Iowa Stories: Practice Practice Practice
Dec. 19th, 2016 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Iowa is my adopted state, as it seems I just moved here, improbably I have been here a third of my life.
I have got well acquainted with the state and its culture, but occasionally will here something new.
In this case, I was charmed to the hear the story of the Cherry Sisters, a late 18th century vaudeville act, who predated a lineage of "so bad they are good" acts such as The Shaggs, William Hung, Rebecca Black, and Florence Foster Jenkins. Their success got them to Broadway with the help of Oscar Hammerstein, where they played six sold out weeks, and saved Oscar from bankruptcy. (Hammerstein's logic was that for many years he tried putting on the best talent, now he was going to try the worst)
The sister quartet was panned in the newspaper everywhere they went, even resulting in a libel case against a Des Moines newspaper that went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court. As time has faded, it's hard to tell if the libel case was born out of outrage or was a publicity stunt that even 2016ers would be jealous of. They lost, as the judge saw the act and established athe concept of 'fair comment'.
Indeed, it's hard to tell if the family were in on the joke. Like the Shaggs, the question is did they know how bad they were, or did they think they were really good and didn't "get" it. In any case, the audience reaction of catcalls, derisive laughter and thrown produce was real.
I love this type of cultural history. Here are a few articles that have run.
NPR: Worst Act Ever?
Wikipedia
Cedar Rapids gazette: Time Machine
WMFU
I have got well acquainted with the state and its culture, but occasionally will here something new.
In this case, I was charmed to the hear the story of the Cherry Sisters, a late 18th century vaudeville act, who predated a lineage of "so bad they are good" acts such as The Shaggs, William Hung, Rebecca Black, and Florence Foster Jenkins. Their success got them to Broadway with the help of Oscar Hammerstein, where they played six sold out weeks, and saved Oscar from bankruptcy. (Hammerstein's logic was that for many years he tried putting on the best talent, now he was going to try the worst)
The sister quartet was panned in the newspaper everywhere they went, even resulting in a libel case against a Des Moines newspaper that went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court. As time has faded, it's hard to tell if the libel case was born out of outrage or was a publicity stunt that even 2016ers would be jealous of. They lost, as the judge saw the act and established athe concept of 'fair comment'.
Indeed, it's hard to tell if the family were in on the joke. Like the Shaggs, the question is did they know how bad they were, or did they think they were really good and didn't "get" it. In any case, the audience reaction of catcalls, derisive laughter and thrown produce was real.
I love this type of cultural history. Here are a few articles that have run.
NPR: Worst Act Ever?
Wikipedia
Cedar Rapids gazette: Time Machine
WMFU
