“Country music has always sort of been country music”*…
The DeZurik Sisters, Mary Jane and Carolyn, began performing on St. Paul’s KSTP in 1935, when they entered and won a talent contest. The next year they moved to Chicago to appear weekly on National Barn Dance, and later, also Purina’s Checkerboard Time, at WLS-AM. The girls called their act The Cackle Sisters…
Read more about the singing siblings– and their place in the annals of yodeling– here and here. And find an remarkable collection of acetate transfers of their work at the ever-extraordinary WFMU. * Miranda Lambert
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As we marvel at Minnesota throat-singing, we might send dramatic birthday greetings to Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL; he was born on this date in 1937. A journalist and drama critic, he turned to playwriting in 1960– and has since written such prominent works for the stage as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Thing, Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia, and The Coast of Utopia. Sir Tom is also an accomplished screenwriter, whose many films include Brazil, The Russia House, and Shakespeare in Love. He’s won four Tony Awards and one Oscar.
How the hell do I know what I find incredible? Credibility is an expanding field… Sheer disbelief hardly registers on the face before the head is nodding with all the wisdom of instant hindsight.
– George, Jumpers, Act I
