September 30, Jazz Age bandleader and bassist Thelma Terry (Thelma Combes, 1901-66).
Born in Michigan, Terry was raised in Chicago by a single mother who worked as a domestic servant to a rich family. She studied the bass as a child and toured the Chautauqua circuit with her school band. She played with the Chicago Women's Symphony Orchestra upon graduation, but sought the greater rewards of popular music. Her first two bands were a jazz string quartet and a larger all-girl band called Thelma Combes and her Volcanic Orchestra, which became the house band at Al Capone's Cosimo Club in 1925. Exposure there and on the radio led to an article on her in Variety in 1927 and a contract with MCA.
It was the bookers at MCA who gave her the stage name "Thelma Terry" and hired her an outfit of male musicians, the most famous member of which became drummer Gene Krupa. She was touted as "The Female Paul Whiteman", The Beautiful Blonde Siren of Syncopation", and "The Jazz Princess". They embarked on a national tour through 1929, and were slated to cross the Atlantic or a Continental tour that would launch in Berlin when Terry abruptly retired to marry bootlegger and speakeasy owner Willie Haar. The marriage only lasted seven years, but her attempt at a comeback in 1936 came to naught.
For more on show business history past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,
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