Q&A with Maggie McCormick, author of Sister Act - The Story of the Lane Sisters
Who were the Lane Sisters?
Priscilla, Rosemary, Lola, and Leota Lane were four sisters who performed individually and in various combinations in movies, on stage, on the radio, and on television, from the 1920s through the 1950s. Priscilla, Rosemary, and Lola are best known, as they made many feature films, including Arsenic and Old Lace, Saboteur, The Roaring Twenties, Hollywood Hotel, Marked Woman, and the Four Daughters series. Leota made a few shorts, but mostly concentrated on stage musicals, operettas, nightclubs, concerts, and opera. Fifth sister Martha was a writer who didn’t go into show business, although she once worked as a secretary at Warner Bros.
Why did you choose the title Sister Act?
Long before the Whoopi Goldberg movie, it was a suggestion from a friend who also was a Lane Sisters fan. One of the things that the Lanes were most famous for was a trilogy of films where Priscilla, Rosemary, and Lola played sisters: Four Daughters, Four Wives, and Four Mothers. Leota auditioned for the role of the fourth sister, but Warner Bros. contract player Gale Page was cast instead. The first movie was based on a Fannie Hurst novel called Sister Act. While each of the Lanes had successful individual careers, the novelty of having three real-life siblings playing sisters in multiple films was unique. They also began as two different sister acts. Lola and Leota worked as a team in Vaudeville and on Broadway, billed as the Lane Sisters, and Priscilla and Rosemary were the Lane Sisters of the airwaves, appearing with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians on stage, on the radio, and in the film Varsity Show. All four Lanes were in a radio adaptation of Four Daughters.
How did you become interested in the Lane Sisters?
Many years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I had to take a year off from college and get complete bed rest. This was pre-cable and pre-internet and there wasn’t much on TV during the day except soap operas and game shows. Growing up, I was exposed to old movies because of my dad so I began watching one that aired daily on a local station. Most of what they showed was from the Warner Bros. library, which included a lot of Lane Sister movies. I was fascinated that they worked together and separately and were big stars in their era, yet today only movie buffs remember them. I wanted to learn more about them and find out why they disappeared from the screen.
How long did it take you to write Sister Act?
I started researching over thirty-five years ago, which allowed me to get information from many people who are no longer around, including Rosemary’s daughter and several childhood friends from the Lanes’ hometown of Indianola, Iowa. Through the years, I became frustrated when I hit dead ends, especially while trying to research Leota’s career, and put my manuscript aside to work on other projects. Occasionally, I would pick it up again then discard it when I hit more brick walls. Now there are so many sources available online that it seemed the ideal time to finish it.
You mentioned Rosemary’s daughter. Did any other family members cooperate?
The most difficult areas to research were the sisters’ post-movie years. I was thrilled to have help from two of Priscilla’s children, two of Rosemary’s grandsons, Lola’s stepdaughter, Martha’s granddaughter, and a relative of Leota’s last husband, many of whom not only answered questions, but shared pictures.
Why two volumes?
Sister Act is the biography of four people with additional information on fifth sister Martha and the Lanes’ parents. It was too much information for just one book.
What is the significance of the cover photos?
Both pictures were taken in 1938 when Leota was testing for a role in Four Daughters. The cover of volume one shows the sisters full of optimism. Their careers were taking off and they were working together. Rosemary, who Warner Bros. first groomed as a leading lady, was driving. The book traces their carefree lives before World War II. The cover of the second volume is more cynical, as the bike crashed. The sisters were posed in a different order, but Rosemary still was at the front. Symbolically, some of the problems she encountered were her own fault. In volume two, the sisters all went their separate ways. Priscilla made her best-known movies, Rosemary starred on Broadway, Lola began a long line of charity work, and Leota started a new career. They were sometimes estranged, emotionally and geographically.
Why do you think the Lanes aren’t better remembered today?
Aside from multiple marriages, they weren’t involved in any scandals. They didn’t die young during their film careers like Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, and Marilyn Monroe. They didn’t work into old age like Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. They weren’t in movies that gained immortality like Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, or Casablanca. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Lanes were very popular all over the world, as the magazine cover appendix illustrates. They worked hard and then they retired. That’s not to say that they led boring lives. I uncovered a few things that are quite intriguing.
While doing research, what surprised you most?
Two things: how little was known about their father outside of Indianola and what a sad life Rosemary had.
What do you think will most surprise readers?
How many famous people the Lanes worked with, that they performed at Carnegie Hall, the Lanes’ connection to Anne Frank, Bugs Bunny, Superman, and the Humanitas Prize—and that two family members thought that one of the sisters did not die of natural causes.
What would you like readers to come away thinking about the Lane Sisters?
I hope that, if they haven’t seen the Lanes’ films, they will look for them on TCM, DVDs, or streaming. The sisters played a wide variety of roles in different genres: dramas, comedies, musicals, film noir, westerns, and gangster pictures. There is something for every taste. I also hope that readers will find the Lanes’ personal lives of interest because, once they stopped making movies, they each took very different paths. That said, many people from their hometown commented that the Lanes kept their Midwestern Iowa values. Readers can decide for themselves.
What is your goal with Sister Act?
I want people to remember the Lanes as a part of film history. I’d like to see TCM honor them as Stars of the Month and air some of their lesser-seen movies, like Priscilla’s Million Dollar Baby, Rosemary’s Ladies Must Live, Lola’s Good News, and Leota’s short You’re Next-to Closing. It also would be nice if Indianola gave them more recognition, like naming streets after them or erecting a sign reading “hometown of the Lane Sisters.” They were an interesting and talented family and they deserve not to be forgotten.