When I was young, my Auntie Annie would tell me tales of her cousin Ivy, who played in an all-women’s band. I never met Ivy, and her side of the family remained a mythical branch located far away on the other side of the Pennines. A few years ago, I received a box of old family photographs from someone who traced me through Ancestry, and there amongst them was a picture of Ivy (second from left) and her Celebrity Ladies Orchestra.
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I love this photo of Ivy and her orchestra. They look like a lively fun group. As you know my collection has hundreds of photos and postcards of women’s bands and orchestras but I’ve not found anything quite like this crew. The Celebrity Orchestra were surely part of that great wave of jazz music that swept the world after WW1. Yet their costumes are imitating an older Hussar military style. It made me laugh to see their high top white gaiters/spats. They remind me of a men’s quintet in a story I wrote in 2022: The Novelty Dance Band
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