Dolly, Dottie and Ethel Bounds, also known as The Silver Lake Sisters are a trio of characters from Buena Vista Street, central/namesake characters of the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe while associated with the story of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. In the story of Buena Vista Street, they are the vaudeville musical performers who inspired Walt Disney's depiction of the Three Little Pigs, and are the origins of the pigs' names Fiddler, Fifer and Practical.
Members[]
- Dolly "Fiddler" Bounds: Dolly Bounds was a member of the trio who would play violin.
- Dottie "Fifer" Bounds: Dottie Bounds was the lead singer of the Silver Lake Sisters.
- Ethel "Practical" Bounds: Ethel was the group's pianist who handled the sisters' business.
History[]
Background[]
Origins[]
Dolly, Dottie and Ethel Bounds were a trio of musical performing sisters. The three made the vaudeville circuit, were minor celebrities in early Hollywood, and entertained troops during World War I. During their career around the 1920s-1930s, the three would perform in The Music Box in Chicago, the Apollo Theatre in New York City, along with Hollywood's El Capitan theatre, South Seas Club, Carthay Circle Theatre and the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Buena Vista Street[]
After twenty years of performances, Ethel convinced the trio to open up the "Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe" on Buena Vista Street in Los Angeles. On Buena Vista Street, the three sponsored the local KBVS Radio where they had a, "Classical Music Hour". Buena Vista Street resident animator Walt Disney was influenced by the sisters' personalities when he made the 1933 animated short-film, The Three Little Pigs.
In 1938, the three sisters performed at the Club Ritz in Homesville, USA. In 1939, the three would perform again at the Hollywood Tower Hotel, for a Halloween Party in the hotel's Tip Top Club. On that night, lightning from the 5th Dimension struck the hotel causing the elevators to crash, killing five people. The hotel was evacuated, investigated and shut down.
The later history of the Silver Lake Sisters is unknown.
Tower of Terror[]
Around 1994-2004, the Hollywood Tower Hotel mysteriously reopened. At some point, the out-of-time Silver Lake Sisters appeared in the hotel's lobby for a performance, seemingly unaware that it was no longer 1939. The nature of the sisters' appearance in the hotel is unknown.
Appearances[]
Disney California Adventure[]
Buena Vista Street[]
Atwater's Ink & Paint Supply[]
The bulletin-board in this store contains multiple allusions to the Silver Lake Sisters. An advert for KBVS Radio Station references the Silver Lake Sisters' Classical Music Hour. The flyer for Fiesta Buena Vista mentions the "Tres Hermanas de Silver Lake" (Spanish: Three Sisters of the Silver Lake) performing.[1]
Buena Vista Bugle[]
Food-critic Inglebert Irving gave a review on the Silver Lake Sisters' Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe.[2]
Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe[]
The three are fictional proprietors of this cafe. The cafe is filled with references to their career.
Hollywood Land[]
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror[]
During the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror's final days of operation, the Silver Lake Sisters made live appearances in the lobby performing music with assistance from a man called "Joe". The three characters were portrayed as believing it was still the Halloween of 1939.
Disney Town[]
A poster for the " Lake Shore Sisters" performing in the China Seas Club appears in Disney Town.[3]
Trivia[]
- The name "Silver Lake" comes from the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles where Walt Disney Studios was located.
- Two of the venues where the Silver Lake Sisters performed are fictional locations from 1990s live-action Disney films. The South Seas Club comes from The Rocketeer (1991), while Club Ritz was Big Boy Caprice's nightclub in Dick Tracy (1990). The silhouette of Flattop from Dick Tracy seems to appear on the Club Ritz poster.
- The Carthay Circle Theatre was the real-world theatre where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) premiered. The El Capitan Theater is a real-world theater owned by the Walt Disney Company.
- The bulletin-board within the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe contains several easter-eggs and references to both fictional and real-world Disney characters. Amongst these are:
- A piano lesson advert left by Rodger Radcliffe from 101 Dalmatians.
- The Firehouse Five Plus Two having auditions in the Cafe.
- There is a flyer looking for a home for the Three Orphan Kittens from the 1935 Silly Symphony short of the same name.
- The Disney Bros leaving an advertisement looking for actresses to play Alice in their 1920s Alice comedies.
- After the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in DCA closed, some of the posters in the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe referencing the Hollywood Tower Hotel were modified to reference the Carthay Circle Theatre.