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CATHY WURZER: I'm Cathy Wurzer. It's morning edition on Minnesota Public Radio News. Most of us know the story of the Andrews Sisters, the singing group that started in Minneapolis and became big stars of the stage and screen. What is much less well known is the story of a group billed as the Chinese Andrews Sisters.

[KIM LOO SISTERS, "GEE! THE JEEP JUMPS"] Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, call me Susie, Gee! The jeep jumps

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, I'm woozy

Gee! The jeep jumps

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, get rocking--

CATHY WURZER: The Kim Loo Sisters were also from Minneapolis, the daughters of a Chinese father and a Polish mother. In the 1930s and '40s, they performed on Vaudeville, Broadway, national radio broadcasts, and in the movies. But their story as pioneer Asian-Americans in the entertainment industry has been lost to history.

The producer of a documentary currently in production hopes to change that. She tracked down archival video and audio, and brought all four of the Kim Loo sisters together again to reminisce. Here's a clip from the documentary in which one of the sisters describes how visits to see her father, who was a waiter at the old Nankin Cafe in downtown Minneapolis, helped them develop the act.

JENÉE LI: I used to take the streetcar by myself and go to daddy's restaurant where he worked. I'd have lunch there with daddy. I'd have chicken chow mein. I loved it. And he would take me next door to the Pantages Theater to watch a movie. If it was a musical, all the better.

And then I would go home on the streetcar and I would relate everything to my sisters. Dialogue, dancing, everything that happened. And through all of that, we created our own dances.

SPEAKER 3: Yes.

JENÉE LI: Nobody-- we didn't have a choreographer when we were kids.

CATHY WURZER: That's Jenée Li, one of the four original Kim Loo sisters. Her daughter, Leslie Li, is producing the documentary about the singing group. And Leslie joins me this morning from New York City. Good morning, Leslie.

LESLIE LI: Good morning, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: How did your mother and her sisters get started in show business?

LESLIE LI: It was because my auntie Alice, the oldest, was bowlegged, and her pediatrician suggested to my grandmother, their mother, that she take dancing lessons. She did so well that as more children came along, they also went to dancing school. At [INAUDIBLE] suggestion, they were very good, so he said, look, I understand you don't have that much money to send four children to dancing school, so he charged them 4 for the price of 1.

And pretty soon, he suggested that they could have an act of their own. They were that good. They were discovered really by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra--

CATHY WURZER: Right.

LESLIE LI: --who came to Minneapolis. And apparently, he was going to put on a show using local, talented children. And my grandmother thought, well, there's an opportunity. Maybe he'll take one of my children. So they went for the interview. And my mother was the acrobat. The two older sisters, Alice and Maggie, they did a tap dance routine. And auntie Bubbles did an impersonation of Sophie Tucker Some of These Days. And he took all of them. He said, I want all of these children to be in this program.

JENÉE LI: I would come out and introduce--

SPEAKER 3: Oh, yes.

JENÉE LI: Ladies and gentlemen, and little folks, too. I want to introduce to you a Chinese Revue that was quite up to date. It consists of our mother-- you'll see her. Just wait. Six brothers and sisters in one little nest. And so I present the East to the West.

SPEAKER 5: Here we are. And you and I, let the world--

CATHY WURZER: In time then, the girls went off-- all four girls went off and became the Kim Loo Sisters. Did they play up their Chinese-Polish background? Or how did that work on stage for them?

LESLIE LI: I think they really played up their Chinese and their American backgrounds. They would appear in Chinese gowns. They would come out with their hands folded and very demure, looking very stereotypical Chinese, but then they would break out into American jazz. It was a kind of playing upon and breaking the stereotype of the Chinese, demure, passive, submissive woman.

(KIM LOO SISTERS SINGING) It's the very same old story

Boy meets girl at first glance

There's romance

She looks into his eyes and softly, she sighs

Take me

Honey, won't you--

[JACK NORWORTH, "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME"] Take me out to the ball game

Take me out with the crowd

Find me--

CATHY WURZER: I'm curious Leslie, and now I know that the Kim Loo Sisters were really riding a wave of popularity. And your mom decided to leave the group because she wanted to get married.

LESLIE LI: I know one sister, my auntie Bubbles, was devastated when my mother said she wanted to marry and leave the act. And my auntie Bubble said, you cannot leave the act. I'll never forgive you. I mean eventually, I'm sure my auntie Bubbles forgave my mother.

CATHY WURZER: Sure.

LESLIE LI: But they thought this is going to ruin the act, which wasn't the case. Thankfully. And the three of them went on really to continue as the three Kim Loo Sisters, and appeared in a number of Broadway musical revues, including Hellzapoppin' with Jackie Gleason.

They appeared as the only other females in the Ina Ray Hutton orchestra as a vocal trio. They appeared at the Astor hotel. They followed Benny Goodman. I mean, they played with enormous stars such as Frank Sinatra, the Three Stooges. So they did continue. They still were quite popular-- despite the fact that my mother left-- as a trio, and no longer as a quartet.

CATHY WURZER: I thought upon watching the documentary, of course, the sisters play off one another beautifully. They finish each other's sentences. I'm sure you learned a lot about your family doing the interviews for the documentary.

LESLIE LI: Cathy, I only knew that they had been on stage. That's all I knew. When I was a child, I remember they would kind of break out into song in the kitchen when they were together and cooking Easter supper or Christmas dinner. My mother would tap dance when she was waxing the kitchen floor. That's all I knew about the Kim Loo Sisters.

When I started to interview them, that's when I realized that they really were pioneers in their field. There were very few Asian-American entertainers who broke out of the chop suey circuit into mainstream American entertainment, who made it to Broadway, who made it to the Hollywood screen. And the Kim Loo Sisters did that. They didn't even know that they were pioneers.

CATHY WURZER: I wish you all the best with this, Leslie. It was, I'm sure, a great project to get yourself involved in, become a documentary maker, and learn about your family history too.

LESLIE LI: Thank you so much, Cathy, for this opportunity to share this with your audience.

CATHY WURZER: That's Leslie Li. Her documentary about the Kim Loo Sisters is still in production. Before it can be released, she needs to raise enough money to acquire the rights for the copyrighted music in the program. For more information about her project, go to mprnews.org.

[JACK NORWORTH, "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME"] Won't you take me out to the ball game

You don't have to buy me diamond rings or sable

I'll be satisfied as long as you are able

To buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack

I don't care if I never get back

Root, scream, yell for the home team

If they don't win, it's a shame

For it's one strike

Two strikes

Three strikes, you're out

At the old ball game

[APPLAUSE]

SPEAKER 6: The Kim Loo Sisters, ladies and gentlemen.