Gertie Campbell in 1919 the first of a stream of Adelaide female pianist and jazz band leaders; also band lead singers
A sticker (top left) advertising the Adelaide city music store run by Gertie Campbell, a pianist, band leader and composer. Among her compositions, "Shirley" was written for her niece, daughter of Gertie's twin sister Edith (Mitchell). It is dedicated to actress Edith Crowe, featured in the 1918 Adelaide film What happened to Jean.
Pianist Gertie Campbell was the first Adelaide female band leader to apply the name “jazz” to her group in 1919.
Campbell also composed songs and piano music, published the works of other South Australians, and sold music in her shop in Bowman's Arcade, King William Street. As a pianist she embellished popular pieces as she demonstrated them to her customers at her shop.
Other female pianists leading groups soon followed Campbell, including Dorothy Dailey, Melbourne émigré Hilda Hansen, Louie Webb, Eileen Hakendorf, Jean Hakendorf, Olga Durnell and Melva Bartle. Hilda Hansen's jazz band used megaphones for singing and the band played regularly for private parties and at Adelaide and Glenelg town halls. Hilda's son, Jack Barter, was also an Adelaide band leader.
The female pianist/band leaders were rivals to male counterparts such as Val Royal at the Palais de Danse (Palais Royal), Clarrie Young at Thebarton Town Hall and the ubiquitous Jack Fewster. In March 1930, female-led Adelaide bands included Melva Bartle's Orchestra, Miss Olga Durnell's Jazz Orchestra, Miss Thelma Richardson's Orchestra and Mrs Barton's Orchestra.
Shirley Appelt played guitar and led her own Hawaiian group in the 1940s. In 1943, she payed with Mal Badenoch (piano), Allen Woods (trumpet), George Browne (bass) and Bob Badenoch (drums) and Malcolm Bills’ Dixielanders: Bills on piano, Bill Munro( trumpet), Bruce Gray (clarinet), Eric Hopkins (trombone), Ron Acfield (bass). She was heard on radio with drummer and vibes player Keith Rosenthal and Lionel Dix (violin), Allen Hunter (piano) and Milton Hunter (bass). Appelt was in the 1945 Adelaide Swingphonic Society concert, probably at Astoria ballroom, with bands led by Bob Limb, Malcolm Bills, Alf Holyoak and Jack Barter.
Singer Gwen Beresford, who married drummer Claude Whitehouse, started around 1942-43 with the new Swingcopators – Dave Jenkins (trumpet), George Gummow and Lindsay Day (sax), Ron Lucas (piano) and Claude Whitehouse (drums) –who played for western suburbs dances. Pianist Wally Lund got her into Ron Wallace’s band – trumpeters Jimmy Hogan, Kelly Brown and Don Fleming; trombonist Eric Hopkins and reed expert Syd Beckwith –at the Freemasons Hall on North Terrace, Adelaide city.
Gwen Beresford also sang at the Palais Royal with Colin Bergersen band. The other leading Adelaide band at that time was at the Palladium, led by Harry Boake Smith and featuring vocalist Doreen Govett. Gwen Beresford, Doreen Govett and Dot Madigan were featured on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) radio station 5CL as The Good Humoured Ladies.
Doreen Govett, with sister Betty, had started at Woodville Town Hall in the four-piece band of her saxophonist father Roy. Betty played the piano and sang; Doreen played sax/piano and sang. Doreen Govett’s time with Harry Boake Smith at the Palladium ended in 1948 when a storm partially unroofed the venue promoter Hughie Carmichael decided to close the venue, with the dance scene in decline. Boake Smith sailed off to the tropics and Govett went on radio. She became one of the leading lights of 5KA along with Bill Davies, Rex Heading, Jimmy Tonkin and Lionel Williams.
