Lona (Abelone Maria, 1871–1939), Olga (Hansine Johanne, 1875–1908), Sophia (Sofie Kathrine Theodora, 1877–1906), Inger (Inger Marie, 1878–1918), and Gertrude (Gertrud Marie, 1881–1946) Barrison were actual sisters (many "sister" vaudeville acts were not) of Danish-German descent.

Along with their mother, the sisters emigrated to the United States in 1886, joining their father, who had earlier made the same journey.

When they had coaxed the audience into an enthusiastic response, they would raise up their skirts, revealing that each sister was wearing underwear of their own manufacture that had a live kitten secured over the crotch.

Gertrude, the youngest and perhaps most talented of them all, became a groundbreaking modern dancer in Vienna, where she lived for two decades, married to Carl Hollitzer (separated in 1910), a renowned Austrian painter.

The Barrison Sisters came to renewed public attention in the first decade of the 21st century when they were featured on the label of Five Wives Vodka,[2] produced by Ogden's Own Distillery in Utah;[3] the vodka was initially rejected for sale in the adjacent control state of Idaho,[4] an action for which the Idaho State Liquor Division was later awarded a 2013 Muzzles Award by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.