Bandleader Ada Leonard was a dancer, singer and show business professional who led the first all-female Swing orchestra touring Army training camps during WWII filling the sustained demand for Swing music. Recently, keen interest has arisen about these so-called “all-girl” orchestras. Note that the term “girl,” meaning “woman,” is used here in its historical context.
‘The Sultry Siren of Swing’
Forgotten today, Ada Leonard (b. Lawton, OK 7.22.15 – d. Santa Monica, CA 11.29.97) was an experienced entertainer and former exotic dancer. Her 16-piece orchestra was the first of about 100 all-female ensembles that toured Army training camps sponsored the USO (United Service Organizations).
Leonard had been a strip tease dancer. That’s what everyone KNEW about Ada, that she was a former “Burlesque Queen.” Bear in mind that stripping was actually quite modest in those days. Viewers were convinced they were seeing more than was revealed, as in the demure burlesque routine of Gypsy Rose Lee performed in the 1943 movie, Stage Door Canteen.
Billed as “The Sultry Siren of Swing,” she didn’t take the moniker seriously, making a fine art of being UN-glamorous offstage according to her former associates. When off duty she went incognito, wore no makeup, “frumpy” clothing and “basked in sloppiness” reading her favorite Popeye comic books. Admirers asking he
