Three X Sisters
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Three X Sisters Harmony Singers of early radio
As the American Vaudeville Museum mentions, the Three X Sisters were the mysterious singers of early radio. Pearl Santos, Violet Hamilton, and Jessie Fordyce formed this trio during the Summer of 1924 when Pearl wanted to start an all-girl harmony singing trio. They began as the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce.
The begingings for this trio was on Broadway and Vaudeville with Helen Kane (aka, Helen Schroeder)one of the most popular of the Betty Boop girls that ever landed on a Broadway stage. They did various song, and dance acts which would eventually become the fomulation of three-part harmony for them. In 1925 they were touring in Vaudeville when the Ramond Fagan Orchestra backed them up on instrumentals. Pearl Hamilton met Ed Santos, and a year later they married in Rochester, N.Y. In 1926, the trio toured with another popular all-girl act Jerry and her Baby Grands appearing together at the Palace theater in New York. They then toured Canada together.
The Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce had started to get quite a name for themselves, however, they hadn't reached the type of success that had hoped. During 1927, after departing a final 'Stars of the Future' entertainment showcase, the Management - fronted by Ed Wolfe groomed the girls to tour Europe; specifically England where they traveled with New York's popular Savoy Orpheans musical unit (probably from the Savoy Hotel Orpheans). In England, the ladies met up with Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart (pictures account for this: 'In Sweet Harmony' by Glenn Santos - Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:99-94889). The photo session includes top British music man Bert Ambrose (aka, Ambrose & his Mayfair Orchestra). Various recordings were made on HMV, Columbia, and RCA discs; some popular tunes were the 'Blue Room,' 'My Heart Stood Still,' and 'Someone to Watch Over Me.'
The real success started when they utilized publicity photos with the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce wearing eye masks, and a name change to suite the upcoming popularity of radio. A CBS sponsor hired the ladies, and they took a new stage name, the Three X Sisters. They would soon go by only their first names Pearl, Vi, and Jessie. They were popular Palace Theater headliners as well as, popular trio harmonizers on NBC radio from 1933-1937 (Museum of Broadcasting,NYC). Graham McNamee recounts the Three X Sisters popularity on his popular NBC radio program 'Behind the Mike' during a January 1941 presentation (featuring the Three X Sisters).
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