Please share!

As I finish up the third and last book in my Jitterbug Dress series, I read non fiction for inspiration. Here are my picks for vintage swing non fiction summer reads I recommend for anyone who likes swing, jazz, and history of dance.

Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern
by Jayna Brown (Buy it HERE)

This is a must read vintage swing non fiction summer book for those interested in the history of dance of  African-American women.  Brown takes you on a journey with women who performed in variety shows starting with the late 1800s up to the 1940s, including chorus line girls, burlesque revues, and cabaret acts. These women shaped style, technique, and art in not only the theatrical subculture, but in the general popular culture of the times.

We look at classic dances that moved from the stage to the black clubs and finally into popular American culture including dances like The Black Bottom, The Cakewalk, The Shimmy, and the Charleston. These pioneering women redefined what not only black women can do, but opened up the door for all women to define themselves in an artistic and independent way.

Brown investigates famous performers such as Ada Overton Walker and Josephine Baker, but also does her research and introduces us to less popular artists such as Belle Davis and Valaida Snow. The author uses anecdotal stories combined with historical data to paint an inclusive picture of the lives of these women and the influence they had on theatre, film, and society.  She never dances around the dark history of racist practices like the odd blackface performances by women of both black and white. Brown delves into how black artists navigated and pushed boundaries during racial segregation.

Brown begins with the chorus girls who fronted “picaninny choruses” of African-American child performers  in the early 1900s, and then moves through the decades to the singing and dancing in The Creole Show (1890), then  Darktown Follies  (1913), and Shuffle Along (1921). Brown illustrates how black variety-show performers led the way for future generations in not only the arena of jazz dance, but in later movies.

You will find this a fascinating and illuminating read, and although not “light” summer reading, it is extremely entertaining and informative.

 Vintage Enthusiast Rating

• Fashion: ♥♥♥
• Music: ♥♥♥
• Dance: ♥♥♥♥♥

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II
by James H. Madison (Buy it HERE)

Of all the books I read in research and inspiration for The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress series, this one stayed with me the most. It’s written in a diary style with Elizabeth Richardson’s own letters to her family with Madison’s comments and reflections. Richardson was a Red Cross volunteer who worked as a Clubmobile hostess during World War II. These gals manned bus/trailers where they handed out free doughnuts, coffee, cigarettes, and gum to American soldiers in England and France.

The idea of Clubmobiles was to help keep up moral and offer a touch of home to the American overseas soldiers. Although the job was not usually hazardous, there are harrowing incidences described by Madison.  Her letters and diaries reveal a woman of practicality, intelligence, and kindness that at once makes you admire and feel sympathy for her.

This book touched me on many levels, and I found her stories some of the best inspiration for my fiction and the closest depiction of USO overseas workers. (Spoiler: Violet goes overseas as a USO girl on a Foxhole tour in book 3). I highly recommend this as a vintage swing non fiction summer read, but make sure to have a box of Kleenex nearby.

Vintage Enthusiast Rating

• Fashion: ♥♥♥
• Music: ♥
• Dance: ♥

Good Girls, Good Food, Good Fun: The Story of USO Hostesses during World War II (Gender and American Culture)
by Meghan K. Winchell (Buy it HERE)

As I was looking for a book that chronicled women in WWII on European USO tours I came across this little pearl. I didn’t find much in the overseas arena, but the novel provided a wealth of history on how the USO was formed and women’s sexist role in it.

Through memoirs, articles, and factual accounts, Winchell tells stories of Saturday night dances and club culture that provided a haven for the young men in military. She illustrates how important these refuges became for the newly enlisted men as they were plucked from their small towns and sent away for the first time in their lives.

Winchell takes a look at how women played a dichotomous role in the war: girl-next-door, yet chaste sex symbol, against the kind of girl to watch out for that could give you a venereal disease. She explores the early racist profiling of good girls being middle-American white women as opposed to those of ethnic origins be it African-American, Italian, or Spanish. Winchell combines research with exhaustive interviews and firsthand accounts of thousands of  USO women volunteers, illustrating how the organization reflected and influenced  1940s American stereotypes.

At the beginning, I found it necessary to read chronologically, but as I got into the book, I found some of the stories similar and the rhetoric often redundant, and enjoyed skipping around and reading the first hand accounts. If you’re not into the history, rules, and protocol of the USO, you may enjoy just reading the anecdotal stories.

Vintage Enthusiast Rating

• Fashion: ♥♥♥
• Music: ♥♥♥
• Dance: ♥♥♥

Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang
by Tom Dalzell (Buy it HERE)

I am always on the lookout for slang. For much of the slang used in The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress series, I spent long, painstaking hours watching bobby-soxer movies from the late 1930s to early 50s, writing down the teen verbiage. As I began writing The Flapper Affair, I wanted to pepper the manuscript with equally colorful 1920s language and came across Flappers 2 Rappers. Playboy describes it as, “Spectacular vernacular—delivered with fresh flavor.”

The information is presented in an entertaining, accessible way. Not just listing words, but helping us understand how these slang words developed and defined the times in which they were popular. From jazz to hip-hop Dalzell takes you on an etymological and linguistic journey.

I cannot remember how I found this book, but it was a huge inspiration for two stories in my upcoming new short story collection, Swing Shorts (look for it by summer’s end).

The all-girl bands of the WWII were all but forgotten. It was such a short snapshot in time, and like the Rosie the Riveter factory workers, these women musicians were expected to go back to the home when the soldiers returned from war.

Sherrie Tucker does an amazing job chronicling the history of these short-lived all-girl American bands, focusing on the famous and the unknown musicians, their origins, and the women that comprised them, and more often than not, the men who managed them.

With so many men overseas, the demand for swing musicians went through the roof. The all-girl bands, mostly played domestically at USO show and commercial venues. Tucker gets us up close and personal with the young women who left the comfort of their homes, families, jobs, and often college to entertain across the country. She gives us a front row seat, not only to the mainstream all-white bands, but takes us inside the dance halls and ballrooms where the African-American bands played as well.  Tucker reveals who these remarkable women were and how they navigated dangers and prejudices including the Jim Crow laws of the South.

Tucker fills her pages with interviews and firsthand accounts of more than a hundred women who performed during the WWII era. She laments their loss and the ease in which America left them on an empty stage, deleting them out of our memory and history.  She illustrates that no matter how talented these ladies were and how popular and needed they were at the time, they were pitch-hitting swing shift gals for the fellas.

Some of the historical data became a bit repetitive throughout the novel as Tucker moved through the different bands, stories, and facts, but most of the interviews and first-hands accounts were delightful and insightful enough to keep me reading. I recommend skimming through the formation and history and digging into the solid stories for your summertime reading entertainment.

Vintage Enthusiast Rating

• Fashion: ♥♥♥
• Music: ♥♥♥♥♥
• Dance: ♥♥♥

BONUS Vintage Swing Non Fiction Summer Read

::

Tam Francis is a writer, blogger, swing dance teacher, avid vintage collector, and seamstress. She  shares her love of this genre through her novels, blog, and short stories. She enjoys hearing from you, sharing ideas, forging friendships, and exchanging guest blogs. For all the Girl in the Jitterbug Dress news, give-aways, events, and excitement, make sure to join her list and like her FB page! Join my list ~ Facebook page

Please share!