Ivy Benson - Career

Career

Benson joined Yorkshire-based six-piece band Edna Croudson's Rhythm Girls in 1929, touring with them until 1935, after which she toured with various bands including Teddy Joyce and the Girlfriends where she became a featured soloist. She moved to London in the late 1930s and formed her own band. Their first significant engagement was performing with the all-female revue Meet the Girls, which starred Hylda Baker.

During World War II, opportunities for female musicians opened up as many male musicians were enlisted into the armed forces. The band became the BBC's resident dance band in 1943, and were top of the bill at the London Palladium for six months in 1944. In 1945 the band were the first entertainers invited to perform at the VE Day celebrations in Berlin at the request of Field Marshal Montgomery, and on Christmas Day that year they performed for a live BBC Radio broadcast from Hamburg immediately after the King's speech. Benson and her band also toured Europe and the Middle East with the Entertainments National Service Association entertaining Allied troops, headlined variety theatres and performed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

Benson's band had a high turnover of musicians, as they frequently left to marry G.I.s they met while touring. She once commented, "I lost seven in one year to America. Only the other week a girl slipped away from the stage. I thought she was going to the lavatory but she went off with a G.I. Nobody's seen her since."

In the 1950s, she played summer seasons at Butlins holiday camps and Villa Marina on the Isle of Man. She continued to lead the band until the early 1980s, adapting to changing tastes by adding pop tunes to the band's repertoire in the 1960s. The band played for overseas-based servicemen until the 1970s. Towards the end of her career the band played mostly private functions as dance halls and variety theatres declined. The band disbanded in 1982 after a final performance at the Savoy Hotel, briefly reforming in 1983 for a performance on Russell Harty's television show to celebrate Benson's 70th birthday.