The Kim Sisters

History

Starting in 1953, with the encouragement of their mother and aunt, and to support their family after they lost everything during a bombing, the sisters sang Hoagy Carmichael's Country-Western tune "Ole Buttermilk Sky" and "Candy and Cake" to U.S. troops, who would donate rock and roll records for the sisters to memorize. South Korea was impoverished at the time, and the sisters received chocolate bars and beer for their performances, which they then exchanged for nutritious food. GIs who returned to the States spread word about the talented trio. In Los Angeles, producer Ball heard about the talented youngsters from one of the returning GIs. Ball went to South Korea to see the sisters and secured a contract through the Kims' mother. He became their manager.

Before the sisters departed South Korea, their mother advised them to learn to play instruments. They arrived in Los Angeles and drove to Las Vegas and lived in a one bedroom apartment across from the Sahara Hotel. After they fulfilled their contract at the Thunderbird, the entertainment director for the Stardust Hotel picked up their option. In their eighth month at the Stardust, Ed Sullivan saw the sisters perform and requested that they appear on his show.

For years after arriving in America, the sisters kept trying unsuccessfully to obtain a visa for their mother to travel to the U.S. With the help of Sullivan, who knew of their mother's fame in South Korea, Lee Nan-young was finally able to come to the U.S. One condition of Sullivan's assistance in obtaining the visa for the sisters' mother was that she, too, appear on his show. In 1967, all three girls were married, Mia to Tommy Vig, a Hungarian-born music prodigy and jazz percussionist. He played in the same hotel as the girls. The trio broke up when Mia moved to Los Angeles with her husband and became a full-time mother. Ai-ja and Sook-ja continued performing with their brothers in the group The Kim Brothers. Ai-ja died in 1987 from lung cancer; Mia moved to Budapest in 2006.