Ina Ray Hutton | |
|---|---|
 Hutton in 1942 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Odessa Cowan |
| Born | March 13, 1916 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | February 19, 1984 (aged 67) Ventura, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, big band |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, bandleader |
| Years active | 1926–1968 |
Ina Ray Hutton (born Odessa Cowan; March 13, 1916 – February 19, 1984)[1] was an American singer, bandleader, and the elder sister of June Hutton.[2] She led one of the first all-female big bands.
A native of Chicago, Hutton began dancing and singing on stage at the age of eight.[3][4] Her mother was a pianist in Chicago.[4] At age 15, she starred in the Gus Edwards revue Future Stars Troupe at the Palace Theater[4] and Lew Leslie's Clowns in Clover. On Broadway she performed in George White's revues Melody, Never Had an Education and Scandals, then with the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934.[5]
In 1934, she was approached by Irving Mills and vaudeville agent Alex Hyde to lead an all-girl orchestra, the Melodears,[6] As part of the group's formation, Mills asked her to change her name.[4] The group included trumpeter Frances Klein, Canadian pianist Ruth Lowe Sandler, saxophonist Jane Cullum, guitarist Marian Gange, trumpeter Mardell "Owen" Winstead, and trombonist Alyse Wells.[citation needed]
The Melodears appeared in short films and in the movie Big Broadcast of 1936. They recorded six songs, sung by Hutton, before disbanding in 1939.[3] Soon after, she started the Ina Ray Hutton Orchestra (with men only) that included George Paxton and Hal Schaefer.[3]
The band appeared in the film Ever Since Venus (1944), recorded for Elite and Okeh,[7] and performed on the radio. After this band broke up, she started another male band a couple years later.[3] She married jazz trumpeter Randy Brooks.[3]
During the 1950s, Hutton formed a female big band that played on television and starred in The Ina Ray Hutton Show.[3] She retired from music in 1968 and died at the age of 67 on February 19, 1984, from complications due to diabetes.[8]
Although Hutton and some members of her family are thought to have been white,[citation needed] historians have theorized that she and her family were of mixed white and African-American ancestry. In 1920, Hutton herself was listed in the US Census as "mulatto" and in 1930 as "negro".[9] Hutton was also mentioned under her birth name Odessa Cowan in the African American Chicago newspaper The Chicago Defender in several articles describing the early years of her career. A photograph of her as a 7-year-old dancer in an all-Black dance troupe appeared in a 1924 issue of the paper.[9]
She was married and divorced five times and had no children:
