Ada Leonard (July 22, 1915 – November 29, 1997) was an American bandleader. She was the leader of the All-American Girl Orchestra, the first

all-female band An all-female band is a musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed. While ...

to tour with the

USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The big-band leader was a performer with a background in musical performance.

Early life

Leonard was born in

Lawton, Oklahoma Lawton is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in southwestern Oklahoma, approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton, Oklahoma, metropolitan statistical ...

, on July 22, 1915. Her father was an actor, and her mother a dancer who also played several different musical instruments. Leonard debuted on stage at age 2, singing and dancing in her parents vaudeville act. Later she was billed as Baby Ada. When she was 17, she went to Chicago and began performing in burlesque. She also sang in night clubs in Chicago.

Musical career

While Leonard played the cello and the piano, she did not play either instrument professionally. The Ada Leonard Orchestra was the first all-female band officially signed by the USO, and it performed at army camps throughout the United States during World War II. From 1952 to 1954, Leonard hosted a variety show on television; ''Search for Girls'', starring Leonard and her orchestra, ran on

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

in Los Angeles for 30 minutes on Friday nights. She subsequently went on to realize her ambition of leading an all-male

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

Film

Leonard portrayed Princess Zarina, a fan dancer, in the film '' Meet the Missus'' (1937). She and her orchestra performed in the film ''

My Dream Is Yours ''My Dream Is Yours'' is a 1949 Technicolor musical romantic comedy film starring Jack Carson, Doris Day, and Lee Bowman. Plot The film opens in Los Angeles, where Doug Blake is dumped as a manager by Gary Mitchell. He goes to New York City to ...

'' (1949).

Personal life

Leonard was married, and widowed, twice: first to George L. McCall, who had managed her career; and, subsequently, Dr. Harold Bernstein, one of the founders of the Reiss-Davis Clinic.

Death

Leonard died in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

on November 27, 1997, at the age of 82.

References

External links

VIDEO: (1951) Ada Leonard and her All-Girl Orchestra perform "Indiana" in a music film for TV
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The Girls In the Band (2011) IMBDB Page
Documentary about female jazz and big-band instrumentalists from the 1930s to today.
Official Trailer for The Girls in The Band (YouTube)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Ada American bandleaders People from Lawton, Oklahoma 1915 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American musicians American film actresses 20th-century American actresses American burlesque performers Nightclub performers