Mildred Fern Good (April 11, 1913 – May 2, 1993) and Dorothy Laverne Good (December 11, 1915 – November 12, 1967) were an American female country music female duo known as The Girls of the Golden West. The sisters were born in Mount Carmel, Illinois.
They were born Mildred and Dorothy Goad and grew up listening to cowboy songs from the Southwest, and wound up getting the credit for spreading this regional influence into the blend of what developed into country & western music. The sisters began their duo the way many talented children do -- by entertaining family and friends in the comfort of their home. And although this audience preferred the girls' versions of cowboy and western material, the sisters themselves personally preferred pop music.
When Millie was 16 and Dolly was only 14, they made their professional debut on radio station WIL in St. Louis they changed their names to Millie and Dolly Good, and a family friend proffered that they call themselves the “Girls of the Golden West”, probably after the 1905 play of the same name or any of the three motion picture adaptations of it. Making their home near Chicago, the Girls of the Golden West began singing on local St. Louis radio stations KIL and KMOX, before taking their act to goat gland doctor John R. Brinkley’s “border blaster” station XER in Villa Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, which was powerful enough to broadcast their music across most of the United States.
The Girls’ big break came in 1933, when they got a ritzier gig on the Prairie Farmer Station, Sears-Roebuck’s WLS, in Chicago to perform on the National Barn Dance, a predecessor to the WSM’s Grand Ole Opry which was the home of country music pioneers Gene Autry and Patsy Montana. They first started recording for Bluebird Records in July 1933 with songs such as "Put Away My Little Shoes" and "Ragtime Cowboy Joe".
They continued to record for RCA Victor through the end of 1935, after which they had a session with the American Record Corporation in 1938. Their success on the Barn Dance brought them as guests onto Rudy Vallée’s NBC radio program, and they stayed on WLS’s roster until 1937, after which they moved to Cincinatti’s WLW to appear on the new Boone County Jamboree, where they remained until after World War II, by which time the show had become the Midwestern Hayride.
Dorothy Good took the lead on most of the solo passages and played guitar in a basic manner that worked suitably as an accompanying instrument. She did not try to play lead fills in the manner of Maybelle Carter, instead specializing in top-quality harmony parts and catchy yodeling. In the recording studio, the girls created a repertoire that consisted of about half newly composed ditties based on western themes. Then, there was a certain number of traditional cowboy songs from the realm of orally passed-on folk music, and the sessions were filled out with cover versions of pop standards they liked. What had always been a strong interest of the girls increased as their career went on, until the pop material started to take over more territory during their recording sessions.
The Girls of the Golden West were one of the most popular acts of the 1930s and 1940s, and were one of the few women then found performing country music. The Girls also had kept up a fictitious story of their life. They would claim they were from Muleshoe, Texas, though in reality they were farming girls from Illinois. However, this was all part of the image of the "Western Music" craze. They would normally wear cowgirl western-style outfits for their appearances on television programs.
Girls of the Golden West were pioneers in country music at the time. There were few women then in the genre, excluding Patsy Montana, The girls would inspire a whole new breed of country music singers such as Kitty Wells, Jean Shepard and Patsy Cline. They would also inspire a short-lived girl group, The Davis Sisters. The Girls of the Golden West still remained a popular group, with other songs like "Lonesome Cowgirl" and "Silvery Moon on the Golden Gate", which became their signature tune.
Later in their careers, they performed on more television shows such as Renfro Valley Barn Dance and Boone County Jamboree. They also later moved from WLS to WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Girls of the Golden West continued singing professionally until their retirement in 1949, after which they focused on homemaking for their families. They recorded a final time, late in life, for the Fort Worth, Texas-based Bluebonnet Recording Studios in 1963.
In 1967 Dolly Good died, and Millie Good followed at the age of 80 in 1993.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Old Time Blues & AllMusic)