The Ingenues Explained

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.^[1] 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."^[2]

They performed many songs in the Ziegfeld Follies 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.^[3]

The group toured Europe, South Africa, Asia, Australia and Brazil (where they also recorded for Columbia Records). The band appeared in film shorts including The Band Beautiful,^[4] Syncopating Sweeties^[5] and Maids and Music.^[6]

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:^[7]

• 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
• 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,"^[8] the latest primary source documentation has the group appearing in Monticello, IN in July 1938.^[9]

Further reading

• Dahl, Linda. Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women (New York: Limelight 1984)
• Dreyfus, Kay. Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of Australia's All-Girl Bands and Orchestras to the End of the Second World War (Currency Press 1999)
• McGee, Kristin. Some Liked it Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928-1959 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press 2009): pp. 34–66

External links

• Brown Family Papers at the Newberry Library

Notes and References

1. Book: Smith, Angela . Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country . 2014-04-10 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-8835-7 . 19–20 . en.
2. Web site: The Ingenues Biography. The Internet Movie Database. February 17, 2024.
3. McGee . Kristin . December 2008 . The Feminization of Mass Culture and the Novelty of All-Girl Bands: The Case of the Ingenues . Popular Music and Society . en . 31 . 5 . 629–662 . 10.1080/03007760802188454 . 219728964 . 0300-7766.
4. Web site: The Band Beautiful. The Internet Movie Database. February 17, 2024.
5. Web site: Syncopating Sweeties. The Internet Movie Database. February 17, 2024.
6. Web site: Maids and Music. The Internet Movie Database. February 17, 2024.
7. News: . 26 February 1927 . Ingenues Score in Dallas. Variety . New York, NY. February 16, 2024.
8. Web site: Women and Jazz . Dr. David C. Ring . February 17, 2024.
9. News: . 2 June 1938 . All Girls Band at Ideal Beach One Week Beg. Monday, June 6. The Monticello Herald . Monticello, IN. February 16, 2024.