The Ingenues were a vaudeville all-female jazz band.

Early career

''The Ingenues'' toured the United States and other countries from 1925 to 1937. William Morris started the group. Managed by Edward Gorman Sherman (1880–1940), the orchestra performed with great popularity around the world in variety theater, vaudeville and picture houses, often billed as "The Girl Paul Whitemans of Syncopation." They performed many songs in the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Foll ...

of 1927, ''Glorifying the American Girl,'' including the first act finale, "Melody Land," featuring 12 white baby grand pianos. Other Follies numbers featured violins, banjoes and saxophones from The Ingenues. The group performed popular songs, light classical works and novelties. They were celebrated for their versatility, as most members, including star soloist and "trick trombonist" Paula Jones, both novelty (accordions, harmonicas, banjos) and symphonic instruments. The group toured Europe, South Africa, Asia, Australia and Brazil (where they also recorded for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

). The band appeared in film shorts including ''The Band Beautiful'', ''Syncopating Sweeties'' and ''Maids and Music''. ''Maids and Music'' was produced independently by Milton Schwarzwald's Nu-Atlas Productions and released as a 16mm home movie by Pictoreels. Sequences from this and other Schwarzwald short subjects were also re-edited into Soundies; in the case of ''Maids and Music'' the Soundies excerpt was titled "Ray Fabing's Versatile Ingenues".

Members

According to ''Variety'' magazine in 1927, the players were: *Mary Novak and Blanche Olson, piano *Mary Donohue, Alice Plies, Dorothy Donohue, and Genevieve Brown, saxes and reeds *Margaret Lichti, harp and banjo *Virginia Myers and Gladys Young, trumpet *Paula Jones, trombone and unaphone *Jean Baumgarth and Bebe Colby, violin and cello *Lucy Westgate, flute and cello *Frances Gorton, xylophone and accordion *Pauline Dove, drums *Billie Jenks, bass * Peggy O'Neill, entertainer Other members over time included: *Grace Brown *Ruth Carnahan *Juel Donahoe *Mary Donahoe *Velma Grimm *Margaret Henke *Adelaide Liefeld *Alice Locklin *Margaret Neal *Marie Novak *Virginia Roberts *Mina Smith *Louise Sorenson *Lora Standish *Beth Vance

Later years

The band's last major tour was in 1932. While it is said that one of the group's last engagements was "at a Mount Morris High School in Freeport, Illinois," the latest primary source documentation has the group appearing in Monticello, IN in July 1938.

References

External links

Brown Family Papers
at the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities. It is located in Chicago, Illinois, and has been free and open to the public since 1887. The Newberry's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of our wo ...

Jazz ensembles from Illinois American vaudeville performers American all-female bands All-female jazz bands Musical groups established in 1925 1925 establishments in Illinois Musical groups disestablished in 1937 1937 disestablishments in the United States Ziegfeld Follies {{US-jazz-band-stub

Early career

Members

Later years

References

Further reading

External links