Manny About Town
Peggy Gilbert and Her All Girl Band

By Manny Meland

	Lily Tomlin and Peggy Gilbert, at Gilbert’s 100th birthday party

Peggy Gilbert had a passion for the saxophone.  Peggy grew up in the early 1900s, and her interest in the sax  was considered unseemly for a young lady at that time. When her high school refused to teach her to play the sax, she taught herself. The accepted attitude was that the violin or the piano were appropriate instruments for girls. Downbeat Magazine even printed an article in 1938 that referred to Peggy Gilbert and “Why Women Musicians Are Inferior”. It asked,  “How Can You Blow a Horn with a Brassiere?”

Peggy struggled against this prejudice and eventually prevailed. She organized and led all female ensembles for decades playing jazz. The novelty of a lady player got her several parts in Hollywood films, including The Wet Parade (1935), Melody for Two (1937) and The Great Waltz (1938). Her band’s performances were mainly tours of the vaudeville circuit and with occasional bookings in some popular nightclubs.

	Peggy Gilbert in 1928

The Second World War was the heyday for women’s bands. With so many musicians serving overseas, Peggy and her ladies were the “Rosie the Riveters” of the music scene. The military invited her to tour Alaska with a USO show entertaining the troupes. Besides performing on sax, she also played the clarinet, violin and vibes. She was a singer, arranger and a contractor for women musicians as well. After the war, when the men returned to the bandstands and the demand for women’s bands dried up, she went to work for the American Federation of Musicians, continuing to perform at night and on weekends.

Peggy was best known for her band called the Dixie Belles, a Dixieland band of older women she formed in 1974 when she was 69. The Dixie Belles performed together until 1998. They were featured on The Tonight Show, The Golden Girls, Dharma & Greg, Ellen, Simon & Simon and Married with Children. Recently, filmmaker, Jeannie Gayle Poole produced a documentary, Peggy Gilbert and the Dixie Belles. The film is narrated by Lily Tomlin and had its premiere screening in May 2006 in Miami.

	Peggy Gilbert’s all-girl band in the early 1930s