The Five Ames Sisters - 1936 - a photo on Flickriver

The Five Ames Sisters - 1936

The Five Ames Sister
Circa 1936.
Left to Right: Marjorie, Barbara, Alice, Mary Eloise & Dorothy.
The five daughers of Frank and Doris Ames. (Their son Frank was not part of the act at this time).
The Five Ames Sisters- a specialty dance act which did soft shoe, tap and acrobatics in the late ‘30s.
Worked bills with the likes of Milton Berle, Bill” Bo Jangles” Robinson, Rose Marie (eventually of the Dick Van Dyke Show),”Peg Leg” Bates and the Will Maston Trio
(Sammy Davis Jr., his father and uncle).
The girls’ father was originally from Boston and worked for General Electric. The family moved frequently and each of the children was born in a different state. At one point, however, the family stayed put for nine years in New Orleans. It was here that the dancing began. To give her three older daughters something to do one summer, Doris Ames signed them up for dance lessons at the Josie Corbera School of Dance.There, they studied tap, ballet and acrobatics, and the younger sisters soon followed suit. After their father took a position with Westinghouse, they moved north and went professional, following through with an act their instructor had put together for them. The continued tap and acrobatic dance in New York and started their own dance school in their Nutley home while attending high school which all completed.
Their school had so many students they had to use a studio above a theatre. On tour, the sisters, entertained on stage between movies about four times per day. Stops included Buffalo, Montreal and Quebec. Doris was always along and was there to help them with costume changes. She made the costumes, and their father, Frank
Ames, orchestrated all the music. He attended whatever evening shows he could as well as those he could catch while on vacation. The sisters made a movie short at the Universal Studios in Long Island City. The short’s headliner was Gus Van, formerly of the old Vaudeville team of Van and Schenk. (Also found a short film titled "Play, Girls" which they were in).
The act began to break up in 1938 when Alice married Louis Bimbi. In 1939 Marjorie married Buddy (Martin Murphy), www.flickr.com/photos/55333013@N00/sets/72157622943856538/

Dorothy became a member of the "The Four Merrills" then "The Benard Family Circus". Mary Eloise's agent Billy Creedon, teamed her with Dottie Pananski and Frankie Adagio to form "The Three Wells" who were written up in Variety and did theatres in the States as well as USO tours.
After Adagio went into the service, another male joined them and they worked with Sammy Kaye, and Frank Sinatra, drummer Gene Krupa as well as Jimmy Durante, and performed at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Mary Eloise later joined "The Three Rays". She and two girls who did and overseas USO tour which included stops in Okinama and the Philippines just after World War II. Mary Eloise met Warren Little while on this tour and later they were married. She too left show business to raise a family. Barbara and her brother Frank Jr. joined the army.
Barbara passed away in 2000, Marjorie in 2002. Dorothy (97 year old) www.flickr.com/photos/55333013@N00/3499424430/in/set-7215...
, Alice passed away October, 2011, Mary Eloise passed September 12, 2013 and Frank Jr. (86) still surive. www.flickr.com/photos/55333013@N00/3392969051/in/set-7215...

Taken in: United States / New York / New York (show map)

Taken on: November 27, 2008

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Sets appears in: • Ames Family Photos 1915-1938

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