[1] The sisters performed on stage as children, singing and dancing their way to popularity in California and Australia.
Starting as childhood stars, the sisters, Jennie, Sophie, and Irene grew to critical acclaim later in life by being the premier burlesque performers of the time.
This set list included, “an opening with songs, then acrobats and even magicians, and finally a burlesque done in the English or Victorian Style” (Hughes 26).
Whether it was due to their father being a clown, or having to be stuck with their two siblings their entire life, these talented sisters were proficient entertainers.
Before the Worrell Sisters were completely on the scene, the structure of a burlesque show was thus: music, then acrobats, then a small parody skit.
Once the girls were in their prime however, the shows morphed into more skits and even sometimes a full-blown parody of an entire play or musical.
Because of their successes with multiple audiences, they rose to such acclaim that in later years they were able to purchase their theater right in New York City.
Their theatre was home to not only famous burlesque and parody shows but also melodramas such as Under the Gaslight which required a lot of dramatic and realistic scenery.
The building became the Broadway Athletic Club and was eventually demolished in 1884, however no one could contest its notoriety thanks to the Worrell trio (Playbill).
[4] Worrell died in 1899 at the Kings County Hospital of burns she sustained while sleeping on the grass meadows at the foot of 17th Street, in Coney Island.
[2] The New York Times reported that she was to be buried in Potter's Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, unless someone claimed her body.