Kim Loo Sisters
were an American jazz vocal quartet
The Kim Loo Sisters were an American jazz vocal quartet popular during the swing era. The close harmony group consisted of Alice (August 22, 1916 – April 16, 2011), Margaret "Maggie" (November 4, 1917 – July 14, 2016), Genevieve "Jenée" (May 19, 1920 – November 3, 2019), and Patricia "Bubbles" (born October 3, 1922).
The sisters began their careers as child entertainers in kiddie revues in and around their hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the Jazz Age (1920–1929). They traveled with the vaudeville circuits during the Great Depression (1929–1939). During the Second World War (1939–1945), they appeared on the Broadway stage and the Hollywood screen with actors including Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller, The Three Stooges, Jackie Gleason, and Louis Jordan. Dubbed "the Chinese Andrews Sisters", the Kim Loo Sisters were arguably the first Asian American act to star in Broadway musical revues.
Early life
Alice, Maggie, Jenée and Bubbles were born to Louie Shear Gim and Michelena “Lena” Louie (née Wojcik) in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul), Minnesota. Their father was Chinese from Guangzhou (Canton), Guangdong. Their mother was Polish from Buczacz, Poland, now Buchach, Ukraine. Lena had two more children—son Lowell and daughter Nerée.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kim Loo Sisters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.