Occupation(s) Musician Name Ada Leonard | Role Musical performer Genres Jazz, Swing music | |
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Born July 22, 1915Lawton, Oklahoma ( 1915-07-22 ) Movies Meet the Missus, Forty Naughty Girls Similar People Peggy Gilbert, International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Clora Bryant, Ina Ray Hutton, Lil Hardin Armstrong | ||
Ada Leonard
Ada Leonard (July 22, 1915 – November 29, 1997) was an American bandleader.
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She was the leader of the All-American Girl Orchestra, the first all-girl group to tour with the USO during World War II. The big-band band leader was a performer with a background in musical performance.
Ada Leonard's All-American Girls
Early life
Ada Leonard was born in Lawton, Oklahoma on July 22, 1915. Her father was an actor, and her mother a dancer who also played several different musical instruments. Before she embarked on her career as a big band leader, she performed as a burlesque dancer.
Musical career
While Leonard played the cello and the piano, she did not play either instrument professionally.
The Ada Leonard Orchestra was the first all-girl band officially signed by the USO, and they performed at army camps throughout the United States during World War II. From 1952 to 1954, she hosted a variety show on television and subsequently went on to realize her ambition of leading an all-male big band.
She was married, and widowed, twice: first to George L. McCall, who had managed her career; and, subsequently, Dr. Harold Bernstein, one of the founders of the Reiss-Davis Clinic. She died in Santa Monica, California on November 27, 1997, at the age of 82.