Sixty Years Young
Happy Birthday Sweet Adelines

By Maggie Ryan, Greater Harrisburg Chorus, Region 19

What do they call this phenomenon, this sense that pulls us all together? You can’t put your finger on it, but it’s there. You feel it; the connection, the pull, the need to be here, now, with these people doing this endeavor.

Maybe you’re the church singer, the member of the honors choir or lead from the school play. Every week you stand next to the former wannabe rock star who danced ‘til dawn each weekend at local clubs. You’re the music teacher who majored in voice, the nurse with the great ear, or the administrative assistant who hears chords in car horns. And here you are, side-by-side backstage, listening to the hum of the crowd, awaiting your cue, ready to plunge head first into white-hot brilliance.

There was a time when you didn’t know you had this in you. Oh, sure, at home you pretended your hairbrush was a microphone. In the car, you put Barbra Streisand to shame. But out there? On stage? With actual people listening and watching?

Here is how you know you have arrived: When someone asks you to sing, and you say yes.

Sweet Adelines is all about saying yes. Yes, I’ll sing in a chorus. Yes, I’ll sing in a quartet. Yes, I’ll manage that regional education weekend. Yes, I’ll run for the management team. Yes, I’ll take directing classes and dream of one day leading my own chorus. Me? You want me? Why, I … well, yes, yes, I’d like to try that. I’d like to DO that.

If you knew it all now, would you join Sweet Adelines all over again? Would you sweat out an audition, be fitted for costumes, wear false eyelashes and learn the foreign tongue of vowel-to-vowel singing?

Of course you would. Look around you. This is a smart organization that’s getting smarter with age. Sweet Adelines has matured from Inc. to International, from the days of filing membership records in the bathtub to beaming contests worldwide via the mysterious miracle of the Internet. Our international contests have moved from hotel ballrooms to the largest sports arenas in the United States. We’ve crowned champions from Sweden to the U.S. to Canada and all parts in between. We unabashedly strive to “Harmonize the World.”
Are we succeeding? As Sweet Adelines International turns 60 years old, its leaders constantly assess that very question. With nearly 600 chapters encompassing 27,000 members worldwide, our success seems obvious. Beyond the numbers, we see positive changes in everything from the diversity of our rosters to the expansion of our repertoire. The thread that began in 1945 with the Floradora Girls and Atomaton Chapter weaves its way through the quartets and choruses of today who set higher and higher standards for us all.

Edna Mae Anderson and her friends in Tulsa, Okla., did not know where their idea would lead back in ‘45, but they said yes and took the first step on a lifelong journey. That the journey continues today is their gift to us, and our tribute to them. Enjoy the pulse, the connection, the rhythm of possibility. Sing the song of your soul in harmony.

How Sweet It Was!
By Joan Loewenthal, Song of Atlanta, Region 23

Miami, Fla., November 1965 — The weather was finally less hot and humid, we enjoyed being outdoors with our children. We were making plans for Thanksgiving, and the main event on our weekly calendars was Wednesday night chorus rehearsal. Miami Chapter was the leading winner of Region 9 chorus competitions, we had several active and champion quartets, our director Ozzie Westley was a much-loved pioneer of barbershop harmony … and the moon rose over Miami with the beauty that inspired a song.

Then along came the sweetest musical opportunity four young women could imagine — an invitation to appear on the popular Jackie Gleason Show. Golf had drawn Jackie to Miami and his program originated from the Miami Beach Auditorium (now named the Jackie Gleason Theatre of Performing Arts). Ratings had been dropping and they decided to change to musical formats in upcoming shows. The producer contacted the Sun Tones, 1961 SPEBSQSA champion, to sing on a “gay nineties” show and find a female quartet to join them. They called Ruth Ann Parker, a member of Magic City Chapter and a wonderful baritone in search of a quartet. She in turn called the Hurricane Honeys, 1961 Regional Champion, who were in search of a baritone. Iris Cokeroft, lead, and Marge Grau, bass, were delighted to accept the invitation, but Nancy Calay, tenor, was unavailable.

I was the Biscayne Belles tenor and had previously filled in for Nancy, so I got the call to jump on board. There we were, about to go on national television! Husbands were given refresher courses in laundry and cooking, babysitters were hired, and all appointments dropped — we were now in showbiz! (Editor’s Note: The “gay nineties” refers to the musical style of the 1890s in American popular music.)

Five days of rehearsal followed. We were choreographed by June Taylor and backed up by Sammy Spear and his orchestra! Jackie joined the cast on the last day. He learned his lines fast and ad-libbed at will. All the regulars on the show did their parts as we watched or shared the stage with them. It was more fun than we can describe. Here we were, away from family, jobs, chorus, welcomed into a friendly team of famous entertainers. We called ourselves “The Honeys” in our contracts and were now union members, actually getting paid just for doing what we loved to do — sing!

The show was taped in kinescope before a live audience and aired nationally a couple of days later. We were so good they asked us to return two weeks later for a show with a WWI theme. We rehearsed right through the week, including Thanksgiving Day! Even now my husband reminds me of the great pizza dinner he shared with the kids that day.
Ruth Ann became the regular baritone and joined Miami Chapter, later became its director, then directed Vienna Falls and is presently a judge specialist in the Showmanship category. Nancy remained the tenor as the Hurricane Honeys went on to become Queens of Harmony in 1967. Iris has been directing the Goldcoast (and previously Suncoast) chorus since 1976. Marge is very active in Goldcoast and has been president or Board member of the Coronet Club right up to the present. I moved from Miami to Atlanta, switched from singing to sports and back to singing as a member of Song of Atlanta since 1991. We are all still singing the four-part harmony that brought us together, and our memories of the Jackie Gleason Show are as sweet now as the original appearance and re-runs were 40 years ago. Oh yes, how sweet it still is!

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