Ivy Benson (Born 1913 in Holbeck, Leeds, England) was the bandleader of a renowned all girls band (Ivy Benson and her All Girls Orchestra) for over forty years. Link title1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
The Second World War gave many women opportunities that would never have been afforded to them in peace time. Ivy Benson filled the void in entertainment created by the lack of male musicians and bandleaders in war time Britain with her undoubted talent. [1] World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that engulfed much of the globe...
Benson and her band may have been the inspiration for the TV film, "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells", a fictitious story in which a woman tries to reunite her (almost) all girl swing band from WWII.
The focus means that the Festival can function as a professional showcase, helping to take womens composition into the mainstream."
In its first season the Chard Festival 1990 set itself high ideals; co-founding what is now the European Women's Orchestra, commissioning music, premiering the launch of the Crissy Lee Big Band inspired by IvyBenson, programming rare performances and attracting a film documentary on the Festival shown twice on HTV.
The Festival has repeatedly achieved ambitious objectives reaching beyond the annual events.
Haydn, Chronicle and Works, Haydn in England 1791-1795, Illustrated Landon H. Haydn, Novellos Biographies of Great Musicians W R Anderson,
Henry Hall, Joe Loss, Stanley Balck, Geraldo, Carroll Gibbons, Nat Gonella, Felix Mendelssohn, Harry Davis, Edmundo Ros, IvyBenson, Maurice Winnick, Billy Cotton, Oscar Rabin, Harry Roy, Eric Winstone, George Elrick, Jack Payne, Charles Shadwell, Ha Music Makers Number One, A Yale album of 20 full page photographs of your favourite Band Leaders,