Harlem Playgirls

The Harlem Playgirls was an African American swing band active in the Midwest and throughout the United States from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s.^[1]^[2]

History

Organized by Milwaukee-based drummer and band leader Sylvester Rice (1905–1984)^[3] in 1935 and drawing from members of the popular Dixie Sweethearts, the group toured TOBA circuits, performing in picture houses, jazz clubs, ballrooms and variety theatres. In the tradition of prior all-female bands led by musical theater stars, headliners Eddie Crump and Neliska Ann "Baby" Briscoe both led the band as dancing, singing front women. Briscoe had gained prominence in New Orleans and had worked with Lil Hardin Armstrong’s all-female band and Joe Robichaux and his Rhythm Boys. Trombonist Lela Julius and saxophonist Vi Burnside were two of the group’s leading soloists. The group appeared at the Apollo Theater in New York City in 1937 and competed in the prestigious battle of the bands contest at Chicago’s Savoy ballroom against Johnny Long’s group in 1938. Many members later went on to perform with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and the Prairie View Co-eds.

^ Tucker, Sherrie (2000), Swing shift: "all-girl" bands of the 1940s, Duke University Press, pp. 37, 204–206, 211, ISBN 978-0-8223-2817-9
^ McGee, Kristin A. (2009), Some liked it hot: jazz women in film and television, 1928-1959, Wesleyan University Press, p. 35, ISBN 978-0-8195-6908-0, (Harlem Playgirls) quickly established a national reputation for themselves during the mid-1930s as one of the best and hardest-swinging female jazz groups in the United States. They performed throughout the country until the early 1940s; upon disbanding, many of the group's leading members went on to perform in the prestigious Darlings of Rhythm and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
^ Late Eli Rice, Prominent Midwest Bandleader, Once was an Oshkoshian, Oshkosh Northwestern, June 28, 1962

Dahl, Linda (1996), Stormy weather: the music and lives of a century of jazzwomen (4 ed.), Limelight Editions, pp. 53, 84–85, ISBN 978-0-87910-128-2
F. Driggs. 1977. “Women in Jazz, A Survey” Liner Notes to Jazz women, A Feminist Retrospective. New York: Stash Records.
Handy, D. Antoinette (1998), Black women in American bands and orchestras (2 ed.), Scarecrow Press, ISBN 978-0-8108-3419-4
H. Rye: What the Papers said: the Harlem Play-Girls and Dixie Rhythm Girls (and Dixie Sweethearts), Storyville 1996/7, ed. L. Wright (Chigwell, England, 1997)
S. Tucker. Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001). ISBN 978-0822328179
L. Wright: Pieces of the Jigsaw: Harlem Playgirls, Storyville 1998/9 (Chigwell, England, 1999), 178