The Cherry Sisters were Addie, Effie, Ella, Elizabeth and Jessie Cherry from Marion, Iowa who toured in the U.S. and Canada with their rather folksy show. Contemporaries did not really appreciate their form of "art" and the sisters instead became popular as musical performers reputed to be comically inept and unable to realize it. Marion is a city located in Linn County, Iowa. ... Wikiquote has quotations relating to: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ...

Background

Their brother Nathan disappeared to Chicago in 1885. After the death of their parents, they were forced to turn to show business. According to later accounts, the Cherry Sisters decided to try to perform when they tried to earn money to go to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Other tales claim that they intended to go there to look for their missing brother. Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 The World Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago Worlds Fair), a Worlds fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbuss discovery of the New World. ...

Effie, who quickly became the leader of the group, rented Daniel’s Opera House in Marion. They designed a show of sorts and on January 21 1893 the Cherry Sisters debuted to a full house of locals, friends and neighbors, who were apparently too polite to criticize the act and/or had limited theatrical standards. Encouraged by this, the sisters took their show on the road and toured the neighboring towns. January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

Career

The show was named Something Good, Something Sad. Elizabeth played a piano and Jessie a bass drum when the other sisters sung. The show consisted of melodramatic morality plays, derivative ballads and recitations of poetry. Their repertoire also included songs like I'm Out Upon The Mash, Boys, Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight, Don't You Remember Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt, and operetta The Gypsy's Warning. Morality plays (15th-16th c. ... A ballad is a story in song, usually a narrative song or poem. ... Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ...

The audience usually answered with not only catcalls, but with a barrage of hurled produce of some decomposition, in addition to miscellaneous items like old tin wash boiler. Sometimes they chased the women off the stage. At Creston, Iowa, Addie took a shotgun to stage to protect her sisters. One promoter eventually decided to protect their act with a wire mesh. The sisters took the response as a work of jealous rivals. Creston is a city located in Union County, Iowa. ...

When audience in Cedar Rapids, Iowa blew tinhorns, the sisters took it as an approval and were horrified to see unfavorable review the next day's Cedar Rapids Gazette. When they sued the papers, the judge and jury ruled in the sister's favor and judge told the editor to marry one of the sisters. That particular sentence was not enforced. Linn County Courthouse, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Downtown Cedar Rapids, including Mays Island Cedar Rapids is a city located in Linn County, Iowa. ...

In 1896 New York impresario Oscar Hammerstein I contracted them for his Olympia Music Hall in New York City. At that stage Ella had retired. Their opening night was on November 16. The audience, who had not known of them, sat stupefied at first and then begun to howl and whistle. The New York Times review of the following day was named "Four Freaks from Iowa" and was hardly favorable. Other contemporary reviews were also uniformly unfavorable. 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... City nickname: The Big Apple Location in the state of New York Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg Area  - Land  - Water 1,214. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

The next day's performance was accompanied with the usual barrage of thrown vegetables - instigated by the sons of Hammerstein. Hammerstein assured the sisters that it was, yet again, work of a rival stars. The sisters show lasted for six weeks in the Olympia Music Hall and additional two weeks at Proctor's 23rd Street Theater and saved Hammerstein from bankruptcy. Sisters became small-time celebrities and were invited to parties, which they declined. Newspapers claimed that local vegetable sellers could not meet the demand of their regular customers because the theater patrons bought the most. Vegetables on a market Vegetable is a nutritional and culinary term denoting any part of a plant that is commonly consumed by humans as food, but is not regarded as a culinary fruit, nut, herb, spice, or grain. ... Bankruptcy - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Afterwards the sisters went to a seven-year U.S.-Canadian tour. Their reputation preceded them and in one case the promoter had to expressly ban ten-gauge guns in the performance. Audience response was predictably similar. Understandably the sisters went through six managers in those seven years.

Legal Precedent

The Odebolt Chronicle wrote in 1899: "The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns and sounds like the wailings of damned souls issued therefrom". When the Des Moines Leader reprinted the review two weeks later, the sisters sued for libel and damages for $25.000. The suit was dismissed but the sisters took it to higher court. In 1901, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in the paper's favor. The case Cherry v. Des Moines Leader became a precedent that gave art critics the right to criticize acts to the point of ridicule. 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Iowa Supreme Court is the constitutional head of the judicial branch of the state of Iowa. ... Precedent is the principle in law of using the past in order to assist in current interpretation and decision-making. ...

Retirement

The youngest sister Jessie died of typhoid in 1903 and the other sisters retired to their farm. They had earned about $200.000. They spent the money in a couple of years, lost the farm and had to move to Cedar Rapids. They opened a bakery that specialized in cherry pies there during World War I, Elizabeth doing the baking, Effie managing the business end, and Addie helping wherever she could. Effie ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Cedar Rapids in 1924 and 1926 (her platform included an 8 PM curfew for minors). This is about the disease typhoid fever. ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... Bakery foods A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, cakes and similar foods. ... Missing image Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... A mayor (from the Latin maīor, meaning larger,greater) is the politician who serves as chief executive official of some types of municipalities. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... A curfew can be one of the following: An order by the government for certain persons to return home before a certain time. ...

When the sisters attempted comeback in 1913, the most profit came in the form of thrown vegetables. Another comeback attempt in New York in 1935 also failed. 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Ella died in 1934 and when Elizabeth died in 1936 the two remaining sisters, Effie and Addie, were reduced to meager circumstances. They had been living in what was left of the Cherry estate, a basement, before being taken to the county nursing home in the winter of 1934. Addie and Effie struggled on into the 1940s moving from one location to another in Cedar Rapids. Addie was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage in 1942 at the age of 83 and in 1944 Effie died of heart failure. Both were buried in Linwood Cemetery, Cedar Rapids. 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A nursing home is a place of residence for people who require constant medical care. ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... A cerebral hemorrhage is a condition in the brain in which a blood vessel leaks. ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

External link

• The Cherry Sisters by Steven J. Fuller (http://www.iowacenterforthebook.org/air/2004/info-for-groups/cherry-sisters.htm)