Following the Manhattan Dolls

Holiday Season, 2011

2012-01-13T10:45:00.000-05:00

Christmas Marathon

Nov-Dec 2011

Dearest Dolls Fans,

College of the Albemarle
Elizabeth City, NC

Hello out there. I know you haven’t heard from me in a while and that is because we have been swamped with the Christmas season! Heather and Sheila have been performing double duty, singing for a Christmas caroling company (www.partysingers.com) along with all of our Dolls gigs. Thank goodness we have two sets of girls! We started off the season bright eyed and bushy tailed after a mini-tour for Veterans Day and a memorable show with David Fanning at the Triad here in Manhattan. We’d had a consistently busy fall and were so excited to continue through the end of the year.

The Triad - NYC
With David Fanning

We sang in office buildings, shopping malls, senior communities, holiday parties, and local theaters. We did everything from a few tunes, to full stage shows. We went as close as Brooklyn and as far away as Ohio. We did our annual Christmas show at the Dover Air Force Base Museum holiday party and performed three shows in thirty hours in two different states. My personal favorite was a vintage Christmas party in Sandy Hook, New Jersey at an old Army house. The house was built in 1898 and decorated as it would have been in 1943. There was apple cider and cocoa on the stove and Santa Claus by the fireplace. We drove home along the shore at sunset. We went through countless rental cars and more than a handful of planes.

We were rewarded with smiles, happy children, and jolly old St. Nick everywhere we went. On our final day of caroling, we began with my first three time gig. I sang at this midtown office building last year, and even the year before that. It was Shannon’s first show back in 2009 and this year it was our last show together; at least for a while. She will be going on a retreat and then on tour performing her own music.

Later that day, we had a last minute gig come in. It was a surprise office party and we were surprise entertainment for the employees. There was cake, cookies and God bless them…champagne. They invited us to a drink after the show so Heather, Sarah and I got to toast the conclusion to a marathon of caroling with a glass of champagne on a very high floor in a downtown office building. As I sipped my bubbling beverage I reflected on the past season, the past year and my time with this group. I feel nothing but gratitude to be a part of something so special. It is my privilege to bring music, joy and nostalgia to others. I feel so blessed to have spent my Christmas filled with the holiday spirit and to be given the opportunity to do what I love with this fine bunch of ladies. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, a happy holiday and here’s to a fantastic new year!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano

Manhattan Doll

Weekend in Alpena

2012-01-13T10:32:00.001-05:00

Alpena, Michigan

Oct 20-23, 2011

A toast!

Dearest Dolls Fans,

Due to a low ceiling at Alpena local airport, we flew into Pellston instead despite heavy crosswinds. The latest episode of Pan Am featured terrifying crosswinds therefore thoroughly freaking out Heather and Sarah as our little puddle jumper tried to get us to the ground in one piece. I went into full crisis management mode adopting my yoga voice and encouraging them into meditation. Apparently Pellston is farther away from Alpena than we thought and we had to bear a ninety minute bus ride the rest of the way. Speaking of bears…

Needless to say, we were late to our own radio interview. Once we got there, we were greeted with smiles despite our tardiness. After the interview, the played the radio commercial they made for the weekend’s events featuring our CD!

Jenny, our hostess escorted us to the Courtyard restaurant where we were scheduled to play Saturday evening. Lora and Chris own the restaurant and we absolutely wanted to bring them home with us! I fall in love with almost everyone who feeds me but this is what they had to offer: bread baked on premises, regular and garlic, bottle of Malbec, pumpkin gorgonzola flatbreads, fig and goat cheese salad, and an almond crasin salad. Now to the entrees. Heather wanted steak so Angie, Jenny’s daughter (Angie we LOVE your mother!!), suggested a gorgonzola stuffed steak with caramelized onions on top covered in a balsamic glaze. Sarah had some sort of delicious chicken dish. And whenever short ribs are on a menu, I lose control. These were paired with a sweet potato mash. Sweet potato is by far my absolute favorite food to end all foods. Get this. Lora so desperately wanted us to try the halibut with the truffle risotto that she just sent it out. Even I was stuffed after the salad course. We took home two big bags full of leftover containers. And when I say “home” I mean the four bedroom house that is the General’s quarters on the air base. We even had a “costume room.”

Friday began with me succumbing to the flu-like cold I had been fighting all week. I woke up, made coffee and tagged along with the girls to breakfast but I barely ate a thing. You know it’s bad when I don’t want to eat. Despite the chocolate raspberry latte Heather had, I stuck with my tea. We went to the Coffee Shoppe. Rustic décor is interrupted only by the giant flat screen TV on which my Cortizone commercial appeared instantly upon our entrance. No joke. We all started screaming at once startling the mellow 11AM population of downtown Alpena. To make us feel even more important, our poster complete with a photo was hanging by the door advertising our weekend of shows. Still not feeling top notch, I did manage to get down a mini bagel with peanut butter, honey and banana. Like cereal- not a meal but, insurance against passing out. The girls typed away on their computers, enjoying the free Wi-Fi while I snuggled into a big chair and watched the original Disney animated Sword and the Stone. Happiness.

The Ball! For my first Military Ball, this princess could not be more excited! At the top of the evening, we sang a few songs with the band as a teaser for the show. Then the presentation was set to begin. They honored all veterans, in particular, two WWII vets; one soldier and one nurse. After the POW MIA reflection we heard the stories of the honorees. It was all so formal which is typical of the military but I think this is what makes it a “ball.” It would not be enough to call it a “dinner” or even an “event.” The toasting is quite an event in and of itself. There were about ten toasts listed on a card and apparently no one is set to give them. People just shout out toasts from their seats. Some listed on the card, some not listed on the card. You have to take a sip at each one. They are shouted very emphatically and everyone has to say the proper response. A toast! To the Commander! To the Chief! To the President!

As dinner was being served, we changed costumes and performed. We made a great fuss over the WWII vet, especially during Bei mir bist du Schon. I don’t think he minded! About halfway through our set I guess I started feeling better because I swear the front row could hear my stomach singing along. If you have been following this blog at all, you will have noticed that a mini bagel-no matter how much peanut butter- does not hold me all day long! At this point it was about 8:30pm. Mama’s hungry! After Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy we just about bee lined it to the dinner table. There were more presentations and recognitions and just as I was starting to think this might be a good time to go to the bathroom, we got called up to the stage.

Here it is folks. A commander presented each one of us with our very own challenger coin. That’s right. He looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and when he let go, there was a challenger coin in my hand. That thing went straight down my bra and that is where it stayed for the rest of the weekend. No one is catching me without that thing!

We did a solo set with the band and then they played it out as we made dancing fools of ourselves. Heather and Sarah met them out after the party but this doll needs to fight the germs and go to bed! I was asleep before mindnight so I guess I missed my opportunity to lose my shoe at the ball…the next morning I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after a good long beauty rest and made coffee for my more sluggish partners in crime. All I know is, I got up to go to the bathroom at 2:30 and they still weren’t back yet.

Long day ahead! We went around the town of Alpena from store to store and sang a few tunes promoting our final show at the Courtyard. Each store had donated something to a gift basket for each of us. We got flavored gourmet coffee from the Coffee Shoppe (which I am drinking as I type), bracelets, makeup, chocolates and all kinds of goodies! The Marketplace gave us wine stoppers with legs that wiggle as if a little Manhattan Doll went head first into the wine! It was at the Marketplace where I met my first batch of triplets. They were the young sons of the owner possibly about eight years old. Truly a novelty. Our baskets were all put together by Sherryl Kelly who owns the Out House. We LOVE the Out House which is a store of beautiful home goods, Tom’s shoes, Mary Kay, handmade socks and beautiful things of every kind! We may have accidentally made a few purchases…

After an afternoon of what felt like Christmas caroling, we took a break and then it was off to the Courtyard for our final show! The evening was an event honoring all Veterans. They were adorned with red white and blue carnations. Once again, Lora and Chris out did themselves. This place was packed! At the end of the performance, we sat down to the final meal. This time it was the pumpkin pasta, the seared Ahi Tuna with a wasabi cream sauce and seaweed salad, and the Cajun shrimp with a pasta side doused in a creamy cheesy homemade sauce. And….Lora wanted us to try another steak dish with mushroom, potato and spinach so out it came! Every morsel was to-die-for. We did have some small salads but no apps because we were holding out for dessert. We ordered the brownie sundae but the piece de resistance was Lora’s mom’s pumpkin cheesecake. It is a layer of pumpkin cheesecake, layer of caramel, layer of pumpkin pie topped with cream on a graham cracker crust. Did you fall over just reading about it? I thought so. This was all accompanied by a bottle of pinot grigio. Well, two bottles. Lora brought out a second “emergency backup.” A toast! To the most delicious food ever!

Earlier in the evening, there had been a newscaster filming during the show and interviewing us a bit. Just as we were getting ready to leave, there we were on the local news. Heather’s interview made the cut and we were local stars! All in all, a GREAT weekend in Alpena! Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano

Manhattan Doll

VA Beach WWI Airshow, Biplanes & Triplanes

2011-11-02T11:31:00.000-04:00

October 7-9, 2011

Surrender Dorothy!

Dearest Dolls Fans,

After we landed and checked into the stunning Cavalier hotel we went straight over to the airfield. We
almost drove right by it because we were so distracted by the dinosaurs out front. Ok, we did drive right by it and had to turn around. There was not much for us to do that evening but we did get to meet Chris (Project Manager) and his wife Christie’s new baby. She was just seven weeks old. The following day she was dressed appropriately for the airshow in a teeny tiny flapper dress complete with hair band. We debuted our new dresses for a small but very appreciative audience.

There were hot air balloons. Riding in a hot air balloon is on Heather’s “bucket list.” Turns out, hot air balloons don’t always know when or where they are going to land. We had another show that evening and so could not chance going up in one. We had to settle for taking photos in the basket. They started

blowing the fire and we had to hop out very quickly before it carried us away!

We performed with the wonderful Terry Chesson Band for the hangar party, singing and dancing the night away. It’s a good thing we didn’t go up in the balloon because just after our set, one of the pilots came over to us and said he had just landed!

The after party was held in the re-enactors’ encampment. Earlier in the day, we played with all the old fashioned memorabilia they had on display and were invited back to the tent after the show. They had cooked up some hot mulled wine on their outdoor hot plate. We sat around with minimal lighting from candles and lanterns with the re-enactors, two RAF servicemen who are stationed in Virginia, and their Westie dog Lochy. I grew up with a Westie One guy was smoking a pipe. The RAF guys even brought over Pimms. It was the kind of night we couldn’t photograph. The lighting was dim and a camera just could not capture the coziness of the camp- the smell of the spiced wine and the sweet pipe, the sound of the dog’s tags, the crispness to the early fall air and the warmth of the tin cup between my hands. It was the perfect ending to a beautiful day.

The next day I was standing onstage when a quiet man comes up asking which one of us is Annemarie.
Why that’s me! Turns out he’s my friend’s father. “I’m Nathan’s dad.”
“Who?” I call him Nate.
“Nathan Harris.”
“You’re Nate’s dad?! Great to meet you…” I went on and on about how he should stay to see the show and how I just saw Nate the other day and I think I scared him away.

By the afternoon, Sarah was hurting pretty bad. She has a broken rib. Do you know why? She’s a super hero, that’s why. A few days before, at home in Queens her purse got stolen right off her arm. Instead of crying and calling the police, she ran right after him. She chased a crashing meth addict into a building wrapped her arms around him and tackled him to the floor. She got her purse back. Passersby had run out of their homes and stores. One guy even ran out of his shower when he heard her yelling. They had already called the police who arrested the guy right away. So, yes she’s a super hero but even a super hero sustains a few injuries sometimes and the tap dancing we were doing was messing her up something awful. We took a break and visited the new hangar which, I had discovered, was under construction the year before. We took a few photos with the WWII planes courtesy of our photographer friend Klaus to put a cap on a relaxing and exciting weekend!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano
Manhattan Doll

Dolls US Tour 2011 - From AZ to NYC!

2011-10-27T11:17:00.000-04:00

August 15-September 12, 2011

Dearest Dolls Fans,

There is no better place to start our first US Tour then in sunny Arizona! I had been in Tucson working at the wonderful Gaslight Theatre in their summer show, Gnatman (spoof on Batman), when the Dolls arrived to Tucson. My lovely parents, Sharon and Michael, were kind enough to house us for our week in AZ. We met up with our band and 2 male guest stars early Monday, Aug. 15, at the theater to rehearse and sound check. It was a busy day with 2 packed shows and great audiences. Mike Yarema, Gaslight favorite and our usual emcee in AZ, made a special guest appearance in “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” surprising us in a full zuit suit, slicked hair and, to top it off, a toothpick. Classic. David Fanning joined us again as our Sinatra-style soloist singing some beautiful solos as well as some group numbers with us, including a heartfelt “God Bless the USA” which received a standing ovation! David also surprised us for the second show when we came on for “Don’t Fence Me In” wearing head-to-toe white furry chaps. Thanks for that, Fanning. Singing three-part harmony while choking on laughter…not the easiest thing in the world. Totally worth it.

After the second show we headed straight to Chicago Bar, our usual Tucson hang-out after shows, to support our friends The Ronstadts (www.ronstadtgenerations.com) and dance the night away! It was quite a night.

The rest of the week I had double duty Dolls/Gaslight shows which was tiring but a blast. Highlights of the week were dinner with Jeannie and Jason (Jeannie and Heather were college roommates and have been best friends for 15 years), Remember the King Elvis show is Saddlebrooke (Robert Shaw is amazing!), photo shoot with the ridiculously talented Joe Hubbard, pool time, shoe shopping, The Dolls seeing Gnatman and movie nights!

On Wednesday, Aug. 17, we returned to La Cholla Country Club to perform for the lovely folks there and had a wonderful time singing the tunes they remember so fondly. There is nothing quite like seeing somebody in the audience mouthing along with you every single word to every song. We had the pleasure of meeting Bill, a former football player for New Castle FC in England and Hilda, a lovely lady and former singer, moved to tears by our music and performance. It was a very special day.

On Friday night, Aug. 19, we had the pleasure of returning to Canyon Ranch to sing a few a cappella sets during cocktail hour. (or “mocktail hour” as there is no alcohol permitted at CR!) We had a great response and cannot wait to return to perform again at their New Year’s Eve Gala at the end of the year where we will also be debuting our new 50s/60s show!

We packed up the car Sunday afternoon after the closing of Gnatman to start making our way to Texas! I don’t usually like long car rides, but I will admit that traveling with these hilarious Dolls makes the time fly by. From Tucson to Fort Stockton we had a full on car concert of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Brendan James, Shannon Corey (Doll!), Michael Jackson, Casey Abrams, Cee Lo, Adele and more, all in three-part harmony of course. Making a few stops along the way to take pictures with my new original Mike Yarema painting and to switch drivers, we were in Fort Stockton by 2:30am Texas time.

~Heather "Doll"

Now to Sheila "Doll".....

A tour is not a tour by just it's extended stays alone.. It's the bits and pieces in between that help make it complete. After a fantastic visit to Arizona, we headed to Texas! Our first stop was in Stockton where we stayed over night to get some rest before continuing the rest of our journey. We chatted and laughed ourselves to sleep and the next morning was an early one! We got back on the road and headed to Houston, TX.

Our first night in Houston we decided to go out for some dinner and check out the town. We sure did get to see the town on our wild goose hunt to find somewhere that was still serving food. We had cocktail and chatted with a local at the first stop, and at our second stop we were so excited there was jazz music playing at this cute joint, but alas... no food again. We ventured some more and then finally we literally stepped into the TX Monday night dinner jam! We had some great food and the environment was totally cool. After this the exhaustion set in and it was time to hit the sack!

The next night we had our gig in the 1940's Air Terminal and it went off with a bang! Everyone there was a pleasure to work with and the event was really fantastic. Everyone danced the night away in their fashion of the times and after the show we had the opportunity to chat with all of the guests. They all really enjoyed themselves and we just felt like we closed out TX well done! After the show we headed back to the hotel because we had out longest drive yet ahead tomorrow... 14 HOURS...dun dun dun :)

We headed to Nashville and the whole road trip went swimmingly. We listened to disney music, wait...who are we kidding here... we SANG to disney music (in three part harmony, of course.) The trip surprisingly flew by, due to the great company I am sure. We had our system down and we were rocking the roads of the US of A with nothin' but class and a red lipped smile!

When we arrived we enjoyed some wine and just chatted the night away with Sarah's fabulous Aunt and Uncle and continued even after they retired to their room. We had a couple days off and we were officially in Nashville...we were literally, shakin' in our boots... in a good way!

The next day we took a walk and get done some of our own personal stuff and then we were heading into downtown Nashville. We had our flannel on and our dancing feet ready! We went to the first bar where we did JUST that! we ventured around town checking out other fantastic music, dancing, and maybe even some RIBS. The dolls made our mark on those streets and we had an awesome time! Next morning we were off to Cincinnati.. but it seems only right the lovely Sarah share that part of the trip...

~Sheila "Doll

Now to Sarah "Doll"...

Also on Nashville - As we make our way from Houston to Nashville, we run into some intense thunderstorms and Sarah thought there may be a tornado as we pull into a Subway drive thru. In all actuality, there very well could have been one!! But alas, it was merely a HUGE dust cloud. About 45 miles from our Nashville destination, Sheila runs into a truck convention I-40E and in typical Sheila fashion says "excuse me, we are on a sentimental journey. Please move your f@#*?! a@@!!" Ah yes, 12 hour road days brings you to this point.

We arrive at Sarah's aunt and uncles house to a spread of cheese, crackers, wine, beer and homemade chicken pot pie. We enjoyed such food during our entire 48 hour stay!! Thank you, family. Nashville wasn't ready for The Dolls but we were ready for some good music and even better BBQ. A huge thank you to Tootsie's, Jacks, other places on the strip, for making this a night filled with all good things. We arrive in Cincinnati about as tired as one can be but were quickly revived knowing dinner would consist of larosas pizza and a trip to Putz Ice Cream. Yes, food glorious food! We spent this evening and several more with Sarah's family and a huge thank you to her mom who housed three Dolls for almost 2 weeks! While in Cincy, we had several gigs including a WWII event at the CMC, and 2 concerts at Know Theater and McAuley Theater all in one weekend. Whew! Great crowds who loved the music, sang and danced along during the whole show and rave reviews. As our first week in Cincy progressed we made an appearance on Channel 12 WKRC morning show with the hilarious and effervescent Bob Herzog, WMKV radio on a few of their programs, a meet and greet at **** downtown Cincy, took in a Reds vs Phillys game with Sarah's awesome nephews, and somehow made it through 2 gigs that were 3 hours long at Guys and Dolls in Cold Spring, KY and The Avenue Lounge in Covington, KY. We closed our tour through Cincinnati with a donated show at Little Sisters of the Poor senior home. We had a fabulous time at all of these venues and even better time enjoying the food but alas, it was time to venture onward to our next destination, Bloomington, IN.

~Sarah "Doll"

Now back to Sheila "Doll"...

Our next short stay was after the 'nati in St. Charles! We settled in and then met up with Ron, Robert and their lovely ladies for dinner and drinks. They joined us after for some pool playing and good times. We finally had to cut off the fun because we had a show in St. Charles, MO the next day and we had some traveling to do. The show in St. Charles at The Foundry Art Centre was fantastic. The crowd was fun and very appreciative. They were always willing to play along with us and the space was really beautiful.

Our last show in Bloomington, IN was with a stellar band, The Stardusters (www.stardustersmusic.com), and in a very fun venue, The Players Pub. The place was packed and this show was very special for us for many reasons. This was our closing tour performance and on a patriotic note it was the night before the anniversary of 9/11. Being New Yorkers, it is something we know, you should NEVER forget. We were honored to be doing something that honors our active-duty military and our veterans who serve for our county. Everyone danced and enjoyed themselves, so much so that during our last song, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, a woman came flying over our monitor amp onto our stage area face first. She and her girlfriend laughed as she slowly got herself up and ya know what, they KEPT dancing! All in all after that, I would say the night was a HIT...literally. We hung out for a while with some people and then headed home because the next day we were heading home. The Dolls can't leave their Manhattan for TOO long or the flowers in their hair might start to wilt. The travel back was full of fun and excitement to see our City family of friends and chaos and I can say that we felt like lucky ladies to have been a part of this journey. The memories in our pockets had us coming back on a high taller than these city lights! As we drove back into New York after a long day of driving, we see the lights where the twin towers used to stand. A perfect homecoming on 9/11.

Until we sing again,

~The Manhattan Dolls

Heather, Sheila & Sarah

The Dolls go Euro!

2011-08-04T17:50:00.000-04:00

Europe Tour June 29-July 11, 2011

Chapter 1: Waddington

On the radio at Waddington

We pulled into the university at Lincoln and I stayed with the car while Sarah and Molly went to go check us in. We had been listening to RAF Waddington Air Show FM (yes there was a temporary radio station devoted to the air show) and they mentioned that The Manhattan Dolls were performing. Wait, that’s us! That’s right. The radio announcers mentioned us! Voluntarily! No paid advertisement, they just mentioned us. I was by myself. “Oh, God the girls are never going to believe me!” They kind of didn’t; until….Sunday at the show we passed the radio tower, were instantly recognized and invited into the booth. The lovely hosts did a short interview and we got to sing on air. We are their fans and they are ours! Some of them even came to our show a bit when they could steal away. And remember everyone, “no pets or parasols allowed at the airshow.”

Thunderbird jet

What was truly brilliant about this show was being able to do the entire thing with the band. The incredible Swing Wing of RAF Cranwell lifted the energy of the show to new heights. The yelled the most enthusiastic “Oh Johnny” we have ever heard (viewable on our video clips below). When I’m onstage in a giant hangar with a big band behind me and military jets flying off to the right I feel there is simply nothing more to life. It cannot possibly get better than that. I was singing “Orange Colored Sky” and the Americans were making an appropriate ruckus in the sky. As I was going, “Flash! Bam! Alacazam, out of an orange colored sky,” the Thunderbird planes were zooming by in perfect time with the music.

With guest star, Matt Walker

Our old pal Matt Walker (remember Matt from last year?!) joined us for “Is You Is,” “New York, New York,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” “ and our new addition, “South Rampart Street Parade.” It’s not every day we get to sing with a crooner who gives Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby a run for their money. Dear Matt, who needs the air force? Come on tour with us!

We ran into some Polish pilots are the show. “We will take you to our plane.” About twenty minutes of walking later, “are we walking to Poland?” It was so far down the tarmac that we realized we hadn’t seen the whole show last year. The British man we were walking with gave us a warning, “be careful if they offer you apple juice.” Apple juice? Well, as soon as we take our seats in the cockpit, 3 cups come out and we were served apple juice. With Bisongrass vodka. The following day they came to our show with a bottle of Vueve Cliquot. It was barely past noon and we have three sets ahead of us. Thanks boys, but just a sip for me! I have to sing!

Saturday night we headed out to search for the German beer festival in Waddington village. We met up with Rich and Johnsy from the band. Matt was of course fashionably late. Johnsy played a horn at the royal wedding. I’ll admit I went home and scoured google images. I found nothing. We left Germany for the local Lincoln bars where Johnsy took it upon himself to give Molly a full English dialect lesson. “Australians ask questions. Never ask questions. Own everything! And shorten your vowels.” Towards the end of the night, Rich took us to some club and there was a line down the block to get in. I don’t wait in lines in NY. I really was not thrilled about waiting in Lincoln. I said to Rich, “I’m going to have to go to the bathroom before we get into this club.” What I meant was, “I don’t want to wait in this long line” but he took it upon himself to take me to various establishments in the area so I could use the toilet. We found a pizza place that allowed me into the back to use the one for the employees. Believe it or not I really didn’t have to go all that badly but now I felt compelled to perform. So, off I go. When I got back a mere three minutes later, Rich had a plate of chips already salted. We brought them back to the line for Sarah and Johnsy. About halfway into the chips, they were tragically spilled on the ground. Spilled food makes me sad so we pretty much went home and
went to bed after that.

Eating fish and chips

After the show on Sunday, we went over to the hangar party. The food was late and I was starving! Matt took Molly and me to the fish and chips shop. We brought back loads of it for everyone. The party was getting off to such an extremely slow start that we left and headed into Lincoln again to show Molly the Cathedral. This time we walked all the way around getting bits of historical information from our British musician tour guides. We went into alcoves and side streets. Rich pointed out the Lancastrian stained glass window with the red rose. We saw a bit of ruined Roman wall and the bishop’s house. We paused on a bench in front of the statue of Tennyson with his dog. Google informed us that Tennyson was in fact born in Lincoln but Rich kept reading because he wanted “to know what the dog was called.” We never learned what the dog was called. But we did have a lovely time in Lincoln. The same show but different in so many ways. Armed with a bottle of Pimms from our hosts, we made our way to London.

Chapter 2: London

4 Dolls in London!

We got into London Monday afternoon. Home sweet home! We got settled at the flat, met up with Heather and her sister Amber and went out with the rest of their family to find dinner. After wandering around Trafalgar Square for quite a bit of time, we finally found a nice Thai place. Afterwards we all caught up on sleep and woke up Tuesday like three fresh daisies.

Italian breakfast was had at Café Nero on Brompton Road and then we set off for the Globe! We went in the wrong direction for a bit but that just meant we got to see more of the riverbank than we expected.

Molly's first time in London

Finally we arrive at the theater. Molly and I go in for the tour. Our guide was funny, knowledgeable and loud! He took us into the actual theater where we were instructed to stay silent as a rehearsal for Anne Boleyn was going on. They open Friday. It was a remounting of the one I wanted to see last year. We saw two scenes with stops and starts in full costume. I know it’s not the original building but it still feels charged with centuries of drama, backstage squabbles, love affairs, costume changes and curtain calls. The theater geeks we are, we were beside ourselves with happiness.

After the tour, Molly and I found Sarah and we all headed to Westminster Abbey. To avoid the steep admission price we decided to attend the evensong service. Most of the service is sung and hey, we like music. The church itself is awe inspiring. I now understand why the ancient Catholics built those churches so large. Your eyes are drawn upward, your head tilts back and your heart opens to the domes above you. Much of Westminster is filled with tombs; graves of influential individuals. We walked past the remains of Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton (ironically buried in a church). I was particularly affected by the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. His tomb is the central focus on the ground at the entrance to the nave. The rectangle is bordered with red roses. The inscription says, “They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and his house.”

We sat down in silence. The moment the choir began to sing, we began to cry. It just happened. A cappella or with the organ. We couldn’t see them from where we were sitting which I honestly think made the experience that much fuller. We had to use only our ears. I spent most of the service with my eyes closed marveling at the architecture of sound. The alcoves were created with the purpose of enhancing the sound of the choir. Their sound went straight up to the ceiling first where it bounced around a few hundred crevices and buttresses, amplifying itself, making itself larger, fuller before swimming into my ear. We all walked out of there wishing we had brought tissues.

Pub crawl

Naturally the next thing we did was meet up with Heather and Amber for a pub crawl. Amber had researched this mini tour of pubs and picked her places for either historical value or “interesting reviews.” We noticed most of them were pretty brightly lit. I guess the Brits put on their beer goggles sooner than we do. We made it to four pubs in about three hours. Amber led us into the Crown and Two Chairmen. We instantly recognized it. Heather, Sarah and I had been there last year. You can actually see it on last year’s video when we are talking about the potato wedges. Alex Campkin who we met last year, met up with us there. Not two minutes after he walked in, Sarah thrusts her purse in my lap and runs out of the bar with Molly. They dash in opposite directions down the street. Molly’s purse has been stolen. Our festivities have abruptly been put to an end. Her wallet, all her cash, cards, passport, iphone, social security card…everything is in there. We fill out a criminal report at the bar, bid Alex farewell and start scouring the surrounding area. We follow Amber down an alleyway hoping that the robber took the cash and tossed the bag. No luck but, we did find her keys. We continued looking in the hopes that something else would turn up, digging through trash bins while Molly was on the phone with her bank. Unfortunately we found nothing else.

Once we finally got to the flat we were up another few hours making calls and looking up what we needed to bring to the Embassy. We woke up Wednesday morning to the news that they could not see her until Thursday morning. We were due to leave for France Thursday morning. Serendipitously, we had Heather with us. The only show she was planning on attending was the one show we absolutely needed her for. Let’s look at all the strange positives shall we:

-Molly is the one who cannot travel to France. She sings the same part as Heather.

-Molly has friends who live in London that she can stay with while we are away.

-Her friend Rob did not have to work Thursday and Friday, therefore able to spend time with her.

-Her new New York State ID was already due to arrive in the mail.

-She is due for a free upgrade for her phone.

-Heather still had her makeup and shoes from a Dolls show she just did in St. Louis the day before she left for England.

-Molly had a copy of her birth certificate and social security card sitting at home with her roommate. Her roommate was home when we called to take a photo of it and send it along.

If any purse was ever to be stolen, on any tour….this could have been a lot worse. That being said, poor Molly brought three French language books with her and did not get to go to France.

Wednesday was a bit of a bust as she was dealing with faxes, photocopies and phone calls all day long. I did the laundry and found all the information for the Embassy but in the end, there was not much I could do. Molly said she’d feel worse if I stayed in all day because of her. She basically kicked me out of the flat so I took a set of keys and headed out to the British Museum as planned. I had a lovely time pretending I was a local. I was traveling by myself and had pre-planned my route well enough that I was able to make turns quickly enough to appear as if I knew what I was doing. The museum itself is overwhelmingly large. It is absolutely massive with so many wings with multiple rooms and what seems like millions of exhibits. I spent about five or six hours there and all I covered was the Middle Eastern and European sections. I never made it to Africa or Asia. I didn’t even know they had an American section. I got to see Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Persian, Nubian, European exhibits. They have bits of the Parthenon. They have the actual Rosetta Stone. They have actual mummies. They have not mummies; like bodies that had been mummified or otherwise preserved. Dried out, shriveled up people’s bodies. For free. Yea, I spent only four pounds on the audio guide. By 6:00 my feet were killing me and I had to meet the girls for dinner.

I made it back to the flat all by my lonesome and met the girls out at an Indian Restaurant in SoHo. I figured if I was going to get into Indian food anywhere other than India it would be London. Still no. The service was exceptionally slow and this was the one restaurant that mentioned on the menu that gratuity was not included. Sarah ordered the spiciest thing on the menu. They had to bring her yogurt to cool it down. She and Molly were eating it, crying, sweating and covering it with rice and yogurt. Also I might mention, a few days earlier, Sarah had an allergic reaction to something and had a very swollen upper lip. After dinner, we were supposed to meet up with Andy from last year. We saw Alex but that didn’t go very well since the whole purse fiasco happened soon afterwards so maybe we could redeem ourselves here. Well apparently he couldn’t get off his base due to a bomb scare. Apparently this happens all the time. So to paint this picture for you, Sarah had huge lips, Molly had no purse and I just found out Andy wasn’t coming after all. We had absolutely no choice but to go out for gelato. This is obviously nothing a little ice cream can’t fix.

Pimms cocktails

Well, as long as we eat enough of it. I piled chocolate and hazelnut on top of a brownie, Sarah had a chocolate cinnamon combo and Molly chose a sensible sorbet. Gelato fixes everything. Back at the flat, we finished off the Pims and headed to bed after watching some pretty silly British TV.

Chapter 3: France

Bright and early Thursday morning we bid Molly “cheers” and begin our journey to France via the tube to the bus to Gatwick. Gatwick is run more like Amtrak than an airport. You wait just past security until your gate is announced about twenty minutes before your departure time. We had packed only carry-on luggage specifically for this “Easy Jet” flight to Marseilles. We arrive at the gate and they tell us that we are only allowed one item on board. Not a carry on and a purse. One bag. One. Of course it is more expensive to check at the gate than it is to check downstairs but did they tell us this downstairs, or on the website when booking…of course not. What’s more, Scott’s normally sized carry-on is apparently too big to count as a carry-on with this airline so he starts emptying and putting stuff into our bags so we can at least check two bags instead of three. As we are smushing his stuff into our bags, we clearly see people going through with two items. When we get on the plane, there is more than enough room below the seat in front to put a personal item. As if they weren’t cheap enough, they charge for beverages; on a flight lasting almost two hours. Easy Jet? Not easy.

Dinner with our hosts
and The Cotton Candies

It didn’t hit me that we were really going to France until we landed. I looked out the window, saw a mountain and said, “Oh my God, we’re in France.” Vincent picked us up at the airport. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went over to Vincent’s apartment complex to hang out by the pool. At 7:00, he took us to the club to meet the band. There was an awkward moment of hellos until they started speaking English. Thank God! Then we all had a laugh and went to dinner. The dance club has a restaurant out back. We sat outside under a canopy of greenery. There was enough wine for each of us to have an entire bottle to ourselves. All locally grown grapes, white, blush, red, sweet, dry…stuff we’ve never heard of. We must have tasted eight wines a piece. We started with some apps, and then moved onto tabouli and couscous, salads, salami, prosciutto, bread. Then came the cheeses: brie, rouquefort and a goat cheese that was to die for.

The piano player, Clément was the “French-est” person I have ever met. He was wearing a thin horizontal striped shirt, round black frame glasses, mussy hair, and sat at the head of the table hand rolling cigarette after cigarette. After about two hours of food, wine and conversation (after 9:00), we started rehearsal.

Rehearsal night before show

As they were sound checking, Francois began dancing along. I went up to join him and before I knew it, we were lindy hopping and he was lifting me. You don’t need to speak the same language to dance. We were obsessed with the way Clément was counting off the songs. Truly I am at a loss for words here. There is simply no possible way to explain what this sounds like. “Un, deux, e un deux trois…” and then instead of saying “quatre,” he just made a sound. Just a guttural, French schwa kind of sound. Trust me, you cannot imagine it and I cannot describe it. It was simply one of those things that was for us just to keep as a memory. Untranslatable. Next time you see me, ask and I’ll do it for you but it still won’t be as good. Also, I was instantly in love with the drummer Matthieu. Enter his girlfriend. Annemarie dies. Story of my life.

In the Mediterranean Sea

Nothing a trip to Cassis can’t fix. Vincent took us on an excursion the next day. We walked through a beautiful town and led us to a restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We first spotted the water from the car. I cried. I saw it and I instantly cried. I was so excited about England that I felt like France wasn’t real. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t want to get my hopes up so it just floored me. Visiting the Mediterranean has been a lifelong dream from me; the absolute top desire of my life as a traveler. I thought I was going to get to go in my life as a cruise ship performer but that simply wasn’t meant to be. It took me another four years, but I got there. I made it.

At the restaurant there were two different kinds of white wine. I had been drinking one, thinking I liked it better until the food came. I ordered truffle scallops with spinach salad and mushrooms. Not only did the food rock my world but I had a wine breakthrough. I noticed I preferred the second wine with my meal and I even noticed why! The first wine almost made my food taste sweet but it wasn’t supposed to taste sweet. The second wine brought out the salty flavor in the scallops. This absolutely blew my mind. I am no wine connoisseur so this was big for me.

After lunch there was a complimentary shot of chocolate mousse topped with cream. Bucket list item one: Seafood and chocolate in France. Check and check. We left the restaurant and headed out to what became a bit of a hike; over limestone; in a skirt; and flip-flops. At the end of our trek, we came upon a small section of the sea enclosed between two giant cliffs. I put my feet in the Mediterranean. I think I need to repeat that. I put my feet in the Mediterranean. Bucket list item two: check.

Performing at Rock'Caliente in France!

Back at the club, dinner was a smorgasbord buffet of everything you could imagine with, yup, you guessed it, more wine. About three hundred people came out for this dance event. They danced literally the entire time. The place was packed. Before my solo, I tried out a bit of French, “Bon jour, je m’appelle Annemarie?” They responded with cheers. Who says the French don’t like Americans? This show was so fantastic. It was my vintage dream come true. We used Bei Mir as an encore because it is Vincent’s favorite song. During the instrumental I passed off my microphone to Heather and danced with him right there on that little stage for exactly sixteen bars before jumping back in just in time.

Time to celebrate! We headed back outside for the most delicious champagne I have ever tasted. A man at the event produces his own rum. There were about five different flavors and we tasted each one. My favorite was the mango, passion fruit, pineapple. Eventually the place was going to shut down and we started making our way towards the door. Of course we could not leave without learning the newest French style of dirty dancing. Anyone remember what that was called? I think I got distracted.

Less than five hours later, my alarm shook me awake. One last breakfast of Nutella on croissants and it was time to fly back to Gatwick. France was unexpectedly magical in a way I could not ever have dreamed.

Chapter 4: Cambridge

I was delirious from lack of sleep. It took us over an hour to find Molly at Gatwick. Good thing I had given her my phone because I had to go into the airport to use a payphone and call her. Once we were finally reunited we headed out to Cambridge. I slept a bit in the car but I don’t think it helped. We watched a bit of the airshow before heading to the hotel. The amount of planes they had was very impressive. The only thing was we couldn’t get near them. They were all out on the runway. The finale to the show however, was a display where about forty planes all flew in formation together. It was what it would have looked like in 1939 as they were all heading out to war. It was truly breathtaking. I felt like Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor in that scene when she watches them all fly by. Don’t pretend you didn’t see it.

After we checked into the hotel, we headed out to find the Pizza Express. We found everything but the Pizza Express. The directions we had printed out made absolutely no sense once we got on the road. We eventually gave up and ended up at another pub. Back at the hotel, we rehearsed for about forty five minutes before I fell asleep at 10:00 on the nose. The sun hadn’t even set yet.

Sunday in Cambridge was sunny and warm. Our first stop was the radio booth. We were announced and interviewed once again and gave a quick preview on air. Before the first set we met some firefighters and Sarah got to try on some equipment! We started our first set at 11:00 and the crowd began to accumulate. About ten minutes in, we had one hell of a big crowd. After the set we spent the entire thirty minute break taking pictures, signing autographs and thankfully selling CDs. Poor Sarah carried about fifty CDs in her backpack from New York. We sold a handful at our other gigs but she still had about thirty five left. They were all gone about halfway through the morning. We owe much of the success of our show to the incredible organizational skills of Jane and Adam. They had our sets alternate with other attractions and we were due to finish just moments before the planes started to fly.

We had a great lunch in the VIP tent accompanied by our fantastic audio crew. They truly went above and beyond that day! We watched the show and browsed the booths stopping for pictures along the way. Unfortunately there was a bit of an accident at the very end of the show. Everything was put on hold while we waited to make sure everyone was safe. Thankfully no one was seriously injured so we made our way into the tent for the party. The past hour or so had been very tense, worrisome and stressful so we started our show to a pretty small and tentative crowd. We kept it quiet at first. Dinner was being served and perhaps we would serve as background music. Well, just a few songs in, the tension was cut, the mood lifted and everyone got involved in the show. I believe we may have been so well received because this crowd was so in need of some cheering up after what could have been a disastrous afternoon. As a singer, it was a true gift to be able to give that to my audience; to fit the need so perfectly. When that couple first got up and started dancing, I knew I had done my job.

After the show, we sat down to a delightful dinner. The crowd had so enjoyed the show that they requested an encore- after we had eaten dinner! So, we put together an impromptu “greatest hits” if you will, burned another audio CD, compliments of our once again fantastic sound guys, and did another twenty minutes of music. This time, they pushed the tables away and had a full dance party. This is the true purpose of what we do. Everyone let loose. Our ad libs were sillier and they danced the night away. We had an absolute blast and
then rejoiced with dessert! I love my job! We met up with everyone back at the hotel bar for a champagne toast and a quick drink. We were welcomed into the bar with applause. An hour later, this Doll could barely keep her eyes open! Twelve days, four cities, three shows and two countries later I was ready for some beauty rest. The next morning began our trip home. Well, at least for Sarah and Molly. I took advantage of the plane ticket and went on a bit of a holiday through good old Great Britain! Cheers ladies! See you back in the states!

Watch our behind-the-scenes clips from our Europe Tour 2011!
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150331468366215

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano
Manhattan Doll

New Garden Air Show

2011-07-14T23:40:00.000-04:00

New Garden Airshow

Toughkenamon, PA

June 10-12 2011

Abbott, Costello and “woa! Look at that plane!”

We arrived in Toughkenamon, PA after a grueling five and a half hours in traffic. Finally, we meet up with our favorite Abbott and Costello troupe for some serious barbecue at Texas Roadhouse. I may or may not have danced with the waitstaff. Afterwards, we checked into the hotel. Yay, adjoining rooms! We turned it into a little apartment. Sarah got the pull out and we piled one mattress on top of the other to make it a bit cushier but the poor thing couldn’t sleep because she was afraid it was going to close on her like a murphy bed.

All morning we alternated with Abbott and Costello doing thirty minute sets each and then sang the National Anthem to kick off the flight demo. Matt Chapman started off the displays with a “teaser” for his later show. Just the “teaser” was more than I have ever seen. Way more. Even his takeoff is insane. Please see video on our Facebook page. His plane, the Embry Riddle looks like a mere dot but you get the idea. The second day, he came into the performer hangar for a sandwich.

Me, “Are you Matt Chapman?”

“Yes.”

“Can I shake your hand?”

To which he replied, “Are you a Manhattan Doll?”

I nod. “Can I shake your hand?” I giggle like an idiot. Honest to God Star Struck. I’ve met John Lithgow. Not as exciting. And I love John Lithgow.

The B2 stealth bomber also made an appearance…once he found the airport. Apparently he got a bit lost.

We performed at the hangar party for all the workers and volunteers next to one of the airplanes. About halfway through the show, a dog decided to join us. No idea where he came from. Just appeared behind me, crossed downstage left and exited. Stealing my spotlight, dog.

Another celebrity meeting was Jane Wicker. She walks on wings. We added her pin to our ball caps. We had the opportunity to go aboard the C-54 Spirit of Freedom transport aircraft where we got a tour of the cockpit and explored the museum in the body of the plane. There was an old fashioned radio and all of a sudden it started playing the Andrews Sisters version of Well Alright which we promptly sang along to in three part harmony.

That was pretty much the last stop before heading home to watch the Tonys. Hey, give me a break for mentioning it. It’s our Superbowl. The next time you hear from me it will be from England!!!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano

Manhattan Doll

WWII Weekend - Reading, PA

2011-06-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

Dearest Doll Fans,

This past weekend we made our debut at the WWII Weekend and air show in Reading, PA! We were so excited to have been a part of this spectacular event and the whole thing was a hit! The weekend went off with a bang (in many forms of the word I suppose)! There were people covering the airport grounds doing actual reenactments of WWII in amazing, authentic wardrobe. The space was covered with tents that were fantastically authentic and filled with historic pieces ranging from cookware to guns, first aid equipment to properly cleaned ammunition.

On our first day in Reading we started out with a meet and greet by the P-61 Black Widow and the weather was outrageously beautiful! Check out this website for information on the restoration project at Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. We couldn't have asked for a better day and we were so excited to be a part of it from start to finish! Before our first show we had the chance to visit some of the tents and the reenactors were giving us tours and historic lessons! Us gals surely did enjoy getting to learn so much about the war from all of the great people there! We were even able to play with the phone that work just like the cup on a string "phones" we used to make when we were kids! Who knew how well that old "phone on a string" theory really could work!

On our way to our first show we got to see Abbott and Costello perform once again and I honestly think we enjoy their show more and more everytime! Throughout the weekend we also had the pleasure of watching the lovely Theresa Eamon and the stunning Ladies of Liberty enchant people with their fantastic voices! I couldn't believe we were sharing the stage with all of this wonderful talent. All of the shows went swimmingly and the crowds made their way out in the nicest weather this weekend has seen in a while! I would like to think we brought in the good weather, but I don't want to get cocky over it...

The audiences were fun and a blast to perform for as they sang along to our patriotic numbers, danced with us during some slow songs and joined in some audience participation numbers. All of this was made possible by the amazing man on sound. Our own personal MAYOR, Randy! What a humble and talented man making us all sound our very best throughout the weekend!

On Friday and Saturday night there was a hanger dance with awesome Big Bands! Now when these people say hangar dance, they mean DANCE! The Dolls attended both evenings and boy were our feet tired for bedtime! The gentleman, old and young, had us dancing our hearts out and we were having such a good time. The hanger was packed with people in 1940's style clothing and all the guests were really strutting their stuff in their finest duds. The ages ranged from toddlers to WWII vets just having themselves a blast and enjoying this great music of that time era! Saturday night we even had the pleasure of having dessert at the Spiderweb before we mingled with all of the dance party guests! We made so many great friends that night and even did some impromptu a capella singing for some folks, which we LOVE! I have to note here that we chose to sing "Well Alright" and the woman we were singing to, unbeknownst to us, was singing along because this was her and her father's song - his name was Joe. Only fitting. It's memories like that which make us proud to do what we do.

On our last day we had a DELICIOUS breakfast made for us on spot at the Spiderweb by Terry, the Reading Regional Airport manager and his serving staff of volunteers! We had great conversation and left ready to enjoy our last day. We spent a lot of time making sure to mingle in all areas throughout the tent camps to meet and chat with everyone before we headed home. We also made it down to the flea market where we all got matching pins for our Manhattan Doll hats! I was thrilled because I also bought myself another pin and I couldn't have asked for a better time to start off my collection! We might have tripped over a vintage jewelry stand and accidentally bought a couple rings and Mallorie found herself a gorgeous locket. We had a blast skimming through all of the shops and it was hard not to buy everything we saw!

Our last show the sun was shining bright and the planes were flying right in front of us! We couldn't have asked for a better closing with the lovely audience that joined us for that last performance. All the folks stood up and sang God Bless America with us and we all got choked up at how special that moment always is. When we were done there was a woman with tears in her eyes waiting backstage to thank us and tell her how much hearing that music mean to her... not a bad way to end a truly fabulous weekend.

We were so honored to meet all of the kind and wonderful people this weekend and look forward to being a part of this truly remarkable weekend again next year! Thank you for letting us step back into this world where patriotism ran high, red lipstick was the only color option, and sailors in bell-bottomed pants dance the night away in a hangar.

Until we sing again,

Sheila Coyle, Manhattan Doll

NYC Fleet Week on The Intrepid

2011-06-08T13:54:00.000-04:00

May 28, 2011
Pier 86, Intrepid, NYC

Fleet Week!

Dearest Dolls Fans,

“If there’s anything I like better than pilots, its sailors.”

Fresh from the Lynchburg Air Show and our party with The Blue Angels, circus pilots and free fallers, I was excited to see some soldiers on my own turf. Summer subways kicked in today and I was running late! Late, to a show I have been looking forward to for months. I was speed walking my way west on 46th street when I spotted a pack of Marines heading right towards me. I smiled; they said hello and my jitters left me. Happy Memorial Day! Minutes later I arrived onto the Intrepid and was shown to our dressing room. As soon as we got changed, CW2 Ted McGuire, 2nd Engineering Officer of the USAV Gen Frank S. Besson Jr. LSV-1 gave us the grand tour of his ship.

Mallorie and I were unfazed by the living quarters, narrow staircases and wet suit displays. Not to burst anyone’s bubble but that is exactly what it’s like below passenger decks on cruise ships.

After our tour, we checked out the planes on the top deck of the Intrepid courtesy of the lovely and hospitable Julie Starr and took some photos with some handsome gentlemen from the USS Carr. We even have an old Blue Angel plane right here in Manhattan!

3:55 was our quickie sound check and 4:00 was go time! As we were singing, our crowd grew and I watched friends and family arrive little by little as they made it through the lines at the front gate. That is the true thrill of playing right here at home. Mom and Dad get to watch! Singing “Anchors Away” while gazing at a backdrop of the USS Iwo Jima was truly a special moment. We concluded with “God Bless America” accompanied by a full audience sing along.

After the show, we ran around taking photos accompanied by a small entourage of friends and organized by my father. Thanks, Dad!

Before we headed up to change, we thought, what else do we need a photo of? More sailors in white! Well, just as we were approaching our dressing room, a pack of them emerged from a doorway. Perfect timing!
Once we were back in our “civvies,” we split up. I had a lovely evening at the pub with my buddies and at the end of the day, I was home. New York shows are so convenient!

Until we sing again,
Annemarie Rosano, Manhattan Doll

Biplanes and Zeppelins WWI Air Show, Virginia Beach

2011-05-31T15:32:00.000-04:00

Sept 24-26, 2010

www.themanhattandolls.com/cd.html

Here I am again on a Delta flight with the Manhattan Dolls. Two nights ago we recorded our first album, last night we had a quick show in Connecticut and this morning we are flying away for the weekend! It has been one busy week! We were picked up at the airport in a 1978 Rolls Royce. You’re jealous. We arrive at the Cavalier Hotel and our jaws drop. We are at the main building which is normally closed after Labor Day but opened for the airshow. It was built in 1927. The lobby is blue and white like Tiffany gift box.

Sarah and I gasp as we see our beautiful rooms. I have a view of the ocean. Heather is in the Cavalier suite. Suite. There is an entrance hall. There are jets in the tub. There is a bidet. A bidet?! After exploring the wonders of each room, we headed down for lunch at the newer hotel across the street and spend a few precious moments at the beach.

Over at the small airport, we look for our hangar to see where we are singing and next thing we know, we are being offered a ride in a plane. Did I mention this is a World War One show? Meaning the oldest planes on earth. Literally. The Wright brothers showed off their new invention to the army for the first time in 1908. Less than ten years later, these planes were being used overseas for a war. Luckily, we were in a “newer” passenger plane built in 1944. The De Havilland DH-89A Dragon Rapide was introduced by the British in 1933. After we landed, there was a showing of the movie Fly Boys in the hangar. The actual featured plane from the film was there, and so was the pilot. He gave a little talk and then we watched the movie on a big blow up movie screen.

The following day, we debuted our World War One show! Bob wigs, long pearls and feathers instead of roses really made a big difference. Such brilliant numbers included, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Bushel and a Peck, Broadway Baby, and Forget About the Boy with a tap break choreographed by yours truly. This show is very theatrical and a TON of fun! I almost like doing this better than the forties! Almost. It was a very long day with short sets from ten in the morning until about ten at night. We shared the stage with a Mae West/WC Fields duo that was to die for and the most spot on Charlie Chaplin impersonator you could ever see.

Unfortunately, this was a short trip. We performed Sunday morning and flew back before the sun went down. What a great way to ring in the Roaring Twenties!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano

Manhattan Doll

Lynchburg Regional Air Show

2011-05-31T15:00:00.001-04:00

Lynchburg, VA

May 20-May 22, 2011

“VIP!”

Dearest Doll fans,

After a rousing show for the seniors at Summit, NJ, we dropped Shannon off at the train station and continued to Virginia for our first airshow of the 2011 season. I had imagined seven hours in the car would be a bit draining but we passed the time with singing and games like cow graveyard. For you Yankees reading this, cow graveyard is when you count the cows on your side of the car to compete with the other side but if you pass a graveyard you lose all your cows and start again. I have never seen so many cows in my life. As we got deeper into the South, we were welcomed by nature. Even the trees were oozing with Southern Hospitality. After a year and a half as a Doll, I imagined I wouldn’t have quite so many jaw-dropping moments but today I drove through a mountain for the first time.

I have barely even been on a mountain much less driven through one. The road went around and sideways, surrounded by streams, dams, railroad track and wilderness. Sometime long ago, someone cut that road out so we could get places more quickly; just so we could get from one side of a mountain to another without hitching a ride from the Vonn Trapps. We opened the windows for a breath of this “mountain air” I’ve heard so much about. Good God it was beautiful! Mountain air smells nothing like a homeless person! It’s actually better.

As we got closer, we turned up the radio and rocked out to “Don’t Stop Believing.” As if on cue, we saw fireworks up ahead. We were having way too much fun before we even arrived. Once we got there, it was straight to the stage. Fifteen minutes later we were having a “chat n chew” with the Blue Angels crew. This naturally led to a dance off. Naturally. Molly showed off her best hip hop, we taught James some “Beat It” and then he and Sarah ran around the corner for a proper rehearsal. They returned with a very impressive rendition of “Ice Ice Baby,” complete with those push up things from the music video.

By the way…still wearing our red dresses for all this.

Saturday May 21, 2011: We wake up to the greatest hotel breakfast ever. I mean they had made to order eggs, waffles and, wait for it, grits. I love the South. As we pull up to the airport, traffic guards are checking credentials. We have absolutely nothing to show them so we explain that we are singing and they wave us through. That seems to be enough. Next guard, same deal. “Singing,” seems to be the magic word so when we get to the parking area, we again tell the guard, “we’re singing,” and he says in a gentle Southern lilt, “well you just park right here then,” and without taking a breath, barks in his deepest military voice, “VIP!”

First stop was a vintage fashion show. We sang a little “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” as a teaser but everyone knew the real stars were the two kids in flight gear.

A golf cart magically transported us to the VIP tent with the good barbeque. It’s my lucky day because they have pulled pork AND brisket. Meat on meat sandwiches next to cheesy potatoes, cole slaw, beans, all accompanied by sweet tea and apple cobbler. Enter the Flying Circus. Their show is basically a highly entertaining comedy routine done in the air.

They have a German villain, a doctor, a buffoon, a hero pilot, and a legit wing walker. The buffoon falls out of the plane, gets bombed, runs to safety in the outhouse and is then discovered with his pants down as the walls fall around him. As soon as Molly found out the original wing walkers were Follies girls, she wanted to start her training.

At 3:00 we headed back to the VIP BBQ tent to watch the Blue Angles display. A couple of Navy boys dressed in their finest white brought us earplugs. They just managed to capture video of our reactions to the sneak attack. The sneak attack is when plane 5 suddenly swoops in from behind your head. It looks like a giant bug flew in all our faces. I may or may not have screamed a bit. After the show, we trot on down to the tarmac to meet the pilots looking for a gap in the fence. Apparently the Blue Angels are so high profile and the event is so well attended that only those up for joining the Navy are admitted to the planes to take a photo with the team. Our sailor friends bring us over the netting and give us fake assignments. None of us are thrilled about the potential disaster of lying to a Naval officer. Luckily our friends from the dance off the night before bring us an official looking paper. “What’s that?”

“You don’t have to lie anymore.”

“Oh good. Why?”

“We’re making honest women out of you.”

I hope this doesn’t mean we have to join the Navy now because if so, I’m already in trouble for going AWOL. It’s finally our turn for a photo. We were escorted in and out of their formation so quickly I felt like I was meeting Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom.

Enough play, time to work. At 5:00 we head over to the hangar for sound check. Shout out to Devon, bestest sound guy! Halfway through our show, we head back to change our dresses while the Blue Angels have an awards ceremony which brought about a larger crowd for our second act! Thanks to Travis from the Black Daggers for a lovely dance.

Side note, the Black Daggers and All American Freefall were there for the parachute demo. They don’t exactly fly the planes…they jump out…with colored smoke spouting from their heels. Really?

After our show, the Blue Angel crew and our parachuting friends head up to the stage to express their compliments. Meaning, before we had a chance to step off the stage, they headed up to meet us. As we were busy getting as many handsome men in photos as possible, I noticed the volunteers cleaning up the food. I may love a man in uniform but when it comes down to it, they had lasagna and I have priorities. I dashed away and made up three plates while the other girls finished with the boys. Did I mention the brownies?

The after party was conveniently held at the hotel bar. Two slow southern bartenders were inundated with about twenty pilots, thirty crewmen, ten jumpers and three dolls. I love these numbers. Crewman Chris pointed over to a very tall man standing just a few feet away from me and said, “That’s the pilot from plane 5.” Oh really?! I begin to edge my way over and he says, “Go ahead. We’re not offended and we’ll still be here when you’re done.” I said about two words past hello to the pilot who was very professional and simply took a compliment with impeccable manners. I turn back to Chris and Sam and Chris says, “you coming back to Earth now?”

Dear Blue Angel crewmen, you are not Earth. You are not Earth at all.

Sunday May 22, 2011: The world did not end yesterday. Now that we have that out of the way, after more divine grits at the hotel, we arrive at the airshow early because John from the Flying Circus has promised to take us up in his plane! Molly goes first. It is her first show as a Doll after all. I go up next thanks to rock paper scissors. I point to the ground at some strange looking terrain, “what’s that?”
“A rock quarry.” Like the Flinstones? By the time we get down, the weather has turned so Sarah doesn’t get a chance to go up but she does get some awesome shots playing Amelia Earhart.

The show is kicked off by a recording of the National Anthem accompanied by a dual jump from All American Freefall and the Black Daggers releasing the American Flag midair. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything. Once they touch ground we head over to meet the helicopter crew and then decide it’s time to drape ourselves over a few antique cars. Last stop, Black Dagger territory. I pretend I’m jumping out of their plane and I finally feel like the photo shoot is complete. Then and only then do I allow myself a corn dog. And maybe a root beer float. We play cow graveyard on the way home. Apparently the Black Daggers play that from their plane. I heard this and I can’t help but wonder how do they see the cows from way up there in the sky?

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano

Manhattan Doll

Sekolo Fundraiser - Greenwich, CT

2011-02-01T13:32:00.000-05:00

November 13, 2010

Dearest Dolls' Fans,

Heather’s friend, Elizabeth Robinson, goes to Namibia twice a year to educate children about HIV and AIDS. Her charity is called Sekolo and we were asked to perform at their fundraiser and auction. Elizabeth was wearing a traditional African dress that she had made for her in Harlem. It was absolutely stunning!

We arrived at the golf club to a roaring fire. The whole place was decorated with the artwork that was being auctioned. It was all created by the local African artists from Namibia that Elizabeth sees on her travels. The room was beautiful but our pictures do not quite do it justice.

We kicked off the event with Begin the Beguine dressed in our formal black gowns. We almost never get to wear these. All three of us delayed the costume change until the very last minute. I love this dress! We sampled the hors d’oeuvres- shrimp cocktail, spring rolls and my all time favorite, butternut squash soup served in a shot glass. Brilliant!

The auction was well underway. We closed the evening with a small set. Afterwards, Dr. Ryalls decided he didn’t donate quite enough to the foundation so he bid on us. Literally. For a donation to Sekolo, Dr. Ryalls brought The Manhattan Dolls to an after party.

We settle into his BMW 7 series and ten minutes later arrive at a beautiful home. Inside the house there are about twenty people from three different generations, two keyboards, two guitars, a stand alone drum set, and an accordion. This family gets together once a year for their “No Requests” jam session. Dr. Ryalls was supposed to play something on the piano but he was too shy so he brought us to sing instead. We sang, they sang we all sang along. They offered us food, wine, and cupcakes and we all had a blast.

What a beautiful family. This is the kind of party city people always say they want to have and then never get around to planning it. Their home was so warm and full of love that we started asking ourselves, “Who do we have to marry to be a part of this family?”

The good doctor drove us to the Stamford train station so we could catch the express back to Grand Central and we were all in our beds by 1:00AM. ‘Tis the season for family and charity. What a gift to be a part of that.

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano
Manhattan Doll

Wings over Alpena, Michigan

2011-02-01T13:15:00.000-05:00

August 20-22, 2010

Dearest Dolls' Fans,

The Dolls gather, once again at the airport on our way to a small town in Michigan – Alpena. We arrive in Detroit where we have to connect to another flight on the lovingly termed "puddle
jumper." Awesome. I felt like it was a massage chair with all of the vibrations! We arrive safely and are met by a member of the National Guard who presented us with our rental car. We drive through the maze that was the base and have a quick meet and greet with the staff and volunteers. We make our way through the little town of Alpena, quickly noting that our landmark for the base was a giant blowup eagle advertising the air show. We check in to our hotel and have a quick rehearsal before we get ready for the barbeque!

At the barbeque, we meet Andy who took care of us the whole weekend! A lovely man, this was his first time as operations manager for the air show…you would have thought it was his 50th. At twilight, there was a brief demonstration by some of the planes featured at the air show that weekend and we had a sneak preview! We also had the pleasure of meeting the Misty Blues – the only all woman sky diving team. Check them out! www.mistyblues.com

The following morning, despite the rain, there were hundreds of people milling about the air show and as the day went by, there were more and more who decided to brave the elements. We sang The National Anthem and gave the crowd a teaser of our show that was to come later in the day. In typical Dolls fashion, we were roaming around and taking pictures with all the guests and had the honor of meeting a Purple Heart recipient as well as his son and grandson who are also in the Air Force. What an incredible treat and honor to meet 3 generations of servicemen and all of them so proud of what they do and have done.

Thank you for your service, gentlemen!

The end of the air show featured the A-10 East Demo Team. After their demonstration was over, we had the chance to meet the pilot – Major Johnnie Green – and his crew. Visit their site: www.moody.af.mil/units/acceastcoasta-10demoteam/index.asp. They invited us across
the orange fence to check out the A-10 and get pics with the guys. The gentlemen that they were, they came to the hangar dance that evening to watch our show.

Before the hangar dance, we had a quick rehearsal with the Alpena City Band and then we were searching for our dressing room, not the easiest thing to come by in a hangar but after several levels of security were cleared and the right key brought to the hangar, we were shown where
we could change At first glance, you wouldn’t see anything unusual-tools, work table, work lights, but then you look all the way to the back of the room and what do you find? Missiles. You read that right, missiles. Not sure if they were live or not and not willing to take any chance, we stayed as far away from them as possible!!!

After the hangar dance, we all piled into a car and drove to the bar on the base to chat with all the pilots and crew that were present for the show and we had a great time! We danced, played some pool and eventually made our way back to the hotel after a long and full day.

On Sunday morning, we decided to take our time and enjoy the hotel, relaxed in bed and had brunch in the hotel restaurant. We took the car and a map and made our way to Lake Huron, a first for all of us Dolls! Andy met us at the airport to pick up the car. Now a mention about the Alpena airport – when we walked in, the ticket counter had our tickets printed, knew who we were when we walked in, took care of our luggage and when I asked about the poster for the air show that was hanging up in their office, they took it down, taped it and brought it to me while I was sitting in the lounge! Some of the nicest people ever!! We piled into the “puddle jumper” to make our return journey to Detroit and said a fond farewell to Alpena.

This was a great trip and we look forward to our next visit to their area.

Until we sing again,
Sarah Doll

2010 UK Summer Tour

2010-11-16T12:52:00.001-05:00

The Manhattan Dolls take England

Alexes, Andys and Air Force; Oh My!

Day One: Why are there two pedals?

Our tale begins on the hottest day of the year so far. June 24, New York City. All six Dolls in a poorly ventilated warehouse for a photo shoot. Every one of us would be gone from New York in less than twenty four hours.


Copyright © Cathryn Lynne Photography

If it was ninety degrees outside, it was one hundred in the warehouse. With curls falling and makeup dripping down our faces, we managed to pull off over twenty combinations of lovely ladies in four different dresses, in less than two hours- and we look cool as cucumbers in every shot.

Heather, Sarah, and I leave Sheila, Shannon and Mallorie to their fun in the freight elevator and high-tail it to Queens to pick up our suitcases and fight the traffic to JFK. Despite the parking lot which is the Van Wyck, we arrive perfectly two hours before our scheduled departure time (thanks Dad!), exchange our money, and head to the gate. Delays. Even after we finally board the plane, we taxied and sat on the tarmac another hour of two. In total, we left the ground about three hours after we were supposed to. I could have washed my hair.

I thought eight hours overnight regardless of how uncomfortable I was, my body would find a way to sleep- especially with the help of a Tylenol PM. Oh, no. No, no sleeping. I was so miserable (and still drugged) when we arrived at Heathrow that I honest to God thought the trip wasn’t even going to be worth it. Then I saw the Cadbury machine.

How could I forget? In the midst of my packing and ordering the global phone, and the searching for adapters, somehow forget that England is the land of Cadbury chocolate? Cadbury is apparently so commonplace there that they have vending machines full of it. They are as common as Starbucks in Manhattan. Suddenly my sleepless flight was a distant memory. With chocolate and fabulous espresso in hand, I was a new woman. We set off on our first trip on the tube to find our flat.

On the way, we examined our maps and I played Heather and Sarah the good old London Underground song. We arrive at Knightsbridge, walk past Harrods, past ridiculously fancy houses, through the most beautiful neighborhood I have ever seen and arrive at our flat. Our jaws hit the floor. There is even a washer and dryer. Heaven.

Drop off suitcase, pack an overnight bag and head to Piccadilly Circus to scope out the club for the following night. We find the Pigalle Club directly across from the statue of Eros. We find a car park (that’s parking garage to you Yankees) down the street and head back to Heathrow to pick up the rental car. Off to Trowbridge!

Did you know they drive on the left side of the road in England? The steering wheel is on the right and the roads are narrower than Wall Street. Heather has always wanted to drive on the other side so she gets behind the wheel and sets off. Well, almost. Obviously we knew about the other side of the road thing. Heather just didn’t know that an overwhelming majority of European cars have manual transmission. She sat in the driver’s seat and bless her overtired heart, she said, “Why are there three pedals? There’s only supposed to be two.” We marched right back into Enterprise and got an automatic.

Three hours later and missing a piece of the side view mirror, we arrive at our Bed and Breakfast in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. When we arrive at nine, dinner has been all cleaned up but Kate gives us a handful of delivery menus. Our rooms are adorable! We shower, order Chinese, tip the guy much to his dismay and surprise, and pass out at about ten o’clock. We have been traveling for twenty four hours. Thank the “sweet baby Jesus” for a bed.

British things we have discovered so far:

-Do not tip

-No AC

-No top sheets

-The plumbing is leftover from Queen Victoria’s reign

-Wimpy pillows

-Narrow roads

-Really nice people

Day Two, Saturday June 26, 2010: The Spotted Dick

After ten or eleven hours completely comatose at the Bed and Breakfast, I awoke like a sunshine-y bird. Heather being severely jet-lagged barely napped. We’ve swapped places it seems. Downstairs there is a lovely English Breakfast on lovely china, in a lovely room with an even lovelier view.

Stonehenge!! Our first sight seeing venture. Not only did we take the tour but the Druids were having a ceremony inside the circle of stones. I don’t know what it was or why but I’m assuming it had something to do with how close we were to the solstice. Regardless, it was very cool.

We all have a few must-hits while we are here.

Annemarie: Stonehenge and the Tower of London

Sarah: The Millennium Bridge

Heather: pubs and beer

We pass a Rose & Crown. Really? I make us stop. We walk in to a completely empty restaurant. The barkeep says, “Park your bums wherever you like.” We chose the least dingy looking booth we can find, pick up menus and instantly our eyes go to the desserts. Not because we’ve got a sweet tooth. No, no. There is a dish called, “the spotted dick” on the menu. I’m afraid to ask. Instead I opt for the beef pie and I drink my first Strongbow of the trip.

Trowbridge. In our travels this day, we drive through truly the loveliest and most beautiful countryside a city girl could hope for. We arrive at the festival grounds for the British Armed Forces Celebration and are shown to the hottest room in the building to be our dressing room. We abandon ship in about fifteen minutes and find a facility closer to the stage. We get dressed, take some photos, find our first cute boy and head up to the stage. There are three servicemen sitting in the front loving every second of our adorable little show. Foreshadowing…really just keep reading.

Before we know it, we pile into the car in our costumes and bolt back to London. We are meeting the Jive Aces tonight at the Pigalle Club. Obviously we got stuck in massive amounts of Saturday night city traffic. I had to use the facilities so badly that as soon as the club was in sight, I got out of the car in my teeny tiny carwash dress and walked through Piccadilly Circus to the Pigalle to use the toilet (bathroom). I met Grazia, the manager for the band and she leads me across a balcony for my first glimpse of the Jive Aces. They are onstage. Ian looks up at me and winks. I wave and they all look up and smile. I feel the spark of musical magic and I suddenly realize, our tour has officially begun!

Between sets, we “rehearse.” A word about the Jive Aces: These guys do not use music. No charts, no nothing. Their musical director, Vince, wrote out chord symbols for us to learn Shoo Shoo Baby. Heather is a genius and created three part harmony for us from these letters on a page. Theoretically this song should work out fine. In The Mood, Benny Goodman version, so pretty standard. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy had the most discussion. “Do you do the trumpet solo?”

“Yes.”

“Do you do ‘ba ba bad a doo dah da?”

“Yes four times.”

Good. Let’s go.

They vamp the intro to Bugle Boy while Ian introduces us. “All the way from America, The United States of America, from New York, The Manhattan Dolls!” The club is packed. My old roommate and best friend from college is there with her boyfriend. She is studying abroad and brings a welcome taste of home. It is late. It is the third set. Everyone is already very drunk and having a ball. The dance floor is jumping. We do our three songs. Everything is smoother than we could have expected. We’ve never had so much fun. Ever.

Afterwards we celebrate with our first real company drink. I have a Jameson, Sarah has wine and Heather has a martini. Again with the no tipping…weird. At some point on this trip we each have a personal moment of, “wow this is really happening.” For Heather, it was this. Poor thing was exhausted and this was the first second that she could really sit back and breathe. She got a little teary; we all said “cheers” and drank to a fabulous first weekend in the United Kingdom. The Aces drive us back to Knightsbridge and ask us to join them the following day. Do we want to sing with them again? Oh, let me think about it. Ok, yes!

Day Three, Sunday June 27, 2010: The Hottest Keys

We meet the Aces by their hotel in Luton and follow them up to Coleville, Leistershire for the Festival in the Park.

I will take this opportunity to describe exactly what it is that Vince does to a piano. My words will fall short but I cannot allow this to go unsaid. Please see video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY7OC_pLk_s) Vince is just about the best thing on the keys that ever existed. He is jumping and dancing along; kicking his legs. Higher, higher…between beats, he is slowly moving back his microphone to make room for the following action. He jumps, kicks his legs behind him, jumps again into a straddle (dancer boys, this is a Russian to you) hits the keys with his feet and eventually lands in a split. If it sounds insane, it is. I am not exaggerating a word. Seriously, see video. As if nothing could top this, their encore ends with all of the instruments, except piano and drums, upside down, physically balanced on their faces.

After the show, we go out for Chinese, and Ken drags me to the candy shop next door so I can stock up on Cadbury. What he doesn’t know is that I’ve got two bars stashed in my bag already. I feed them to the girls in the car. It has become our proverbial “spoonful of sugar.” Once we make our way back to the flat, we realize the entire day is gone. We finally get some sleep the night before our well earned, much anticipated day off.

Day Four, Monday June 28, 2010: The Dolls Take London

We are apparently still very jet lagged because we don’t make it out of the flat until two in the afternoon. We go straight to the Bus Tour- not without first walking the wrong way. Yea, that was my fault. We are ecstatic to just sit and be driven around. We get off in Covent Garden and look around at the shops. We find a pub for lunch and have the most delicious pasties. I had pork and apple. They came with fantastic potato wedges, another Strongbow and a super cute bartender! Yum! We almost took him with us but lost track of time and had to bolt back to the bus and back to the flat. We then decide to do our own pub crawl!

We leave at about 8:45 or 9pm and it is still clear and bright as day. This is not helping with the jet lag. We find a pub in SoHo for the first drink, thinking we will move on so I don’t order dinner. Then these guys show up and buy us drinks so we feel obligated to stay. All of a sudden, the pub was closing so we headed to some weird underground place with red lighting.

More British things we have discovered:

-Pubs close at 11:00pm

-The tube closes around 12 or 12:30am

-There are underground joints with no windows that stay open later

-You don’t want to take a taxi

-They also love gay pride, especially in SoHo, just like in NY!

Day Five, Tuesday June 29, 2010: Swinging with Alex and Alex

Get back on the tour bus, walk across the Millennium Bridge, eat lunch by the Globe and see the Tower of London! The matinee had just begun so we couldn’t take the Globe tour. I had a lovely steak sandwich though. Heather and Sarah walk me over to the Tower and then bugger off to the Victoria and Albert museum. I was just in time for the guided tour! I got to see the spot where Anne Boylen got her head cut off and the Prisoner’s Gate where soon to be Queen Elizabeth the first was rowed in as a prisoner. I also saw the chapel and the crown jewels. Complete success!

I met the girls back at the flat and then we headed around the corner to meet our benefactor, Cliff. Sooozie is attending to an injured relative so she could not be there and yes, her name is spelled with three “o”s. They had both come to the Pigalle the night we were singing there and they left us a note on the door to our flat. To thank them, we bring a bottle off wine but somehow end up going home with three bottles. Cliff served us the most fantastic wine out of the most fantastic crystal wine glasses. We sat out in his garden and sang him some “Apple Blossom Time.” He offered the flat again next year and we all left very happy. A collage of our photos is now mounted on the wall in the flat.

We meet Alex from the Jive Aces at some random part of London to an underground swing joint. We are there to meet a chap called Simon. There are thousands of them here. He teaches swing dance and apparently sometimes books musical acts. We meet him and for some reason he is wearing a bowling shirt that says “Flloyd.” I am more than a bit confused. The place is packed and everyone knows how to dance. The best part is, almost everyone is young! Twenties and thirties young. I am astounded. Now, my ex-roommate Halina is not the only person I know that lives in London. What are the odds that I meet someone I know? Apparently not as likely as meeting Alex Campkin. We met him there at the club. He went to school with Matt Brown, the photographer that we used on our first photo shoot. We bring him home, serve some of Cliff and Sooozie’s wine and quickly get onto Skype with Matt. Looks like London is just as small as I was wondering it might be after all.

Day 6, Wednesday June 30, 2010: We’re too excited to sleep!

Alex, trombone player Jive Ace, Alex, graciously volunteered to be our photographer for the day. We trotted around Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and the guards on horse all in our matching military dresses. Alex had us in and out of phone booths, on war tank, and up on walls. Not gonna lie, we got a lot of stares.

We head home, get changed and meet the band at the pizza place in SoHo. The food is delicious, as if Grazia would take us for bad Italian…and we head out. As soon as we set foot outside, we collide with a band of wand’ring minstrels and Ian whips out the ukulele. Some other guy walks by toting a djambe on his back. I call it by name and he is impressed enough to take it out and join the party. No, this is not a cartoon.

As if life couldn’t get any better, we go for gelato. Sarah feels about ice cream the way I feel about chocolate. I haven’t ever seen her this happy. Our cones are arranged in the style of a flower and they even gave me a couple of complimentary pistachios.

As if life still couldn’t get any better, we headed to BBC studios. We change in the bathroom, trot past the sports desk and into the studio with Joannie. After we sing, we are interviewed and we all get a chance to speak. She asks what I like most about London and the only thing I can think of to say is that they have better chocolate. I must say we felt pretty fabulous when she asked if we got to see the Jive Aces at the Pigalle club and we got to say, “We sang with the Jive Aces at the Pigalle Club.”

When we get home, we are way too excited to sleep. We call Heather’s husband and my mother all still in full makeup.

Things we learned about London:

-Londoners are not immune to strange things like three girls dressed alike sitting on walls. New Yorkers would at least pretend not to care.

-Everyone is lying about the weather to prevent overcrowding due to everyone falling in love with this city.

-Everyone is lying about the food. Everything I have put in my mouth is delicious.

-Bad teeth only occur in the rural country where dental care must be harder to come by. Just like the states…

Day 7, Thursday July 1, 2010: City of London Festival

We arrive at Guildhall yard in the City of London on Gresham St. For all you Americans, the City of London is akin to below Canal Street in Manhattan. It’s the oldest part of the city and used to be surrounded by the Roman wall. Really, really old. We get our bags scanned and head downstairs to look for our dressing area. A wrong turn through an underground crypt, across what looks like Hogwart’s Dining room and finally we find a restroom. Did I mention the whole bathroom/restroom/loo conundrum? I knew no one said bathroom but I thought at least “restroom” was okay. No, no, you are not taking a bath, you are not having a rest; you are using the toilet. We were told that even “loo” is a specifically Liverpool term. Heather kept saying “loo” and everyone kept laughing at the tall blonde American saying “loo” to Londoners. She could not make herself say “toilet.” I get it. I mean, it is none of anyone’s business what it is I am doing in there. For all they know, I am simply powdering my nose. Eventually we learned to “spend a penny” but we didn’t get there yet.

Goodness, I’m getting ahead of myself. We get dressed and head out of the crypt into another lovely summer day in London and meet one of the other entertainers for the day. Enter Cody Lee.

Cody is a jive pianist. He studies with Vince. He was dressed in black trousers, a white button up shirt and a keyboard tie. He firmly shook hands with each one of us as his manager passed out business cards. During the show, he confidently strode over to me, asked me for a dance and led me through a solid lindy hop.

Cody is twelve. I had to make some accommodations for height but otherwise, his dancing was very advanced. He was throwing in moves I had only learned two nights ago at the swing club. If I didn’t know any better I would have been completely swept off my feet.

His manager is his extraordinarily sweet mother. He played a couple of solos and then did a four handed duet with Vince. A few pictures later and we are off to our last lunch with the Aces. The following evening, they are playing Royal Albert Hall. Americans read: Carnegie. So, we took some pictures with them in front of it even though we couldn’t go to the show. Have you picked up that we like pictures?

After a teary goodbye, I run off to Oxford Circus to meet up with Halina. She has free tickets to see Holding the Man at Trafalgar Studios. We stop for bangers and mash. Halina makes me eat some mashy peas to compliment my sausages. The theater at Trafalgar was a lot like Second Stage in New York but it was still considered West End. It was an Australian import but hey, it was free. Despite the fact that the theater was not air conditioned, it was the first time I forgot I was in another country. Midway through the second act, someone two rows back passed out; probably from the heat.

After the show, Halina and Adam came with me to meet up with Heather, Sarah and composer Alex at a bar in SoHo. They were all sitting at an outdoor table. We join them and order so much as one drink and all of a sudden, they start closing. What? This is one of the leading most powerful cities in the world and pubs close at 11:00. I felt like Cinderella rushing back to the pumpkin. No, at least she had until midnight. We had been sitting outside so they said we could finish up inside the bar while they cleaned up the outside tables. I’ve got to say, some of us have been kicked out of bars but we have never been kicked in. Twenty minutes later the lights come on and about ten minutes after that, we all get kicked out for good. 11:30.

Our time in London is now complete. We have been here almost a solid week and have had the time of our lives thus far. I do wish we had gotten more time to sight see but the real treat was running around Southern England singing with the one and only Jive Aces. We have absolutely fallen in love and feel like we could never want a better band. I never got into the Globe, or ate fish and chips, or went shopping but I did eat lots of yummy food, drink Strongbow everyday, see a show and find those random places we never would have seen on a regular vacation. We loved everything about it, were devastated to leave and felt as if we didn’t even want to go on to the next step. But then we landed in Waddington.

Day 8, Friday July 2, 2010: Americans! You took my car keys!

On an early morning, we use our oyster cards for the last time on our way to Heathrow to pick up another rental car. Once we get there we stop at Costa for espresso and egg sandwiches. Don’t worry about me; I already had cereal at the flat. I took to eating a bowl of cereal before we left for breakfast and after we got home at night to supplement meals not eaten.

Heather has long since given up the wheel in favor of Sarah’s calm control. A word about the car...up until today, I have been in the backseat-mostly in charge of filming the antics up front. Such antics include sightseeing, picture taking, gawking at a man with a facial mole larger than my thumb nail, following the Jive Aces and much ridiculous singing to the radio. Ten days in England and we had heard no Elton John, no Rolling Stones and NO BEATLES! Really?!

When we are what we think is about forty five minutes away, we call Barry for more local directions to the base. Heather passes me the phone after about three seconds of, “’alo, you alright?” and I talk to him from here on out. The local directions go something like this: “go down a hill on a windy road, past the tank on the left. Go through the town; make a left at the T junction…” Two hours later, we pull into the base.

Dost my eyes deceive me? It must be a mirage. Perhaps I’m dehydrated. The first thing we see is about ten extra sexy shirtless soldiers climbing up metal beams as they build a scaffolding with their bare hands. This is going to be a good weekend.

We meet Barry. Heather has a much easier time with his speech in person. We watch a bit of the band’s rehearsal and spot “sweet butter man.” You know who you are…multi talented instrumentalist with a voice as smooth as butter.

We rehearse. Looks like enough changes are being made that we have to burn a new CD. Before we deal with actual business my cranky stomach needs food so we make a quick visit into town where we meet yet another adorably edible bartender who serves me something delicious and my daily Strongbow. I love it here. After dinner, we head to the University of Lincoln where we are staying in the dorms and discover that Heather’s CD burner does not work. Luckily we meet some guys in the rooms below us who are willing to let us use their computer. They’re hanging around, boozing and having a few laughs…one is ironing. Sarah makes the mistake of saying, “Thank you so much for letting us use your burner. Can I thank you by ironing your pants for you?” Sarah is our costume mistress and a whiz with an iron. Regardless, there were multiple gasps and guffaws from every Brit in that room over which I exclaimed, “she will do absolutely nothing to your pants!” Trousers, Sarah. Trousers. For you Americans who still have not caught on, “pants” means underwear on the other side of the pond.

May I mention that some of these gentlemen were Welsh? Those who were from the main island were mostly Northern; Manchester and North Country types. Every one of them had different inflections although our Manchester friend, James probably had the flattest accent there. Poor Heather. She really did master it by the end of the week in London but we are in the North now. Big difference. I was literally translating full sentences.

We burn our CDs, thank them in the proper vocabulary and go upstairs to rehearse. Uh oh, Sarah took the wrong keys. She took Mark’s car keys. She runs downstairs to catch him but they are already all gone out to the pub. We leave a note, “we have your car keys by mistake. We’ll be in hangar five tomorrow.” Not good.

About 2:30am, there is a call at our windows. This is less Shakespearean and more, well, crazy drunk Welshman. “Americans! You took my car keys!” Then he comes up to bang on the door to our suite. I am silently begging Sarah to wake up and even more begging her not to open the door. I am clutching the global phone for dear life. Does 911 work in this country?

She woke up. After she dropped the keys out the window, there was a bit more yelling and then a meeker, “thank you,” and finally, “You’re all fit.” I’ve been called “fit” exactly three times in my life. Let’s just say it’s a compliment. When we saw him the next evening he didn’t remember a thing. He was embarrassed, sorry and hung-over. That didn’t seem to stop him from drinking again the following day, of course not. That would be a sin against all the drunken Welshmen who fought the English five hundred years ago. We all know how well that went.

More British things we have learned:

-Once you get out of the city, it is customary giving directions using landmarks.

-They don’t care for their own classic rock music.

-All bartenders are hot.

-Make sure to take your own keys.

Day 9, Saturday July 3, 2010: You could carry me for miles across a desert…

Free breakfast at the dorm! I do believe I haven’t paid for more than two meals this whole trip. After arriving on base, we sound check and start to make our rounds. Plane after plane, pilot after luscious pilot; photos and flirting, we invited about thirty of the most attractive servicemen to our show. We hung around Ollie and Luke a bit longer than most. We were telling Ollie of our travels thus far. Sarah, “where did you fly into for the show this weekend?”

Ollie, “oh, right here.”

Us, “right, you flew this plane, of course…”

Heather, “He just flew that big black honey right on over here. Just by himself…like it’s his car or something.” All three of us now have a pin of “the black honey” on the back of our caps.

We had been performing during the Red Arrows portion of the show so unfortunately we missed the formation flying but David was generous enough to supply us with merchandise. Thanks Dave! We did get to see the Vulcan display though. You heard me correctly. The Vulcan was not only there but it flew.

Plenty of these lads did in fact show up but there were two who kept hanging around a bit more than the others. Enter Andy and Andy. Andy Sadd and Andy Johnson are crewmen for the British Army Air Corp. They fly the surveillance planes and “scope out the baddies.” They have done a few tours overseas and are going back in January. They had some pretty bad timing with us the first day. They were present for most of our shows but we couldn’t find them afterwards to thank them for coming so we promised ourselves that if we were able to find them later on at the pub that we would at least have one drink with them.

We went back to the dorm to change after the show and followed a very large crowd into the city of Lincoln. We head into what seems like the noisiest bar in the world where a group of guys (who did not come to our show) buy us our first round. About fifteen minutes later, the Andys walk in. They get our second round and we slowly inch away from the first group. It got to be too noisy to talk so we left and started climbing the steepest hill on the planet. It was unpaved; Cobblestone road, old shop windows, just old world like I had stepped directly into a Phillipa Gregory novel. We stopped at one bar just to see the well. The bar had been built on top of an old well. They simply laid Plexiglas on top of the well and built around it. One of the guys led us slightly out of the way so we could see the Cathedral. Our breath instantly left our bodies. The Cathedral of Lincoln was consecrated in 1092 during the reign of William the Conqueror of the Norman Conquests. This and the Tower of London are by far the oldest complete structures (excluding ruins) I have ever seen but the Cathedral is certainly much more beautiful than the Tower. Of all our actual tours during this trip, we have seen nothing quite like Lincoln.

Our last stop is another bar at the very top of this huge hill. The Andys and crew tell us of their travels in the Middle Eastern deserts and we drink until the early hour of 11:00 when we get kicked out as usual. We start to make our way down the hill and at some point I give up in favor of a piggyback ride. I make some sort of joke about the possibility that I am getting heavy and then I realize-this guy is in the army. “Wait, you could probably carry me for miles across a desert.” His response? “Well, I don’t know about miles…” Conclusion: yes he could.

Day 10, Sunday July 4, 2010: Why did we fight for independence again?

The Andys worked some magic and somehow got us clearance to take individual pictures in the Spitfire. I went last and I even got to turn it on! After our shows it was Pimm’s o’clock! The Andys and now Mike brought us over to the Pimms stand. We had pitchers and pitchers of it. It is a concoction of liqueurs and fruit extract mixed with lemonade and fruit juices and poured over ice. It is positively THE most refreshing way to end a summer afternoon.

We had an early evening date with the automobiles. The man who owned the LeMaire and the Jaguars was ill. The first day we took some pictures in the cars. Today, those pictures had been printed. We signed and kissed them and in return we got driven around the base in these antiques like regular celebrities. After we got out, the first and only raindrops of our entire trip began to fall. Sarah threw herself across the open convertible in a ridiculous and futile attempt to protect the interior. After these brief seconds of rain, there was actually a rainbow. Do they really have Leprechauns here too?

I made the error of going to the “toilet” by myself and on the way out was positively swarmed by the Scandinavian team. Of course, the other two Dolls joined and we took pictures. Literally, us and about twenty pilots which is a perfect segue way into the hangar party!

It is the fourth of July and we finally found the Americans. Let’s have a drink to celebrate independence from the British while we are in Great Britain. Well, I don’t like beer and I haven’t had my daily Strongbow since Friday so I ask for a cider. He returns with beer. Americans. I wander away and find Andy just waiting for us to come to our senses. I admit I let the American boy buy me a drink and how badly that had turned out. He takes the offending beer from my disappointed hands, “Let me take care of it.” Less than sixty seconds later he returns with a giant cider. My hero!

The singer booked for the party wants us to come onstage and sing some impromptu backup so there we are huddled around one microphone. During an instrumental, Sarah jumps off the stage and offers herself as a dance partner. Unfortunately, she didn’t think to choose just one so about six leapt at the opportunity. Heather and I immediately jumped down to take some of the overflow. I must say, these guys are not half as good dancers as the chaps in London proper. Sorry fellas.

I go to replenish my drink but get stopped by a bunch of more than halfway drunk Geordies. One of them (luckily the best looking one) was more sober and a lot nicer than the others. I said pretty sarcastically, “well it was lovely meeting all of you but we’re going to get a drink. Bye.” I grabbed his arm and took him directly to the bar. He bought me a drink and then turned out to be the only guy there who actually knew how to dance.

There was another band, some pilots exchanged flight suits and we left our lipstick marks on our favorites. Mike ended up looking a bit like Popeye. The party ends and we are all kicked off base. We pack Mike, the Andys and one more into our car and take them back to the dorms. We talk for a bit but eventually the night must end. We are leaving at 3:30 in the morning. Sarah has decided to stay up with a coffee so she can safely drive us but it is about 1:00 and I realize I am fading fast. I need a nap to even be able to get in the car let alone navigate. We bid the boys good night and they disappear into the cool English night. We awake two hours later to begin the long trip home.

Day 11, July 5, 2010: The End

We rise when it is still very dark. I’ve barely napped and it is time to get in the car again. Heather instantly conks out in the backseat. Sarah has been up since yesterday and she confidently gets behind the wheel, coffee in hand. By the time we hit city traffic about an hour outside the city, Sarah starts fading. I feed her energy bars and apples like a nurse in an OR. Upon arrival at Heathrow the roles reverse. Heather awakens nearly refreshed and Sarah completely shuts down mere seconds after stepping out of the car. She was upright. I’ll give her that.

We apparently have not had enough fun because Heather and I both got “randomly chosen” for body scans. We had to stand on the little feet outlines while some fancy machine apparently scanned our bodies. There was supposedly a woman somewhere hidden investigating beneath our clothes. Well, we made show of it, posing in ridiculous positions and thoroughly entertaining our otherwise miserable airport security officer. After our ordeal, we find Sarah asleep and pick her up to find our gate. I sat next to a sleeping Sarah the whole way home while I watch about three movies.

I realize that I have come to the end of our tour. I want to keep writing just as I wish we could have gone on to the next city, the next adventure but I know there is more traveling in store for us Daring Dolls; more planes to fly, more countries to conquer and more soldiers to swoon over. Toodle-oo and Cheerio.

*For Behind the Scenes clips of The Manhattan Dolls' 2010 UK Tour, check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AeaKm6bBbA

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano, Manhattan Doll

"Our American Hero"

2010-04-07T18:47:00.008-04:00

Dearest Doll Fans, 3/6/2010

In a Japanese tea room, a mariachi band plays, Elvis sings along and The Manhattan Dolls welcome home American hero, Sergeant first class Lou Lalux.

Sergeant Lalux has finally returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were honored to be invited to this great celebration welcoming him home. The event took place in the Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island in a Japanese inspired ballroom. There was a beautiful garden area with a bridge where we took a few pictures. Luckily it was the first nice day of the year!

The event began with the color guard from Francis Lewis Jr. High School, Junior ROTC. We sang our unique arrangement of the National Anthem and then the festivities were underway! Oh the cheese! Oh the crudités!

We performed our half hour show to a warm response and then got to take pictures with Sergeant Lalux and his wife. We even got to pose with the color guards! After our show, a four piece mariachi band, Mariachi Citalli played. They had this gigantic guitaron that I was obsessed with. The Elvis performer, Gene DiNapoli was next and the afternoon commenced with my plate of short ribs. No better way to make this Doll happy than to feed me well!

What a lovely day to welcome home a war hero!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano, Manhattan Doll

Hoboken Policeman’s Benevolent Association Christmas Party and Award Ceremony

2010-04-07T18:26:00.001-04:00

Dearest Doll Fans,

Thanks to our good friend Emcee Jeff Adames (www.ultimateent.com), we arrived in style at The Graycliff, in Moonachie, New Jersey. After a quick mic check with the wonderful DJ Taz, we were escorted to the “Bridal Suite” to change into costume. The evening started off with a lovely hors de vours and cocktail hour before the announcement of Mr. Vince Lombardi’s parents’ 49 year wedding anniversary! What a lovely celebration to be a part of. We were able to highlight this fantastic couple during our show as well as a soldier who is currently serving in Iraq. For dinner, we had the privilege of sitting with a famous actor (seen in many gangster films!) and a few other folks who were involved in making the evening happen. During our show, we had Vince Lombardi sing along with us and later in the evening had the pleasure of singing backup for an officer while he performed “That’s Life” a la Frank Sinatra! After our 30 minute show, we were asked to stay and enjoy dessert, dancing and cocktails. Of course we had to stay! We had the delight of dancing with all the lovely folks who are a part of the PBA. This event was so much fun and a delight to be a part of. I hope we can do this event again this year and celebrate Mr. and Mrs. Lombardi’s 50^th wedding anniversary!!

Until we sing again,

Sarah Drake, Manhattan Doll

A few special days in Dover, Delaware...

2010-01-29T00:54:00.000-05:00

Dearest Doll Fans,

This event was held as a thank you dinner for all the museum volunteers for the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force base. What a treat and a privilege to perform for these people and give back a little of everything they’ve given to us. We made our way to Dover on a rainy, gross day in NYC, but once we were in Delaware the sun was shining and it turned out to be a lovely day. Upon arrival at the beautiful country club Wild Quail, we were greeted by a gorgeous staircase and an adorning Christmas tree. We made our way to the back of the building and met the man we’ve been talking to on the phone, John. What a wonderfully delightful person. He made us feel right at home and they had the sound system up and ready to go for us. After sound check, he asked us to wait there, he would be right back. He returned as promised bearing gifts for the three of us: ornaments from the museum, air force challenge coins, chocolates (clearly he knew the way to our hearts), all in a lovely gift bag. We were so touched at this gesture and of course we gave him a huge hug! After going through the events of the evening, we made our way to our hotel at the Dover Downs Casino!! This place was stunning and with the Christmas decorations everywhere, it only enhanced the beauty. We checked into our suite which donned two bathrooms and the coolest feature being the light in the toilet room. If you were to get up at night and turn the light on, it slowly got brighter so you didn’t go blind while you were in there. Genius. We got all of our costumes together, ran through a couple of numbers and started getting beautiful. It doesn’t take much ;) We made our way back to Wild Quail (maybe we took the back route this time and drove through the entire complex to get there, but hey…I blame GPS) and were greeted by John and his cohort for the evening, Hank. They showed us to our dressing room and treated us like queens, asking us if there was anything we needed, food, drink, kisses (haha), whatever. As the time grew nearer to begin our cocktail hour set, we were getting progressively more excited. We heard John announce us with such delight (as we were a surprise to all the museum volunteers that night) and we made our entrance.

We were greeted with uproarious applause and began our set, which included a more toned down version of “Boogie Woogie” and jazz standards to set the mood. It was during this set that we met Mr. Don Dell, who to this day I will never forget. This man had more energy than any of us gals and swung around on the dance floor, even when it was a slower song. Clearly the jokester of the group, he continued his loveable antics for the rest of evening. Of course we got pictures with him! Following the set, we were invited to sit for dinner where we met Sandy, a jovial gentleman who loved to tell jokes and got the whole table going for the evening. He was one of the many, many volunteers at the museum and later in the evening he won a bottle of liquor which was “just what he needed,” he said. We excused ourselves from dinner to change costumes for our second set. This set included all of our high energy dance combos and Christmas songs to get everyone ready for the holiday season.

We entered in our black cigarette dresses and got all kinds of hoots and hollers. We were showing leg this time, so it only seemed fitting! We had a special tribute to 4 WWII vets and sang “In the Mood” to all of them. Later we changed into our more patriotic dresses and when we sang “Wild Blue Yonder” the entire room was on its feet singing along with us and clapping so loud it was hard to hear the music. Amazing. You could just tell how much that song meant to them and what a proud moment for us. We disappeared to the dressing room following that set to get ready for the final numbers. This last set was very special because of our honored guest of the evening. Bill Hardie was a WWII vet and up until last year was swimming everyday and leading a very active life. He had complications with surgery and now cannot do many things for himself. Despite it all, he still laughs and makes those around him smile. He has an amazing wife who continues to stay by his side and was such a joy to meet.

He was our “Santa” for our Santa Baby number, wore a light-up Santa hat and had the best time! After the third set, we had the pleasure of introducing the real Santa! He came bearing gifts, of course, and he happened to be one of the volunteers for the museum. These people do everything and with such heart! We helped him pass out all the raffle prizes and then spent the rest of the evening taking pictures and talking with all the vets and the museum volunteers. We were invited by the curator, Jim, to take a private tour of the Air Mobility Command Museum on the Air Force Base. The next day we made our way to the museum and after some minor complications, we finally found where we were supposed to go. This time, I can’t blame GPS; it was just the base and all the security. Once we arrived, we were greeted by about 10 of the gentleman from the party the previous evening and immediately took pictures, bought t-shirts and some pins. What? We were in a store! We had to buy something!!! Hal, the young man we sang to the night before followed us and took pictures and showed off his visual interpretations of war logs and timelines. A very talented fellow. Jim began our tour and we got the inside scoop on everything.

We were able to stand inside a C-5 engine and took several pictures in there, we all logged hours on the flight simulator so hey, if anything happens, the three of us know what to do! And we all did it in heels, thank you very much. Continuing on the tour, we saw the race car that’s been driven at Dover Downs, the race track there in the city, and several WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, and Gulf War planes, helicopters. Along the way, we saw the most amazing collection of commander coins that was donated by one of the honored guests from the night before. We finished up the tour with more pictures in front of “Sleepy Time Gal” and reluctantly said our goodbyes. After being treated like royalty, it’s hard to leave that all behind. Every gentleman at the museum had incredible stories to tell and if you ever get a chance to visit that museum, go. It’s an experience not soon forgotten and I know that it holds a special place in our hearts. We cannot wait to return next December and are already planning our PT17 flight with pilot Don!

Until we sing again,

Sarah Drake, Manhattan Doll

My first day as a Doll…

2009-11-17T14:08:00.005-05:00

Dearest Doll fans,

Friday Nov. 13 we sang at the annual awards ceremony for the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation at the Waldorf Astoria! Anthony Bergamo, Chairman, invited us to perform at the beginning of what turned out to be quite an elegant affair. We opened the ceremonies with our signature New York, New York and concluded with our version of God Bless America as per request. There were approximately 200 awards given out including the National Leadership Award to General James T. Conway: 34^th Commandant, United States Marine Corps. The event was dedicated to Honorable Robert M. Morgenthau: District Attorney, New York County, Manhattan. All those receiving awards accomplished major tasks for their respective agencies from stopping global drug trafficking routes to preventing domestic terrorist attacks. So I think we provided a much needed lightness to the room!

After the awards ceremony, we were invited to stay at the luncheon which was held in the grand ballroom. American Flags were displayed all around the perimeter of the room. Kristen was excited to see the bunting! As the room was filling, the Scotsmen in kilts were playing the bagpipes and we Dolls were flitting about socializing with the finest our government has to offer. We met Joseph G. Green : Supervisory Special Agent, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and array of other top secret agents. Their names are hush, hush! I actually ran into a friend of the family Stephen Hughes: Deputy Inspector, NYPD. Poor guys, they all seemed to want Heather’s number but sorry fellas! She’s a married lady!

We arrived at our table to a generous lunch including gnocchi in a cream sauce which just about made this Italian girl die and go to heaven! National Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda was the first speaker and by far our favorite! His speech was funny, patriotic and very moving. We laughed, we cried and we leapt to our feet with one hundred other tables of eight when he was finished.

Fortunately, Mr. Bergamo seemed very pleased with our performance. Looks like we will be invited back next year for the Twentieth Annual Luncheon! What a way to kick off our new group!

Until we sing again,

Annemarie Rosano, Manhattan Doll

www.themanhattandolls.com

We have a blog!! More to come!

2009-11-17T10:45:00.001-05:00