The Sestry Allanovy (Allan Sisters) were a Czech vocal trio formed in 1940. They were together until 1967

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ALLAN

The trio was formed during World War II in German-occupied Prague by Jiřina Salačová, Vera Kočvarová and Radka Hlavsová, who were members of the Kühn Choir. Her role models were the Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters .

They first called themeselves The Three Prague Girls, then chose the name Allan after the pseudonym of the composer, Alfons Jindra .

Their first success was in the Červená sedma (Red Seven) cabaret, where Karel Vlach discovered them .

As well as Karel Vlach’s orchestra, they sung with R. A. Dvorský’s Melody Boys and with pianist Leopold Korbar. They were in the musical The Wonder Cauldron. As the “Allan-Terzett” they recorded many songs in German for Telefunken and Deutsche Grammophon-Gesellschaft.

After the war they only sang in Czech. Radka Hlavsová was replaced by Máša Horová and the group expanded into a quartet with Bozena Port. In 1948 they were involved in the production of the musical Divotvorný hrnec .

SISTERS

After the end of World War 2, the trio expanded into a quartet:: Jiřina Salačová, Máša Horová, Věra Kočvarová, Bozena Portová.

From 1946–1948, Věra Holotíková (later Holotíková-Krumniklová) also sang in the quartet .

They made both solo recordings (Land of Singing, Svět je veselý, Behind the Blue Horizon) and accompanied, for example,  by male singer Václav Irmanov (Sweet and Lovely; Straighten Up and Fly Right), all with Karel Vlach’s orchestra.

After the arrival of Rudolf Cortés as a permanent singer in Vlach’s orchestra in 1948, they also began to accompany him, and in the late 1940s, their songs Písnička o Číňánek and Starý mlýn were popular.

Jiřina Salačová gave up her career and her place was taken by Blažena Lázničková. This was the line-up until 1955, when it broke up.

The Allan Sisters last performed together in 1967 in Podskalské’s movie comedy Ta naše písnička česká. The last living member was Věra Holotíková (1924–2018).

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