THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702220262
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 59 lines
As part of a Virginia Chorale gala March 1, three young vocalists of Hampton Roads will blend their voices to emulate and salute the tight-knit Andrews Sisters, who sang as one in mid-century America.
In an evening of song, music will drift from the Nauticus stage across Norfolk Harbor's waters much as it did in World War II when sailors' white caps bobbed downtown.
In 1970, when blonde Patty and brunette Maxine Andrews sang in a local night club, The Virginian-Pilot's Cammy Sessa marveled at their pep. The two sounded like the three as if Laverne, who died in 1965, were singing in the wings.
The three were born in Minneapolis to immigrants Peter from Greece and Ollie from Norway. Each afternoon the girls listened to the Boswell Sisters on the radio and imitated their Southern accents.
In the 1930s they toured vaudeville until Peter moved the family to New York. Succeed in three months, he said, or go home to secretarial school.
They won a spot with a hotel band but were fired after the first broadcast. Dave Kapp, president of Decca Records, heard the broadcast in a taxi and sent for them.
Clad in olive drab uniforms with overseas caps bobby-pinned to their pompadours, they sang at USOs, military bases and bond rallies.
To recall their hard-driving, clean beat, our local singers with musical careers - Julia Coberly of Norfolk, Kris Magno of Chesapeake and Susan Arnold of Newport News - studied videos of the Andrewses much as those sisters had looked to the Boswells.
They'll sing ``Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree'' and ``Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy'' then rejoin the 24-member Chorale for ``In the Mood.''
The fund-raising gala will start at 7 p.m. in the exhibit hall on the third floor of Nauticus with hors de ouvres amid strolling folk singers, The Tanners Creek Whalers - brothers Bob and Jim Heely and their sister Susan Heely Cocke and her husband Wilson Cocke.
On display will be items for a silent auction, including tickets for dinners at 25 restaurants.
The party will then move to the theater for the Chorale's program conducted by Wes Kenney, associate conductor of the Virginia Symphony, and accompanied by Bobbie Kesler-Corletto at the piano.
The program will include selections from the musical ``South Pacific,'' as well as from ``Carousel.''
Among nautical songs will be ``Under the Sea'' from Disney's ``The Little Mermaid.'' Among several numbers from the the 1930s and '40s will be Vincent Youmans' ``More Than You Know.''
During intermission Bob Heely will auction more than two dozen paintings contributed by major artists throughout Hampton Roads.
Tickets cost $50 each. for information, call 627-8375. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
From left, Kris Magno of Chesapeake, Susan Arnold of Newport News
and Julia Coberly of Norfolk will impersonate the Andrews Sisters of
World War II fame on March 1 at Nauticus.