Sweet Adelines International 75th Jubilee Commemorative Album

As members of Sweet Adelines discover the joy of performance, they realize “heavy street make-up” and ever-so-smart business suits (or not-so- smart housedresses) don’t serve them well on stage. Those lights! They make performers’ faces look washed out — or worse, like relief maps of the world’s great river systems. And costumes! After spirited discussions, chapter members vote on which costumes they “like,” with each individual considering: “what costume looks good on me?” Costume committees often hear, “Don’t worry. I’m going to lose ten pounds by contest time.” The idea of buying costumes is dismissed as too expensive, especially since so many members sew. Local fabric shops experience frantic runs on Vogue and Simplicity patterns. Amazingly, quartets and chapters keep secret what they’re wearing on the competition stage. As if another group would copy their selection! Oh! And about your crowning glory, board member Mavis Burtness admonished members to be sure that on stage, their “stage head” was in place, even if it meant wearing wigs. “After all,” she said, “you don’t want to look like pinheads on stage.”

The Pitch Pipe (Autumn 1965) comes to the rescue with some advice about stage appearance:

On Costumes The key word is distinctive. We must consider all the persons involved. We must consider whether a certain color, style or accessory is complimentary to all… appropriate for a Sweet Adeline competition… we must personalize our appearance. By color, style, or accessory, we must set ourselves apart to the extent that we are distinctive…remember we are ladies and our appearance must always be in good taste and within the bounds of decorum. —Marie McArtor, The Pitch Pipe, Autumn, 1965

Why I Sing

An old college friend of mine, Peg Millard, invited me to attend a rehearsal. We sang in a quartet in college. I was a math major and the other three studied music. She thinks I will enjoy singing in a chorus. And maybe, I’ll join a quartet. “Oh, it’s only one evening a week,” she says. I go. I thought I just joined a singing organization. I found out that I could create a whole new way of life for myself and my family. Twenty-three years later I directed the Valley

Forge Chorus on the International Stage. And we won the contest! —Jan Touring Muck, Region #19, member since 1960

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