popular national trio when in 1944 Betty, now 21 years old, became pregnant and got married, breaking up the act. The timing is a shame. If they’d hung on just a few years, TV might have been in the cards for the team. As it was, Gwen and Doris each remained in the biz for a time, doing far less prominent work in the field they loved so much.

For much much more about the Brian Sisters, see: A) this dedicated website; and B) this terrific site about the Boswell Sisters, which has this page dedicated to the Brians, including an interview with Doris. There is also this delightful video interview with her here on the youtube page of the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah. The girls were of Mormon pioneer stock.

To learn more about show biz history, please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and stay tuned for my next book Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety, coming November 2023.