TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

Record Details:

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ALennon Sister without a smile is a little like Liz without a man — a very rare sight, indeed! But there they were — all three singing sisters — and not a tooth showing. And frankly, I couldn't blame them. They were on tour with Lawrence Welk and company. The dressing room was a cement floor; the doors were rolling metal slabs; the whole setup was sort of Early Quonset Hut. It was freezing outside — and in. There had been no time for dinner before the show and there would be no place for it between shows — unless you chose between underdone hot dogs or overdone hamburgers at a snack stand. So the girls did without altogether. Janet gnawed at cookies. Peggy made a bag of potato chips disappear. Kathy avoided everything, including the hot chocolate backstage. As she peeled off her knee-length blue socks and plaid skirt and began to dress for the show, Kathy said, "I'm the one wlm really should eat. Keeping my weight up is a problem for me — but so is my skin. I have to avoid chocolate, candy, all kinds of sweets and fried foods, because it's bad for my face. To me, even the littlest blemish is a spotlight. I'm very self-conscious about it." Peggy— who already had on the long white pantaloons which the girls wear in case their skirts fly up— nodded. "On tour, my skin gets worse," she said. "Partly it's mental, because I hate touring. It's lonely. We're away from home. And it's hard work. Besides, the food's different, the hours are different, the air's different. You don't eat properly. Don't sleep properly." "I have still another problem," said Janet, wriggling into a crinoline over her pantaloons. "I break out when I'm excited. Whenever I have to do a solo, my chest gets a rash." Kathy, who was feeling around her chin, sighed, "I can always tell when I'm getting one and I'll try to hide it by sitting like this." She cupped her hand over the chin. Because the girls are in the public eye, some people think they've "got it made." That they have no problems. Yet — not only do they have problems like anybody else — theirs are more magnified. If they sprout a strawberry on their gorgeous faces, a few million eyeballs focus on it at one shot. But they've learned to overcome their difficulties — and not let their difficulties overcome them. Show business matures one in a fat hurry. There are worries, fears, insecurities, schedules, situations and etceteras. Besides skin problems, weight problems, loneliness and homesickness, there's the flying. The girls are deathly afraid of flying. They've had several close calls. But, since they're forced to fly, it makes for great strength. "Once, coming into San Antonio," Janet shuddered in retrospect, "the pilot announced rocky flying ahead. We'd just finished lunch and had to pass our trays back over our heads. Kathy got so sick she didn't even know what was happening. The tower cleared us for landing— but, coming in, we saw another plane unable to get off the runway. We were petrified. We couldn't gain altitude, and we somehow got sandwiched eight feet above a plane on the ground — and just thirty feet below the one trying to take off. Even the pilot admitted it was the closest he ever came to . . . well, anyway, it was the closest he ever came." Janet, in a masterpiece of understatement, added, "It wasn't really a very nice day for any of us." And what's their recipe for fear? They hold hands. They sing hymns to themselves. They pray. And they apply some Instant Positive Thinking. As Peg put it: "I say to myself when I'm scared, 'Now this just shows lack of faith. Either you believe or you don't. If you do, there's nothing to fear because everything's under God's will and He doesn't want to hurt any of His children.' " Their dressing room — the size of a walk-in closet — was shared by (Continued on page 89) by Cindy Adams 41