Friday 19 April 2013

Lee and Lyn Wilde (American singers, twins, nonagenarians)

* Now aged 90, the Wilde Twins were born on different dates either side of midnight.

Lee and Lyn Wilde, sometimes billed as The Wilde Twins, are twin sisters, who appeared in films of the early to mid-1940s.

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Lee is the older of the two, born shortly before midnight of October 10, 1922, with Lyn born in the early hours of the following morning.

They began singing with their siblings in church, and by their teens were singing hymns for their local radio station, as well as performing in Illinois and Kentucky. They graduated from East St. Louis Senior High School in 1939. By 1940 they were band singers, and in 1942 they made their film debuts, as vocalists for the Charlie Barnet Band, performing one song in the Harriet Hilliard film Juke Box Jenny. They also performed with Bob Crosby for a short while. Further live performances led to another featured film appearance in the Judy Garland film Presenting Lily Mars in 1942. Joe Pasternak was impressed by them and signed them to a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. They played small roles in Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944), followed by Twice Blessed, a film written specifically for them to introduce them to a wider audience.

The sisters appeared in nine films together up until 1949. Lyn briefly continued her film career after that, appearing in six more films until 1953. They married brothers, Jim and Tom Cathcart, and focused their attentions on family life, rather than continuing in show business, but they retained a love of music. After leaving show business, Lee pursued many activities, including flying. She earned her pilots license in 1961. She also attended college in Palm Desert, earning an Associates Degree from College of the Desert, and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Languages from the University of California at Irvine. In 1989, they recorded a reunion album titled Back to Together Once Again and continued to perform occasionally into the 1990s.

Read more from their Wikipedia biographies.

Photo source: Yank, the Army Weekly 3 August 1945.


HOROSCOPE NOTES

The sunny-faced twins seem to have their Suns in Libra on their ICs ruling Leo Ascendants.


NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Marion Lee Wilde, 9 October 1922, about 23:50 (11:50 p.m.) CST (+6), East St. Louis, Illinois, USA (38n37, 90w09). ASC: about 00 Leo. RR: B (from website biography).

BIRTH DATA: Mary Lyn Wilde, 10 October 1922, about 00:10 (12:10 a.m.) CST (+6), East St. Louis, Illinois, USA (38n37, 90w09). ASC: about 04 Leo. RR: B (from website biography).

SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) cites data from Lee Wilde Cathcart quoted on the "Wilde Twins Biography" <www.zianet.com/jjohnson/wt2.htm>: "Marion Lee and Mary Lyn Wilde were born in East St. Louis, Illinois on October 10, 1922. Technically, they had different birth dates - Lee was born just before midnight and Lyn followed just after midnight. So, Lee assumed the role of Big Sister."

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Lee Wilde Chart

Lyn Wilde Chart

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