The Ingenues

The Ingenues was a vaudeville all-female jazz band based in the American Midwest, which toured the United States and other countries from 1925 to 1937. Managed by Edward Gorman Sherman (1880-1940), the orchestra performed with great popularity in variety theater, vaudeville and picture houses, often billed as "The Twenty Paul Whitemans of Syncopation." They performed many songs in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927, Glorifying the American Girl, including the first act finale, "Melody Land," featuring 12 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, doubled on 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). The band appeared in film shorts including The Band Beautiful and Syncopating Sweeties (Vitaphone 1928) and Maids and Music (RKO, 1937). 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".

The Ingenues
The Ingenues in Sydney, August, 1928
Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Years active	mid-1920s – mid-1930s
Labels	Vitaphone
Past members	Genevieve Brown, Grace Brown, Ruth Carnahan, Babe Colby, Dorothy Donahoe, Juel Donahoe, Mary Donahoe, Pauline Dove, Frances Gorton, Velma Grimm, Margaret Henke, Billie Jenks, Paula Jones, Marguerite Lichti, Alice Locklin, Margaret Neal, Marie Novak, Blanche Olsen, Alyce Pleis, With Randall, Virginia Roberts, Mina Smith, Louise Sorenson, Lora Standish, Beth Vance, Lucy Westgate, Gladys Young.

The Ingenues on stage at the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney, Australia, August 1928