This is our always
changing
list of recently added sites, plus the occasional
oldie.
Generally, sites get added on the top and eventually get taken off the bottom.
This page is just one part of Good Sites for Kids!
Going in Biomes, Ecology,
and Habitats
Going in Animals
A Blue Bee from Australia!
Going in Animals
Taal volcano in the Philippines. A Plinian eruption, named for
the eruption of
Vesuvius in AD 79. Pliny the Younger's eyewitness description fits this
towering mushroom cloud exactly.
Going in Earth
Science and Volcanoes
Giant flower beetles in Africa
credit to Conchita Larreynaga for Nature & Species fb group
Going in Animals
Jazz bandleader Ina Ray Hutton
She danced like Mata Hari, she sang like Betty Boop's big sister,
she shook it like a bowl of soup. And she was smart enough to work out that
a top quality, all-girl jazz band would take the 1930s by storm. So how come
Ina Ray Hutton, "the Blond Bombshell of Rhythm", is all but forgotten?
A recently released three-disc set, The Definitive Collection, shows that
she was no slouch or novelty act, either. "I'm selling this show as a
music programme," she'd say with a wink, "but if curves attract
an audience, so much the better."
Hutton had apple-pie looks and a jaw-dropping figure. She led her all-girl
band, the Melodears, right through the 30s, popping up on screen in The Big
Broadcast of 1936 alongside Bing Crosby and Al Bowlly. This was a remarkable
feat when you consider there were so few other female jazz musicians in the
30s – the most visible were vibes player Margie Hyams and trumpeter Billie
Rogers, both in Woody Herman's band.
Hutton was born Odessa Cowan in 1916, and grew up with her half-sister June
(also a successful singer) in a black neighborhood on Chicago's south side.
US census records record her as being "negro" and "mulatto",
but Hutton "passed" as white throughout her career. She studied
dance, picking up a rave review in her local black newspaper, the Chicago
Defender, when she was just seven, and made her Broadway debut at 14. She
was 18 when the jazz impresario Irving Mills put together the all-woman band
that became the Melodears and made her the leader, changing her name to Hutton
to take advantage of the notorious reputation of the Woolworths heiress Barbara
Hutton.
The Melodears were an instant hit, touring solidly for five years and appearing
in several Paramount film shorts of their own, including the enticingly titled
Feminine Rhythm (1935), Accent on Girls (1936) and Swing, Hutton, Swing (1937).
The latter included the excellent Truckin', and a surviving clip reveals them
to be an extremely tight and exciting band: guitarist Helen Baker keeps time
by bobbing her head as Ina Ray does her best to tap dance in a tight black
gown that pretty much glues her knees together. You half expect the camera
to pan round and reveal a crowd of Chuck Jones's cartoon wolves, leering and
cheering.
The Melodears' outfits ranged from boyish trousers to long, ultra-feminine,
sequined outfits. Downbeat magazine reported that Hutton's stage wardrobe
included 400 gowns. Hutton would pave the way for a wave of female bands who
took off in the 40s, when many leading male musicians were serving in the
US armed forces. However, in 1939, she made the contrary decision to disband
the Melodears and recruit an all-male band, including the saxophonist Serge
Chaloff. Hutton was tired of her band being seen as a novelty act – reviews
were uniformly snippy – and she told Downbeat she was "through with glamour".
To emphasise the point, she even went brunette. It wasn't until the 1950s,
by now fronting the Ina Ray Hutton Show on TV, that she got the girls back
together, winning an Emmy in the process. Her last recorded performance came
in the 1975 film Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and she died in California
in 1984.
One possible reason Ina Ray Hutton has been overlooked is that she cut very
few records, mostly for Okeh and Elite in the early 40s; radio broadcasts
make up the bulk of The Definitive Collection. Also, so many details of her
story seem frustratingly buried. Interviews were rare, and there is precious
little available online, but the bare bones – a platinum blond pioneer for
women in music, fashion and television – cry out for a biopic. YouTube could
help rebuild her reputation.
The critics may have had it in for her – luckily for us, the camera loved
her. Jazz bandleader Ina Ray Hutton pioneered the way for female stars in
music, fashion and television. It's high time she was rediscovered!
Going in Women's History
Hi, kids! I'm Dakota! I am one of two
older Brittanies here at
Good Sites for Kids! I'm a retired hunter and a mama.
My fur-sister Lillian and I are American Brittanies, both
rescues, and both South Dakota natives. When
we're not helping out on the site, we patrol outdoors,
chase rabbits and squirrels, say hi to the kids at the school
playground and the dogs next door, rack out on our beds, ask
for treats, and hang out with our humans!