I was in Chicago yesterday and took a tour of the Oriental Theatre. WOW what a thing to do for $10 you see two theatres in two hours. We also saw the Cadillac Theatre.
We were told a story that when they had early shows there they would sometimes have live acts come in to play and had the Andrew Sisters there. Well something happened where they did not or could not make an engagement there so, the bosses of the Oriental called around for a replacement girl singing act and got the Gumm Sisters for the day borrowed from the Belmont Theatre 1600 block W. Belmont ( I used to bowl there as a child).. There were four Gumm sisters and the youngest was Judy. A New York agent was in the crowd that day they filled in and talked to the Gumm sisters since there name was misspelled GLUMM on the marquee. He told them that they had a chance to make and were talented but needed to change their name so they can avoid this misspelling issues again. He recommended Garland …….that’s right Judy Garland from the Wizard of Oz â€" neat piece of history. I highly recommend this tour.
Here is a shot from a bus site – circa 1967
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I was in Chicago yesterday and took a tour of the Oriental Theatre. WOW what a thing to do for $10 you see two theatres in two hours. We also saw the Cadillac Theatre.
We were told a story that when they had early shows there they would sometimes have live acts come in to play and had the Andrew Sisters there. Well something happened where they did not or could not make an engagement there so, the bosses of the Oriental called around for a replacement girl singing act and got the Gumm Sisters for the day borrowed from the Belmont Theatre 1600 block W. Belmont ( I used to bowl there as a child).. There were four Gumm sisters and the youngest was Judy. A New York agent was in the crowd that day they filled in and talked to the Gumm sisters since there name was misspelled GLUMM on the marquee. He told them that they had a chance to make and were talented but needed to change their name so they can avoid this misspelling issues again. He recommended Garland …….that’s right Judy Garland from the Wizard of Oz â€" neat piece of history. I highly recommend this tour.