Leota was the first to leave home to pursue a musical career in
New York in the mid-
1920s. In 1928 Dorothy followed Leota to New York. The girls shared an apartment and made the theatrical rounds. They eventually obtained parts in a
Gus Edwards show,
Greenwich Village Follies. It was Edwards who changed their names to Lane, and consequently Dorothy became Lola Lane.
Martha, meanwhile, eloped with a college professor and moved to Des Moines. She had no interest in show business. She had a child, later divorced, and became a medical secretary.
Leota and Lola both made their
Broadway debuts in the late twenties, Lola in 1928, as Sally Moss in
The War Song, which opened on Broadway on the twenty-fourth of August, 1928, at the
Nederlander Theatre (then known as the National Theatre) and Leota in 1929 as Contrary Mary in
Babes In Toyland, which opened on the twenty-third of December, 1929 at
Jolson's 59th Street Theatre. The War Song closed four months into its run but Lola soon went to
Hollywood where she made her debut starring as Alice Woods alongside
Paul Page in the drama
Speakeasy (1929). She was soon teamed with Page again in the film
The Girl From Havana (1929) as Joan Anders. Meanwhile
Babes In Toyland closed after only thirty-two performances. Leota then followed her sister to Hollywood where she made her only screen appearance in a comedy short directed by
Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle called
Three Hollywood Girls (1931). She soon returned to New York. Dr. Mullican strenuously objected to his younger daughters following theatrical careers, but Cora was determined.
Priscilla, was known as a tomboy, played baseball, climbed trees, and wanted to become a trapeze artist. Cora Mullican once said that "Rosemary was the lively one, the game-getter-upper." "Gee," Rosemary once told her mother when she was a schoolgirl, "if you'd just adopt four children, we'd have a baseball team!"
Rosemary and Priscilla travelled to Des Moines every weekend to study dancing with
Rose Lorenz.
The girls made their first professional appearance
September 30, 1930, at Des Moines' Paramount Theater. Rosemary, then 17, and Priscilla, 15, performed on stage as part of the entertainment accompanying the release of Lola's Hollywood movie
Good News.
Rosemary, a member of the National Honor Society, graduated from Indianola High in 1931 and attended Simpson College for a while, playing on the freshman basketball team.
After graduating from high school, Priscilla was permitted to travel to New York to visit Leota who was then appearing in a musical revue in Manhattan. Priscilla decided to enroll at the nearby Fagen School of Dramatics and Leota paid the fee. At this time talent agent
Al Altman saw Priscilla performing in one of Fagen’s school plays and invited her to
screentest for
MGM. She was 16 years old.
Priscilla wrote to a friend in Indianola, "Leota accompanied me to a sort of theater in a New York skyscraper. Others were there being made up. One was a strange looking girl with her hair slicked back in a sort of a bun. Her name is said to be
Catherine [sic] Hepburn. Not very pretty, I thought, but Mr. Altman said she has something.
Margaret Sullavan, the Broadway actress, was there too!"
A follow-up letter said that her test had proven unsuitable. Neither Hepburn nor Sullavan were approved, and neither received a contract from MGM at the time.
In the meantime, Cora had left her husband and in 1932, accompanied by Rosemary, arrived in New York. Cora immediately went to work pushing her two young daughters into attending auditions for various prospective Broadway productions, without success. It was while the girls were trying out numbers at a music publishing office that
Fred Waring, an orchestra leader, heard them harmonizing. He found them attractive and individually talented. In early 1933 with Cora’s approval they were signed to a contract with Waring. Cora acted as chaperone to Rosemary and Priscilla who at this time adopted the name Lane.
Fred Waring not only toured with his band, known as "The Pennsylvanians", but had a weekly radio show. Priscilla quickly became known as the comedienne of the group. Rosemary sang the ballads while Priscilla performed the swing numbers and wisecracked with Waring and various guests. Dr. Mullican instituted divorce proceedings against his wife on the grounds of desertion, and the divorce was granted in 1933.
Rosemary and Priscilla remained with Fred Waring for almost five years. In 1937, Waring was engaged by
Warner Bros. in Hollywood to appear with his entire band in
Varsity Show, a musical starring
Dick Powell. Both Rosemary and Priscilla were tested and awarded feature roles in the film. Rosemary shared the romantic passages with Powell, while Priscilla was a high-spirited college girl.
Although Lola had been in Hollywood since 1929, she had twice retired from the screen for marriage. Now she had made a comeback. She was second lead to
Bette Davis in the
melodrama, Marked Woman, and won critical acclaim. Lola played the part of Gaby, a tough clip joint "hostess." Warners awarded her a contract in 1937. Her somewhat exotic looks suited the hard-edge roles she found at Warner Bros. studios.
Fan mail began to pour into the studio inquiring about the three young actresses. It was revealed that Priscilla was fresh, wholesome, sincere, and straightforward. She was blonde and blue-eyed, weighed 102 pounds, stood 5 feet 2 ½ inches and sported an 18-inch waist. She was athletic, swam every day, was an excellent tennis player, and rode horseback. She was, however, very feminine and loved perfumes and flowers. She was passionate about cats and owned twelve. Her musical tastes tended to be serious, as she preferred classical music. She read mystery stories for relaxation. She was superstitious and would not wear her favorite color blue on Mondays, considered Wednesday her best day, and seven her lucky number. In later years she said she had worn an old pair of brown shoes for luck in at least one scene in every film she made. Priscilla shared a rented ranch home in the San Fernando Valley with her mother and Rosemary.
Warner’s purchased Priscilla and Rosemary’s contract from Fred Waring and signed them to seven-year pacts. Priscilla’s first film after
Varsity Show was
Men are Such Fools, in which she was starred opposite
Wayne Morris. This was followed by
Love Honor and Behave, another light romantic comedy again with Morris and
Cowboy From Brooklyn again teaming with
Dick Powell. The publicity department at the studio suggested that Priscilla and Morris be seen together around town; they liked each other and did date for a period; however, Priscilla later said it was never serious on either side. Rosemary's first film after
Varsity Show was the musical
Hollywood Hotel, in which she co-starred with sister Lola and former co-star Dick Powell, before starring in
Gold Diggers In Paris, opposite
Rudy Vallee.
Priscilla was next assigned the lead in
Brother Rat, which had been a very successful Broadway play. Again she played opposite
Wayne Morris, and among the cast were such newcomers as
Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Jane Bryan, and
Eddie Albert. The film, when released in October 1938, was a big success for all the young players.
At this time of professional success, the sisters were informed that Dr. Mullican had died in Iowa.