She studied dance, picking up a rave review in her local black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, when she was just seven, and made her Broadway debut at 14. During the 1930s she gained notoriety for both her music and her seductive stage persona, earning her the nickname ''Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm.'' Downbeat magazine reported that Hutton's stage wardrobe included 400 gowns.

The ‘blonde as a brunette

But she found the tribulations of traveling across the country on one-night stands was discouraging. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Ina Ray Hutton, who led her all-female big band, the Melodears, all through the 1930s.

Ina Ray Hutton, one of the first women to succeed as a band leader, in the 1940's and 50's, died of complications resulting from diabetes Sunday at …

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a good female trumpet player.

''Her sister, June Hutton, was a singer who appeared with Frank Sinatra.Ina Ray Hutton had been living in Ventura since the 1960's, when she married Jack Curtis, a businessman, who was her fourth husband.

Hutton had apple-pie looks and a jaw-dropping figure. See more ideas about Ina, Ray, Big band.

She was 18 when the jazz impresario Irving Mills put together the all-woman band that became the Melodears and made her the leader, changing her name to Hutton to take advantage of the notorious reputation of the Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton.The Melodears were an instant hit, touring solidly for five years and appearing in several Paramount film shorts of their own, including the enticingly titled Feminine Rhythm (1935), Accent on Girls (1936) and Swing, Hutton, Swing (1937).

Ina Ray Hutton, who died in 1984 at age 67, also had a secret that could have damaged her stardom. However, in 1939, she made the contrary decision to disband the Melodears and recruit an all-male band, including the saxophonist One possible reason Ina Ray Hutton has been overlooked is that she cut very few records, mostly for Okeh and Elite in the early 40s; radio broadcasts make up the bulk of The Definitive Collection.

June Hutton, half-sister of singer and band leader Ina Ray Hutton, was a big band vocalist, member of the successful vocal group The Pied Pipers, and subsequently a hit-making solo artist on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1950s, before recording a number of sophisticated middle-of-the road pop albums with the burgeoning of the stereo long-player market during that era.

''But when a television offer came along for an all-girl group, I formed a new band. Ina Ray Hutton. An excellent outfit, it was not topped among all-female ensembles until the International Sweethearts of Rhythm in the 1940s. Band Member: Trombone (as Ray Noble and His Orchestra) Jim Cannon.

Band Member: Reeds (as Ray Noble and His Orchestra) Charles J. Correll. Hutton was born as Odessa Cowan in Chicago, Illinois. The latter included the excellent The Melodears' outfits ranged from boyish trousers to long, ultra-feminine, sequinned outfits.

Compatible with Monkey and Rat. ''Born in Illinois, Miss Hutton began her career as a song-and-dance performer on Broadway at the age of 8 and later played with such leaders of big bands as Harry James and Artie Shaw before forming her own band in the 40's.

Replacements a Problem''I kept the first band for five years,'' she recalled. There were only a handful of all girl bands during the big band era, hers was the most successful.

She led her all-girl band, the Melodears, right through the 30s, popping up on screen in Hutton was born Odessa Cowan in 1916, and grew up with her half-sister June (also a successful singer) in a black neighbourhood on Chicago's south side. She was 67 years old.Miss Hutton played the piano only passably, but her baton wielding and singing embellished by sensual gyrations were crowd pleasers. Dot Harold Nicholas.

Photograph: Metronome/Archive Photos S he danced like Mata Hari, she …

A reporter from KUOW radio, with help from the UW libraries, recently revealed the secret. A powerful sign, those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dragon are energetic and warm-hearted, charismatic, lucky at love and egotistic. It turns out that the blonde bombshell had more than hair-dye to hide. Hutton would pave the way for a wave of female bands who took off in the 40s, when many leading male musicians were serving in the US armed forces. They’re natural born leaders, good at giving orders and doing what’s necessary to remain on top. Also, so many details of her story seem frustratingly buried. He died three years ago.TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.

YouTube could help rebuild her reputation.The critics may have had it in for her – luckily for us, the camera loved her.

Ina Ray Hutton (March 13, 1916February 19, 1984) was an American female leader during the Big band era, and half-sister to June Hutton. Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears became the most famous of the "all-girl" bands even though it only lasted for five years and made but five studio recordings.