Author Description

Maxene, Patty and LaVerne - the Andrew Sisters. Their songs and-can-do singing style immortalized the 1930s and 40s. Their upbeat, three-part harmony brightened the spirits of Americans at home and abroad during the dark years of World War Il. In Over Here, Over There, Maxene Andrews and Bill Gilbert make those years come alive again in a richly nostalgic, warmly affectionate look back at a country at war - and the talented men and women who entertained the troops who were fighting it. Touring America fifty weeks a year, singing songs like "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," the Andrew Sisters played to standing-room-only civilian audiences in theaters and auditoriums, performed at war bond rallies in Times Square and the Hollywood Canteen, visited soldiers at military posts and hospitals, and traveled to North Africa, Sicily and Europe for the USO. Over Here, Over There is also the story of the many other stars - Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ann Sheridan, Kathryn Grayson, Abbott and Costello, Mickey Rooney, and Glenn Miller, to name only a few - who entertained a combined audience of 161 million servicemen and women in just four years. Here's a singer's soft strains of "Abide With Me" over a fresh muddy grave in Anzio... Ann Miller collapsing after twenty-four hours at a hotel-turned-hospital... Patty Andrews announcing V-J Day and the end of the war to a stunned GI audience in Naples. Brimming with the energy, the excitement, the sense of camaraderie - and the music - of the times, Over here, Over There is a lovingly crafted memoir and tribute to the unforgettable moment in our history when a unique blend of national unity, loyalty and spirit brought Americans together as never before... and never since.