Lane Sisters

The Lane Sisters were a family of American singers and actresses. The sisters were Leota Lane (October 25, 1903 – July 25, 1963), Lola Lane (May 21, 1906 – June 22, 1981), Rosemary Lane (April 4, 1913 – November 25, 1974) and Priscilla Lane (June 12, 1915 – April 4, 1995).

Lola, Rosemary, and Priscilla co-starred in four films together: Four Daughters (1938), Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1939) and Four Mothers (1941). Leota did not find the same success as her sisters and left Hollywood for New York City before the sisters' breakthrough.

The sisters were from a family of five daughters. Leotabel (Leota), Dorothy (Lola), Rosemary and Priscilla were born to Dr. Lorenzo A. Mullican and his wife, Cora Bell Hicks. Their sister, Martha did not enter show business. The first three children had been born in Macy, Indiana, but the family moved in 1907 to Indianola, Iowa, a small college town south of Des Moines. Here Dr. Mullican had a dental practice. The Mullicans owned a large house with 22 rooms, some of which they rented out to students attending nearby Simpson College.

Before marrying, Cora Bell Hicks had been a reporter with a local newspaper in Macy, and had originally harbored acting ambitions herself, but was frustrated by the strict religious beliefs of her Methodist parents who frowned on any form of public entertainment. Cora Mullican encouraged her daughters to sing and play musical instruments. All the girls were fond of music, and at one time or another studied music in night classes at Simpson College in Indianola. Dorothy was already playing piano at age twelve for a silent screen movie house.

Leota was the first to leave home to pursue a musical career in New York in the mid-1920s. In 1928 Dorothy followed Leota to New York. The girls shared an apartment and made the theatrical rounds. They eventually obtained parts in a Gus Edwards show, Greenwich Village Follies. It was Edwards who changed their names to Lane, and consequently Dorothy became Lola Lane. Martha, meanwhile, eloped with a college professor and moved to Des Moines. She had no interest in show business. She had a child, later divorced, and became a medical secretary.

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