HELLO WORLD, WE'RE YOUR MILD GIRLS
In a Drunk History segment comedian Jenny Slate asserts "you definitely can't make juice out of corn.*" The Cherry Sisters made a career out of being not very good at performing. Who could have imagined that five sisters, fresh from the farm, would set a precedent for freedom of the press in terms of the right to fair comment. For ten years Addie, Effie, Ella, Lizzie, and Jessie Cherry performed for audiences armed with rotting vegetables. Their Something Good, Something Sad was something so bad The Cherry Sisters are still a hallmark of terrible entertainment 127 years later.
Born on a farm in Marion, Iowa to father Thomas Cherry and mother Laura Rawson, the family included : Addie (1859 - 1942), Effie (1867 - 1944), Ella (1854 - 1934), Lizzie (1857 - 1936), and Jesse (1871 - 1903). They had a brother, Nathan, who Wikipedia said disappeared. Maybe he just couldn't sit through another rehearsal. Ella left the act before 1896. The remaining sisters soldiered on until Jesse's death in 1903.
Various sources claim the sisters wanted to raise money for a trip. They got the idea to mount a show and charge admission. They put their heads together and came up with an act that Addie described as "concerts - literary entertainments." Something Good, Something Sad included "songs, dances, skits, morality plays, and performances of essays written by the sisters." {2} In keeping with their strong patriotic and religious themes the sisters rewrote lyrics to popular songs, and even recreated crucifixions on stage. Remember when Madonna used to be in trouble like, every week for depicting religious themes in her videos? And she had talent!
The sisters quite possibly took their neighbors polite response to the show as "we went out there as kids but we came back as stars!" When the sisters played other towns however, audiences audibly jeered and threw vegetables at the sisters - that's one way to knock them off their cross. Often local marshals needed to intervene and escort the sisters home. Undaunted (or deluded) the sisters continued to tour around the midwest. Then in 1896 a New York City theater impressario intervened.
Willie Hammerstein heard of the Cherry Sisters and invited them to perform at his struggling Olympia Music Hall. Hammerstein's philosophy on the strategy : "I've been putting on the best talent... I'm going to try the worst." For six weeks the Cherry Sisters mounted faux crucifixions set to moral and religious ballads and New York City audiences ... responded the same way as folks back in Iowa. The New York Times described them as more "pitiable than amusing," which might be the kindest review the Cherry Sisters ever received. The gals refused all party invites issued them, and skipped the fun at Coney Island because women could be seen in bathing costumes there. In case you were wondering about the name Hammerstein, his son later encouraged us to "climb every mountain," etc. as the eight-time Tony winning lyricist of Rogers and Hammerstein fame.
In 1898 Billy Hamilton of the Odebolt Chronicle described the sisters as being "three creatures surpassing the witches in Macbeth in general hideousness" and continued, "the mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns and sounds like the wailings of damned souls issued therefrom." {2} If someone described me like that, I ... would be flattered, but I live life like I wanna and also I don't support myself with a stage act that, let's be honest, because of the negative headline, probably drew more crowds who wanted to see what the fuss was about. The Des Moines Leader republished Hamilton's review and the Cherry Sisters sued both papers for libel. The court, having ears and a brain, ruled in favor of the papers. Did the Cherry Sisters accept defeat? They should have, but, no, they did not. They took the case to the Iowa Supreme Court. The judge asked them to perform a part of their act. The judge, also owning ears and a brain, ruled : "the editor of a newspaper has the right, if not the duty, of publishing, for the information of the public, fair and reasonable comments, however severe in terms, upon anything which is made by its owner a subject of public exhibition, as upon any other matter of public interest; of privileged communications, for which no action will lie without proof of actual malice...Surely, if one makes himself ridiculous in his public performances, he may be ridiculed by those whose duty or right it is to inform the public regarding the character of the performance." {2} In other words if you end up with egg on your face, don't blame chickens. The ruling confirmed the press' right to fair comment and critical analysis and is sometimes cited in modern libel cases. Addie and Effie sung a (poorly performed) swan song in 1938 at a final performance in Cedar Rapids. Effie ran for mayor twice and lost both times. Perhaps her campaign promised the Cherry Sisters singing the National Anthem at all town events.
SOURCES :
The Cherry Sisters. Wikipedia. {2}
FURTHER MEDIA ~
The Cherry Sisters are the subject of a Season 7, Episode 10 segment of Mysteries at the Museum.
(*my research never turned up any mention of corn juice)
Comments
Post a Comment