Kathy Lennon video interview

By request, here's her interview from last week's Lawrence Welk Show.

Enjoy snoopysnake!

On the radio

They said it really loud
They said it on the air
On the radio
Whoa oh oh

Forgive the Donna Summer segue to some Lennon Sisters radio clips.

While browsing around the internets, I found the some fun radio interviews from the series Travel Talk Radio. It's hosted by Sandy Dhuyvetter, who is clearly a true Lennon Sisters (and Venice) fan. I love how genuinely thrilled she sounds at getting to interview Janet in particular. Enjoy the clips!

Janet Lennon interview from Chicago, Feb. 2005


Dan Lennon interview from Nashville, Feb 2006


Kathy, Janet and Mimi Lennon interview, Nashville, Mar. 2006


Kathy and Janet Lennon interview, San Diego, Oct. 2006

Kathy and Janet 7.27.07 tv Interview

Another day, another scorcher. Temps were well over 100 again. I had to wait til almost sunset to go bike riding on the levee - still came home dripping wet. And why do they make bicycle seats so uncomfortable? Seriously, my behind is sore. Too much information. Sorry. I did take a pretty pic of the mighty Mississippi with my cell phone.



So anyway, last month Kathy and Janet were on CN8TV morning show promoting their Best Pals line. I don't get that channel, but thanks to Peter MacNeil, who shared the video with me, we can all view it as I've added it to YouTube .

It's a good interview about their dolls and cds, and they sing a bit too. Such beautiful voices. Particularly interesting is the tidbit about their meeting with QVC, where they hope to be able to sell their Best Pals products. Janet was cute with her "thumbs up" when the interviewer wished them luck with the meeting.

Kathy and Janet promoting new dolls

There's a new interview with Kathy and Janet in promotion of their Best Pals doll line. Check it out.

Presenting: Lennon sisters’ rag dolls
By GRETCHEN METZ

Entrepreneurism is a new role for sisters Kathy and Janet Lennon.



They are familiar with celebrity, having been in the spotlight 50-plus years. But as founders of KatJan, a company that makes rag dolls like the ones crafted for them by their mother and grandmother when they were tots, there is a lot to learn.

“I had no idea how much work was involved,” said Janet Lennon in an interview Wednesday at a local hotel. “Our background is entertainment. We leave the business-business part to people who know what they’re doing but we’re learning all the time.”

Kathy and Janet Lennon, the two youngest of the Lennon Sisters quartet, are in the West Chester area this week to pitch their new line of Best Pal dolls to QVC in West Goshen and appear on the Comcast CN8 “Your Morning” show at 8:30 a.m. today.

The Lennon sisters, Diane, Peggy, Kathy and Janet, grew up as the apple of America’s eye, little girls in matching dresses, singing in harmony on “The Lawrence Welk Show.”

Janet, the youngest, was 9 when the sisters made their first Champagne Music apparence for Welk on Christmas Eve 1955. They left the show in 1968 and started their own musical variety show on ABC, “Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters,” the following year.

In the 1970s, the sisters performed regularly on “The Andy Williams Show,” and toured with Williams across the country.

In 1994 they began performing at the Welk Resort Theatre in Branson, Mo., and producing CDs. Sisters Diane and Peggy have retired. Younger sister Mimi has joined Kathy and Janet to make a trio.

There were 12 Lennon siblings in all.

“We thought we’d be there for a year or two but it’s been 13 years,” Janet Lennon, 61, said.

The two sisters, who were inseparable growing up and still remain “best pals,” decided three years ago to make their entrepreneurial dream come true.

“We always wanted to do something together,” said Kathy Lennon, 63. “And we loved the rag dolls so much we wanted to give them to other children.”

Added Janet Lennon, “those dolls were with us on the road, slept in our bed in hotels when we were little girls.”

The still glamourous, yet approachable, sisters said they thought the time was right to fill a need for wholesome toys in an industry saturated with techno-toys and dolls with attitudes and provocotive cloths.

“They are playable and we felt it was time to bring children back to a simpler time,” Kathy Lennon said of Best Pals.

Like the dolls made by the Lennons’ mother and grandmother, Nana, the dolls have embroidered faces, yarn hair in pigtails, cotton-print dresses, white pantaloons, white stockings and white Mary Jane shoes.

The Best Pals line started with a blonde Janet and a brunette Kathy doll, both 16 inches tall. When the Best Pals Christmas CD came out and the sisters saw the covers with the Kathy doll in a green velvet dress and the Janet doll in a red velvet dress, Kathy Lennon said they decided that they were “so adorable” they would add Christmas Best Pals to their line.

The sisters launched the line in August 2006 at the Mall of the Americas in Bloomington, Minn. Since then, they’ve been on the road talking to retailers and making appearances at trade shows around the country.

As new entrepreneurs, performing at Branson, where they live, is actually the most restful part of the year, according to Janet Lennon.

“We get to sleep in our own beds,” Janet Lennon said.

KatJan is adding a line of multicultural dolls: Lily, Sofia and Isabelle so that black, Asian and Latino children will be able to identify with their own doll.

There will also be mini dolls, a cookbook, gift book and children’s CD.

KatJan is managed by Roxi Elfering who ran her own toy manufacturing company before signing on with the Lennons. As KatLJan president and executive director, Elfering is guiding rollout of the new products in the Best Pals line.

The start-up company is “exceeding goals” Elfering said, thanks in some degree to the sisters’ celebrity.

“It absolutely opens doors,” Elfering said.

The Lennon sisters have an office at their warehouse but prefer to work from home.

“You can have lunch with the grandchildren and go back to work,” Janet Lennon said. “It’s so much easier than getting dressed and going to the office.”

To contact staff writer Gretchen Metz, send an e-mail to gmetz@dailylocal.com.
dailylocal.com

Best Pals video on YouTube

Just noticed that gsbahler has posted a video/commercial for Kathy and Janet's Best Pals dolls. If I'm not mistaken this is Janet's step-son, Greg. And damn if he didn't post a very effective marketing tool. I had not intended to buy the cds that come with the dolls. I mean, I don't have kids, and I assumed the product was for kids only.

Wrong!

Seriously, I got chills listening to their harmony on the video. Hauntingly beautiful. So I'll be making an unexpected purchase.

Savvy marketing, Kathy and Janet. Bravo!

Best Pals - San Bernardino County Sun article

Kathy and Janet are getting more and more press about their Best Pals line, with this Feb. 20, 2007 interview with San Bernardino County Sun. Click the link or continue on for the article.

Familiar faces
Lennon Sisters create rag dolls modeled after theirs from childhood
By Diana Sholley, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PST

Every time Kathy and Janet Lennon go on tour, there are stowaways in their bags - lifelong friends they would never think of leaving behind.

It's their rag dolls, made with love by their mom and grandmother more than 50 years ago, when Kathy was 6 and Janet was 3.

The dolls represented a little piece of home when the girls - part of the famous singing sensation, The Lennon Sisters - were on tour.

Though now adults, with children and grandchildren of their own, when they hold those well-worn dolls with the painted-on faces and yarn hair, they are transported to another era. It's a time of innocence, where imagination was queen and children her subjects.

Janet and Kathy, who grew up being each other's best pals, wanted to bring the magic of their childhood to the children of today.

In August, the sisters introduced Best Pals, a line of rag dolls and music CDs, named after the relationship the girls had as children. The dolls are exact replicas of the dolls they still cherish.

"We remember all the love Mom and Nana put into making those dolls," said Kathy. "We'd spend hours playing with them. They were comfort on the airplane...the dolls are a tribute (to them). They meant more
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than any store-bought dolls."

The sisters - Dee Dee (Diane), Peggy, Kathy and Janet - debuted in 1955 on the Christmas Special of The Lawrence Welk Show, where they would perform for 13 years and be dubbed America's Sweethearts of Song.

The Lennon Sisters now live in Branson, Mo., and perform often at The Welk Resort Theater there. When Peggy retired in 1999, younger sister Mimi, an accomplished singer and comedian, took her place. Dee Dee retired in 2000 and since then, The Lennon Sisters has been a trio with Kathy, Janet and Mimi. They will be appearing at Citrus Community College in Glendora on April 1.

In creating the dolls, it was important to the sisters that they be authentic. They paid close attention to each detail. The dolls are 16 inches tall and the materials used for their dresses are exact duplicates of the originals. Like the originals, these new versions of the rag dolls have embroidered faces and yarn hair that can be styled - brown to represent Kathy, blond for Janet.

New features include an elastic beaded bracelet on each doll that reads "Best Pals." Also, first edition "Best Pals" are individually numbered for collectability. Both sisters have doll collections.

"We've had so many people say to us with a big ol' smile, `Oh, my grandmother made me one when I was a girl,"' Janet said. "It's a reaction of nostalgia. The dolls bring back a simple time in history, and tradition. It's so important for us to try to duplicate that feeling and for others."

Also bringing back those old feelings are two CDs of childhood favorites the sisters have recorded to go along with the "Best Pals" line.

"Best Pals" has 14 songs and includes a booklet insert with pictures and lyrics. "Best Pals Celebrate Christmas" is a 13-song collection of the sisters' holiday favorites.

"They are some of our favorite songs that we sang to our dolls," Janet said.

Kathy and Janet hope their children's products give today's kids a chance to be children a little while longer.

"Little girls have a basic instinct to nurture," Kathy said. "They like to use their imagination. We look at some of the trendy dolls and ask `Would I want my daughter playing with that?' Our dolls give kids another option."

"Best Pals" will soon be introducing ethnic rag dolls in several nationalities, including African American, East Indian and Hispanic.

"Our dolls duplicated in another nationality," said Janet. "Our dream is to bring the joy and magic that these dolls gave us to children everywhere."

Diana Sholley can be reached at features@sbsun.com with 0"Diana Sholley" in the subject field or (909) 483-9381.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

What: Best Pals rag dolls and children's CDs

Who: Created by two of the original Lennon Sisters, Kathy and Janet

Cost: $16.98 to $29.95

Information: www.bestpals.net

Best Pals are a big draw

Kudos to Kathy and Janet on the success of their Best Pals dolls.
At this weekends Idex show they are apparently quite the hit as evidenced by this rave from About.com's doll collector columnist, Denise Van Patten. Here's a link to her Jan. 20th entry where she named the dolls as the Find of the Day.