Sherrie Tucker Swing Shift
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mumm SHERRIE TUCKER Tucker DNIMJ 1JIHS “All-Girl” Duke BANDS OF THE 1940S “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s Shift Sherrie Tucker Duke University Press Durham and London 2000 “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s Sirin Shift Sherrie Tucker Duke University Press Durham and London Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t in the History Books” I I Playing the Changes of World War II 1. Working the Swing Shift: Effects of World War II on All-Girl Bands 33 2. ' “Hours of Charm” with Phil Spitalny 70 3. Extracurricular Activities with the Prairie View Co-Eds 97 II Road Hazards 4. Surveillance and Survival in the Jim Crow South 135 5. Internationalism and the Sweethearts of Rhythm 163 6. The Darlings of Rhythm: On the Road and Ready to Run 195 III USO-Camp Shows 7. Female Big Bands, Male Mass Audiences: Gendered Performances in a Theater of War 227 ©2000 Duke University Press 8. Battles of a “Sophisticated Lady”: First printing in paperback, 2001 Ada Leonard and the USO 259 • All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 9. “And, Fellas, They’re American Girls! ”: on acid-free paper °° On the Road with the Sharon Rogers All-Girl Band 291 Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Conclusion: Postwar Changes, Familiar Refrains 317 Typeset in Times Roman with Bodoni and Notes 335 Twentieth Century display type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Bibliography 371 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. Index 399 randa, Ingrid Monson, Kathy Ogren, Naomi Pabst, Kay D. Ray, Chris Congress; everyone, but especially Esther Smith, at the Institute for Jazz Russell, Barbara Schottenfeld, Catherine Parsons Smith, Darla Thomp¬ S'tudies at Rutgers, Newark, New Jersey; Bruce Boyd Raeburn at the son, Marilyn and Roy TUcker, Deb Vargas, Isa Velez, Penny Von Eschen, Hogan Jazz Archive at Hilane, New Orleans; jazz film archivist Mark and the members of Donna Haraway’s feminist theory writing seminar Cantor; Matt Watson of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program; Eric (winter 1996), Jim Clifford’s race and ethnicity writing seminar (spring Key, Dudley Yates, Rose Sonnier Judd, and especially Phyllis Earles 1996), and Teresa De Lauretis’s writing seminar (fall 1996). Sheila Peuse Martin at the John B. Coleman Library at Prairie View A&M University; helped me in numberless ways, ranging from crisis management, to Bozy White at the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors deadline reminders, to pretending that I hadn’t already asked the ques¬ Library, Oakland, California; Carol A. McCormick, First Sergeant, USA tions I continued to ask over, and over, and over. At San Francisco State, I Retired, of the Women’s Army Corps Museum, Fort McClellan, Ala¬ owe additional immeasurable thanks to Chinosole, Inderpal Grewal, bama; and trombonist/librarian extraordinaire Pat Mullan at the Berke¬ Whitney Chadwick, and Dee Spencer for their excellent guidance in the ley City Library. women’s studies master’s thesis that preceded both my dissertation and I also thank the following journals for permission to reprint previously this book. More special thanks go to the fabulous “No Name” writing published material: group: Kathryn Chetkovich, Lin Colavin, Frances Hatfield, Candida An earlier version of chapter 1 appeared as “Working the Swing Shift: Lawrence, Joan McMillan, Maude Meehan, Claudia Stembach, Amber Women Musicians during World War II” in Labor’s Heritage, no. 1 Coverdale Sumrall, Dena Taylor, and Ellen Treen. I am thankful to Ken (summer 1996): 46-66. Wissoker at Duke University Press for thinking early on that this project Chapter 3 appeared as “The Prairie View Co-Eds: Black College would make a worthwhile book and for struggling with me through the Women Musicians in Class and on the Road” in Black Music Research cognitive dissonance that comes from working on a book and a disserta¬ Journal, 19, no. 1: 000-000. tion at the same time. Thanks also to the anonymous readers at Duke for Chapter 6 originally appeared as "Nobody’s Sweethearts: Gender, incredibly constructive comments. For invaluable forums that helped me Race, Jazz, and the Darlings of Rhythm” in American Music 16, no. 2 better understand issues of 1940s jazzwomen in relation to those of both (1998): 255-88. earlier and more contemporary women jazz musicians, I am grateful to Chapter 7 was originally published as “Female Big Bands, Male Mass Haybert Houston, editor of Jazz Now Magazine; Matt Watson, director of Audiences: Gendered Performances in a Theater of War” in Women and the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Project; Janice McNeil, project man¬ Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 2 (International Alliance for ager and symposium director for Sung/Unsung Jazzwomen; and Tim Women and Music) (fall 1998): 64-89. Hodges and Bob Parlocha at the old kj az-fm . An earlier version of chapter 9 appeared as “ ‘And Fellas, They’re I am deeply grateful to my parents, Marilyn and Roy Tucker, who American Girls’: On the Road with the Sharon Rogers All-Girl Band” in instilled in me a love for music and a genuine interest in hearing people Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 16, nos. 2-3 (spring 1996): talk about their lives, and who indulged me in several hundred hours of 128-60. long-distance conversations about World War II. More humble apprecia¬ tion and love go out to Roger Harding and his menagerie for unforget¬ table kindness and friendship. I also owe many thanks to librarians and archivists at various collec¬ tions: the patient and knowledgeable curators at the Archives Center at the Smithsonian Museum of American History; the special collections librarians at the New York Public Library of Performing Arts; the media and special collections librarians at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Flori Kovan for showing me the ropes at the Library of mi Acknowledgments Acknowledgments b Acknowledgments This project benefits from an embarrassment of riches in the form of incomparable mentors, colleagues, narrators, and friends. I must first thank the women musicians, both those still living and those who, as eighty-nine-year-old former trombonist Velzoe Brown likes to put it, “have modulated to a higher key.” This book wouldn’t have been possi¬ ble without their willingness to share their time, memories, photos, re¬ cordings, scrapbooks, address books, theoretical frameworks, and narra¬ tive strategies. Many women musicians became actively involved in the research process, digging up additional information, confirming memo¬ ries with friends and associates, even recruiting interviewees. A com¬ plete list would be too long, but let me name Martye Awkerman, Clora Bryant, Roz Cron, Laura Daniels, Mary Demond, Peggy Gilbert, Flor¬ ence Kuhn, Jane Sager, and Vi Wilson for their indispensable assistance in these areas. Because this book grew in tandem with my dissertation, I owe an unfathomable debt to my dream committee at the University of Califor¬ nia, Santa Cruz: Angela Y. Davis, Donna Haraway, and Herman Gray, who never failed to take “all-girl” bands, and me, seriously. Especially, I offer humble gratitude to Angela Davis, who guided me through the re¬ search and writing for nearly a decade, generously and tirelessly reading and commenting on literally thousands of pages of drafts from beginning to end, and counseling me on ethical, theoretical, methodological, and political dilemmas as they arose. Donna Haraway and Herman Gray gen¬ erously read draft after draft, saw what 1 was trying to do —usually long before I did — and gave me necessary directions, challenges, reading lists, and questions to make it better. Jim Clifford and Steven Feld rounded out my extraordinary qualifying exam committee, which gave me direction at a key crossroads. Other professors, mentors, colleagues, and friends read chapters, collaborated on panels, contributed leads, and discussed issues that helped immensely ip complicating my analyses. Thanks to Maylei Blackwell, Darshan Campos, Susan Cook, Teresa De Lauretis, Dana Frank, Shema Gluck, Lisbeth Haas, Roger Harding, David Hey- mann, Sarah Jain, Robin D. G. Kelley, Florice Kovan, Mary Letterii, Kim McCord, Bob McMichael, Mark Miller, the late John Miner, Keta Mi- Introduction “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t in the History Books” Only God can make a tree ... and only men can play good jazz. — George T. Simon, The Big Bands When a narrative is constructed, something is left out. — Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic There were other bands out there, but the men didn’t accept us. So we had to get our own. — Lillian Carter Wilson, telephone interview with author There were hundreds of all-woman bands. A person can get some pretty interesting responses when she goes around making remarks like that. Hundreds of all-woman bands? I’ll bet. Well, there were a couple of all-girl bands. I remember Ina Ray Hut¬ ton, she was a knockout, and Phil Spitalny, were they ever corny, but hundreds?... Oh yeah, I saw something on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm at a women's film festival. ... All races of women living together and playing music. There were hundreds of bands like that? All-woman bands sounds funny. You should say all-girl. We were all¬ girl bands in those days. Anyone who thinks that feminist historiography is a piece of cake should try writing about “all-girl” jazz and swing bands. My first at¬ tempts at such a history (i.e., my first attempts after I became convinced that there were hundreds of all-woman bands) took the shape of heroic epics about skilled women succeeding collectively in a field dominated that most women’s bands were terrible but that the one she was in was by men.