Hello, marge314-ga!
You have asked a very interesting question. I grew up listening to
big band music from the 30's and 40's since my father was a drummer
with several popular dance bands.
I have managed to find some interesting information for you. I hope
you enjoy reading through the material!
=====================
WHITE ALL-GIRL BANDS
=====================
A list of some of the female bands from the 1920's through the 1970's
can be found on the "Women in Jazz" website:
http://www.lib.odu.edu/exhibits/whm/2003/ensemble.htm
See photo of "Peggy Gilbert All-Girl Orchestra."
1930's
------
White all-girl bands:
Ina Ray Hutton ("Blonde Bombshell") and Her Melodears
Peggy Gilbert All-Girl Orchestra
Phil Spitalny's "Hour of Charm" Orchestra
Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears
=================================
From "Great American Big Bands"
http://www.nfo.net/usa/h6.html
b. March 13, 1916 Chicago, IL, d. Feb. 19, 1984
nee: Odessa Cowan: Singer, Dancer, Bandleader.
Theme Song: "Gotta Have Your Love"
"Here's a close-up photo of Hutton, http://www.nfo.net/usa/ina2.jpg
and another one of Ina Ray, http://www.nfo.net/usa/irhutton.jpgwho,
with her bleached Platinum Blond hairdo and svelte figure, made an
alluring band-leader. She couldn't play any instrument, but dressed in
a form-fitting silver-lame gown, she exuded sex-appeal. Her tagline
was 'The Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm'. Even as a child, Ina was already
on stage, tap-dancing in the revues of the great vaudevillian Gus
Edwards."
"Ina, elder sister of June Hutton (Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers), was 18
years old and had been dancing in Broadway revues such as The Ziegfeld
Follies and the George White Scandals. In 1934, band agent Irving
Mills hired her to front an all-girl orchestra that he had formed. It
was a propitious moment for such a venture, and the Mills' publicity
machine, was able to get Ina lots of bookings. Instead of 'leading'
her band as her male counterparts would do, she would weave around the
stage with a sensual movement. The band was basically a dance/show
band, with a good sense of Swing. While the band's playing could be
called routine, a few of the 'sidemen' did manage to stand out,
including Mardell Owen on trumpet, Betty Sattley on tenor sax; Alyse
Wells, a multi-instrumentalist, and Betty Roudebush on piano.
Never-the-less, the band lacked any real soloists."
"From 1936, the band's repertoire was in the capable hands of Eddie
Durham. During this time, Ina led the band in some Hollywood films,
and also did some recording. In personal correspondence, Ms Maredell
"Owen" Winstead, lead trumpet with the orchestra during 1936-'38, has
recalled the band members:
Arrangers: Will Hudson, and Eddie Durham. There was one other, Bill
(she doesn't recall his last name) (possibly Bill Holman --mp.)
Pianists: Ruth Lowe, Gladys Moser and Betty Roudebush.
Sax: Betty Sattley, Nadine Friedman and Marjorie Tisdale.
Trumpets: Mardell Owen, Kay Walsh, Estelle Slavin. There were two
others -- Julie and Marney (can't remember last names).
Trombone: Fy Hesser, Jesse Bailey, Alyse Wells.
Bass: Marge Rivers.
Guitars: Lillian Gange.
Drums: Lillian Singer and Virginia Myers
Phil Spitalny and His Hour of Charm Orchestra
=============================================
From "Great American Big Bands"
http://www.nfo.net/usa/s3.html
Theme Song: "My Isle of Golden Dreams"
"Phil Was the Male Leader, but it was an All-Girl Orchestra. (There
were other 'ALL" girl Orchestras. Perhaps the best known was Ina Ray
Hutton & her Melodears). One of the features of the Phil Spitalny
orchestra was "'Evelyn and her Magic Violin". Phil's radio show was
called the "Hour of Charm" and the Mistress of Ceremonies was Arlene
Francis.
Phil had a decent enough Radio and Dance orchestra when he started,
but this "all girl" orch never went any place. It was just a novelty
of the times. In time, Phil married his 'magic violinist' and retired
to Miami Beach. He filled out his retirement years as a music critic
for a local Miami newspaper."
Jane Sager Profile
===================
No title
http://people.ku.edu/~sjtucker/musicians.html
"Jane Sager was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 5, 1914. She
grew up playing both violin and trumpet, and by the age of 14, she was
playing the trumpet professionally in ballrooms all around the state.
Her ability to make a living at the trumpet helped her to pursue her
violin studies at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, until she
decided to commit herself 100% to the trumpet. At that point, she
moved to Chicago, where she studied with Edward Lewellyn of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and during the same period struck up a
friendship with Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge, who invited her to sit in
on his sets at a Chicago night spot, the Three Deuces. In 1935, Sager
joined what would be the first of many all-woman bands of her career.
After a stint with Armed Miller's traveling all-woman band, she toured
Cuba with another little-known group, the Platinum Blondes of America,
and found her way to the big leagues of "all-girl" bands as a member
of Rita Rio's all-female band."
(Read more about her later life....)
Peggy Gilbert
=============
From "Peggy Gilbert, Saxophonist and Bandleader, Turns 90", by Jeannie
Pool. ILWC Journal, February 1995
http://music.acu.edu/www/iawm/articles/feb95/gilbert.html
"Peggy's first gig in Los Angeles was at the Warner Brothers Theater
with an all-girl band, soon after she arrived in 1928. She played with
a long line of all-girl groups--Irene Franklin's and Juanita Connors'.
She worked with Fanchon and Marco in a sextet of women saxophone
players backing up Rudy Weidoft in a show called "Saxophobia Idea."
Next she went on the road for 50 weeks with another 16-piece all-girl
band with a show called "Jazz Temple Idea."
"Peggy was the playing-contractor of the 100 women musicians for the
film The Great Waltz. She had many groups during the '20s and '30s
with names like Peggy Gilbert and Her Metro-Goldwyn Orchestra, Peggy
Gilbert and her Symphonics, Peggy Gilbert and Her Coeds. For the movie
gigs, they sang, danced in chorus lines, acted, and performed--all of
it filmed and recorded live! They wore evening gowns and flashy
outfits for evening gigs and supper clubs and in stage shows. In
1933-34, her band played Honolulu and all the other islands, including
Molakai which is not often visited by outsiders. They actually played
a three-ring circus and Peg had to climb a ladder with her horn while
the band played "Stairway to the Stars." In the 1930s, she had an
all-girl staff band called The Early Girls on radio station KMPC in
Beverly Hills, performing live every morning from 7:00 to 8:30 am."
"During World War II she did tours with USO shows, including six
months in Alaska in 1944."
(Read more....
Peggy Gilbert (today) and the Dixie Bells
http://www.rivergraphics.com/dixiebelles/
====
Book:
"Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s," by Sherrie Tucker
Available from Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0822324857/qid%3D966319210/sr%3D1-1/104-5245039-7579125
==============
ANTONIA BRICO
==============
From "Women of Achievement and Herstory." Compiled and written by
Irene Stuber.
http://www.undelete.org/woa/woa06-26.html
Antonia Brico, Dutch-born, American symphonic orchestra conductor and
talented pianist.
"Born June 26, 1902, Antonia Brico, Dutch-born, American symphonic
orchestra conductor and talented pianist.
"Brico studied Bach for 15 years with Albert Schweitzer, studied
conducting for six years with Karl Muck, conductor of the Boston
Symphony (1913), first American to graduate from the Master School of
Conducting at Berlin State Academy of Music, made her debut February
1930, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, the first woman to conduct a
concert in Berlin, and that July conducted at the Hollywood Bowl. In
1933 conducted unemployed New York and Westchester musicians at the
Metropolitan Opera House as a fundraiser and famed singer John Charles
Thomas refused to appear on the program because her fame would have
upstaged him."
"In November 1934 she organized an orchestra of 100 women musicians
who performed at New York's Town Hall sharing profits since there was
no money for salaries. Although highly praised by Sibelius amongst
others, her conducting career only lasted a short time because, as she
explained, "I was a novelty at first and by 1937 the conducting jobs
disappeared."
====
Film
-----
"Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1995)" Produced by Rocky Mountain
Productions.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/AntoniaAPortraitoftheWoman-1048142/dvd.php
SYNOPSIS:
"Singer Judy Collins and filmmaker Jill Godmilow collaborated on this
documentary about Dr. Antonia Brico, the music world's first female
conductor. Using animation and unorthodox editing techniques in
addition to footage of and interviews with Ms. Brico, ANTONIA is a
stunningly original film about a true original."
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/AntoniaAPortraitoftheWoman-1048142/about.php
==
"This helped Antonia Brico, Judy's childhood piano teacher, have a
resurgence in her career after the film was released. For many years,
Dr. Brico was not offered the highly-visible conducting positions she
was qualified for simply because she was a woman."
From "Judy Collins Videos."
http://www.richardhess.com/judy/judy120.htm
Reviews of the film
-------------------
From "Antonia: Portrait of a Woman."
http://www.nd.edu/~jgodmilo/antonia.html
A film biography of Dr. Antonia Brico - a conductor, a teacher, a
pioneer in the concert halls of the world - this fascinating blend of
music, politics, romance and memories is the story of history's first
woman symphony conductor, powerful, humorous, inspiring and thoroughly
unrepentant. This is the American documentary that broke through many
of the boundaries of what was considered "kosher" in the genre by
including animation, self-reflection, and dramatically original
editing.
from Time Magazine, Jay Cocks, 10/21/74
"In 1930, when she was 28, Antonia Brico became the first woman ever
to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. Today, at age 73, she is dedicated
to an orchestra of semi-professionals in Denver. This wonderful
documentary tells the story of an extraordinary musician's life - how
she survived with spirit and intelligence , how she was scarred but
not humbled by the problem of being both a woman and an artist in
America. The result is a film that is both a testament and a tribute.
ANTONIA is much the best example so far of a new feminist
consciousness in movies, a statement that is clear and direct,
fiercely calm and moving. There is not a moment of rhetoric or
self-pity in it. Rather, ANTONIA is history shaped into a subtle and
perfect metaphor.... a lovely and urgent document."
from the New York Times, Nora Sayre, 9/19/74
"The headlines refer to "triumphs", but the tone is patronizing:
"Yankee Girl Startles Berlin Critics" (The New York Times, 1930.)
Along with the acclaim for a deeply serious conductor, there's the
lurch of astonishment at the mere fact of her sex. ANTONIA, a superb
documentary about conductor Antonia Brico, details the achievement and
the struggles that began for a child who was first taught piano
because she bit her nails - and continue for the 73 year old who now
conducts a community orchestra in Denver... ANTONIA is biographical
cinema at its best, and it will encourage many women in fields other
than music, thanks to Dr. Brico's determination and her refusal to be
defeated."
from New York Magazine, Tom Allen, 9/22/1974
"...a truly subversive and revolutionary motion picture... one of the
most
touching stories of the century about one woman's resistance against
public
prejudice."
from the Village Voice, Molly Haskell
"In the grace of the cutting and the judiciousness of what is shown
and what is not shown, the film exhibits a mastery that is by no means
extraneous to it subject. It teaches those of us who watch for
excellence in women's films to demand the best and to be spare without
superlatives, for there will be opportunities to use them."
=====
Recordings:
From "Simon Barere (1896-1951)." The Remington Site.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rabruil/rembar.html
"The HMV recordings are released on the APR label. The performances
released by Don Gabor on the Remington label were made in the nineteen
forties by Barere's son Boris (R-199-85) and were studio recordings
made in 1950 (R-199-17 and 35). Despite the fact that Barere was never
offered a big contract, there are various recordings that give
testimony of his extraordinary art, thanks also to the efforts of his
son. There are various recordings of solo pieces by Liszt, Chopin,
Beethoven, Scriabin, Bach, Blumenfeld, a.o. There is also a recording
of Liszt's 1st Piano concerto and
** there even exists a recording of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Concerto with
Dutch born Antonia Brico conducting."
==
"Music - Antonia Brico."
http://www.jazzandclassical.com/search/music/ArtistSearch/Antonia+Brico/3/
Mozart: Overtures
by: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thomas Schippers, Antonia Brico, George
Szell, Bruno Walter, Philippe Entremont, Myron Bloom, Ernani
Angelucci, George Goslee, Marc Lifschey
04 March, 1997
===
Photos:
From"Don Robertson Childhood Photos."
http://www.don-robertson.com/scrapbook1.asp
"Don Robertson at 3 or 4 years old with music teacher Antonia Brico"
"Cap that Antonia Brico brought to Don Robertson from Finland after
her visit with composer
Jean Sibelius."
"Dr. Antonio Brico Will Conduct 2 Concerts of London Symphony."
(newspaper article)
===
From "What it Means to be an American Composer." New Music Box Issue 4
(1999)
http://www.newmusicbox.org/first-person/aug99/interview8.html
8. GENDER
Frank J. Oteri: As a woman composer, and as a woman conductor, what do
you feel the perceptions are in the community?
Tania León: Well, I could say that the world is changing. But
hopefully things that might be a little bit tricky now might be part
of the routine years from now. Certainly by the time we finish the
century, there are more women composers that did not have to go
through what Antonia Brico had to go through. You see? And that
there's some recognition, you know, and there's some more, many more
opportunities.
Frank J. Oteri: Who is Antonia Brico?
Tania León: Don't you know Antonia Brico?
Frank J. Oteri: No.
Tania León: In the Î60âs or in the beginning of the Î70âs there was a
big concert with the New York Philharmonic, which they actually gave
her to conduct. She was pretty old. I cannot recall how old she was,
but she was up there. And in the '20's and '30's she actually wanted
to be a conductor, and in fact, you know, she cut her hair short, and
you know, she worked with Pablo Casals and she actually procured some
opportunities but actually the doors were slammed on her, not because
of her talent, but because she was a woman, and that was not part of
what a woman was supposed to be at that time. And it was in light with
the fact that women could not register at that point in a university
per se, they could not actually be lawyers or doctors just because
they were women. And, now by the end of the century, you know, we have
women pilots, we have women astronauts, you know, the fact that we
have women conductors, you know, that's part of the whole movement.
===
Book:
"Women & Music: History & Criticism." (1985) Consists mostly of
biographical information about Antonia Brico(a conductor), Beverly
Sills, Leontyne Price, and dylana jenson (a violinist)
======
If I come across any further information, I will be sure to let you
know! Meanwhile, you might want to order a copy of the documentary
about Antonia....
Sincerely,
umiat
Google Search Strategy
girl dance bands +1930's OR 1940's
Antonia Brico
Ada Leonard's all girl orchestra
antonia brico 1936 orchestra recording
plus searches for individual band names |
