The Andrews Sisters the group was formed, and 12 when they won first prize at a talent contest at the local Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, where LaVerne played piano accompaniment for the silent film showings in exchange for free dancing lessons for herself and her sisters. Following the collapse of their father's Minneapolis restaurant, the sisters went on the road to support the family. They started their career as imitators of an earlier successful singing group, the Boswell Sisters, who were popular in the 1930s. After singing with various dance bands and touring in vaudeville with the likes of Leon Belasco (and his
The Andrews Sisters some eccentric steps. Thus, in "Argentine Nights" and the sisters' next film, "Buck Privates", the Andrews Sisters dance like the Ritz Brothers. "Buck Privates", with Abbott and Costello, featured the Andrews Sisters' best-known song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." This Don Raye-Hughie Prince composition was nominated for Best Song at the 1941 Academy Awards ceremony. Universal hired the sisters for two more Abbott and Costello comedies and then promoted them to full-fledged stardom in B musicals. "What's Cookin'?", "Private Buckaroo", "Give Out, Sisters" (in which they disguise themselves as old women as part of the zany plot) and "Moonlight and Cactus"