INTERNATIONAL

This week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist with Greg Poppleton is The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the first integrated all women band in the United States. Latina, Asian, Caucasian, Black, Indian and Puerto Rican members gave the band an ‘international’ flavour, hence the name. You’ll hear them today from 1944-45 AFRS airchecks.

ONLINE

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online after the 5 November 107.3 2SER Sydney live mix at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney.

SWEETHEARTS

The original members of the band had met at Piney Woods Country Life School, a school for poor and African American children, in 1938 in Mississippi. Most who attended Piney Woods were orphans, including band member Helen Jones, who had been adopted by the school’s principal and founder (also the Sweethearts’ original bandleader), Dr Laurence C. Jones.

OF

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm turned professional and severed connections with Piney Woods in April 1941. The venues they played, such as the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, the Howard Theatre in Washington D.C., the Regal Theatre in Chicago, the Cotton Club in Cincinnati, the Riviera in St. Louis, the Dreamland in Omaha, or the Club Plantation and Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles, were for black audiences. Leonard Feather stated in a Los Angeles Times article about the band that “if you are white, whatever your age, chances are you have never heard of the Sweethearts”.

The Sweethearts swiftly rose to fame, nonetheless. The band set a new box office record of 35,000 patrons in one week of 1941 at the Howard Theatre. In Hollywood they made short films for use in movie theaters. One of these is your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week. Radio work was largely confined to ‘Jubilee’ broadcasts over Armed Forces Radio aimed at black US armed forces personnel. You’ll hear excerpts from some of these broadcasts on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

RHYTHM

The 16-piece International Sweethearts of Rhythm featured a strong brass section, heavy percussion, and a deep rhythmic sense, along with many of the best female musicians of the day. The band leader and singer was Anna Mae Winburn. Check out the video of the week below to savour their original ideas.

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is ‘Central Avenue Boogie’ from a 1940s soundie by the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, sung by Anna Mae Winburn.

5 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST