The Lane Sisters were four siblings who
achieved success during the 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity leading to a series
of successful films.
The sisters were Lola (May 21, 1906 - June 22, 1981), Leota (died on July 25,1963), Rosemary
(April 4, 1914 - November 25, 1974), and Priscilla (June 12, 1915 - April 4, 1995).
Lola was born in Macy, Indiana and Leota, Rosemary, and Priscilla were born in Indianola, Iowa.
They changed their surname from "Mullican" when they began their careers.
Lola began her career as an actress in 1929 and made several films during the early 1930s. She
was actor Lew Ayres's first wife. By 1932 she had joined her three younger sisters to form a
singing act. First performing as a quartet with a dance band in 1932, the sisters toured the
United States, and gradually their popularity grew.
In 1937 Priscilla was signed to a contract with Warner Brothers Studios. She and Rosemary made
their film debuts together in Varsity Show in 1937. In the same year Lola played a strong
supporting role in the Bette Davis crime melodrama Marked Woman, as the type of hardboiled
character that exemplified many of her later roles with Warner Brothers. The following year
Davis was offered a role in the film version of Fannie Hurst's novel Sister Act and when she
turned down the part, Lola suggested to Jack Warner that the Lane Sisters would be suitable.
Each was tested for the roles of the four sisters, with only Leota being rejected as
unsuitable. The film was released in 1938 as Four Daughters with the fourth sister played by
Gale Page. The three Lane Sisters were promoted as "The Picture of American Girlhood" and the
film was a great success, leading to more joint film appearances by the three sisters in
sequels. Daughter's Courageous, and Four Wives, (both 1939), and Four Mothers (1941) were
popular successes.
By this time Priscilla was being recognized for her individual potential. While the sisters
were all regarded as beautiful, Priscilla conveyed the softest and most wholesome quality, and
was also seen as having the most natural talent. For that reason she was able to emerge as a
personality in her own right. She was considered for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind,
and although she did not won the role, she impressed several producers. She was cast in such
successes as Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). While her
career was building, she was suspended several times by Jack Warner for refusing to take roles
she did not want. Her older sisters Rosemary and Lola were finding the quality and frequency
of their roles steadily decreasing. Leota's attempt at a film career had failed completely.
Despite Priscilla's successes, by the end of the decade each of the sisters had retired from
films.
Leota married once and died in Glendale, California on July 25, 1963.
Lola married five times, and was married for two years to the actor Lew Ayres. She died of
arterial disease in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 75.
Rosemary died from diabetes and pulmonary obstruction in Woodland Hills, California at the age
of 60.
Priscilla never acted after her retirement but made a comeback as a hostess for a Boston,
Massachusetts talk show some years later. She died from lung cancer in Andover, Massachusetts
at the age of 79.
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for details. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Priscilla Lane", which you can find
at http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Priscilla_Lane
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