Cache Valley natives the Benson Sisters will recreate the music of the Big Band Era during their “A 40’s Holiday” concert at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Friday. Pictured here are (from left) Lisa Benson, Connie Benson Starks and Julie Benson Surjolopos.
LOGAN – The singing Benson Sisters will provide a salute to the Big Band Era with “A 40’s Holiday” at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Friday.
The event will also be a homecoming of sorts for Lisa Benson and her sisters, Julie Benson Surjolopos and Connie Benson Starks.
“We grew up in Logan and Cache Valley,” says Lisa Benson, adding that her family was deeply involved in the “An Evening with Glenn Miller” shows that were staged for decades at Utah State University.
Glenn Miller was a trombonist, composer and orchestra leader in the Big Band Era of the 1940s. His orchestra’s recordings of pop tunes of that day scored 16 number one hits between 1939 and 1942, when Miller volunteered to join the Army Air Corps. Miller died in an aircraft mishap in December 1944.
“Our father – Jan Benson – dressed as Glenn Miller throughout our early lives for those USU events …” she explains. “Because that show ran for so many years, my sister and I grew up with the music of the Big Band Era always playing in our home. So it was like we were living in the 1940s and our dad really was Glenn Miller.”
The Andrews Sisters were another popular act of the Big Band Era. The trio’s close harmony singing on the 1941 hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” is still widely admired.
As youngsters, the Benson daughters recaptured that three-part harmony when they performed as the Andrews Sisters in a few shows prior to cancellation of the USU Glenn Miller salutes due to budget cuts more than a decade ago.
About five years ago, the Benson sisters teamed up with a group that collects World War II memorabilia to sing music appropriate to that era during their historic displays.
“The reaction we got was so strong (while singing at a Veterans’ Day event at Weber State University in Ogden) that we thought that maybe we should keeping doing this,” Lisa Benson recalls.
Since then, the sisters have performed wearing borrowed World War II uniforms at fireworks shows, corporate events, birthday parties and veterans’ homes.
“People love this kind of music,” Lisa Benson emphasizes, “especially the (World War II) veterans and younger children who grew up in that era. Our singing seems to take them back to a very special time in their lives.”
Lisa Benson adds that she and her sister jumped at the chance to join the holiday line-up of Random Acts events at the Eccles Theatre because they wanted to take their Andrews Sisters salute to the next level.
“The setting (of our show) will be London during the war, with us performing a USO show in that atmosphere,” she explains. “We’ll do some of our 1940s tunes, give a salute to the military by singing the various armed services’ anthems, bring in the holiday spirit with some lovely Christmas songs and do some a cappella singing as well. We hope it will be emotional, fun and very special.”
CacheARTS director Wendi Hassan says that Random Acts events at the Eccles Theatre are a cooperative effort with local and regional artists to replace traditional holiday season events that have been cancelled under the current threat of heightened COVID-19 infection rates.
Those Random Acts shows will fully comply with current state guidelines for organized public gatherings, she adds, including requirements for all audience members to wear face coverings throughout the performances.
The Random Acts Community Performance Series, Hassan explains, is being subsidized by grants from the “Create in Utah” program are provided through the federal CARES Act by the Utah Legislature and administered by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.