Ivy Benson
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Ivy Benson (born 1913 in Holbeck, Leeds, England, died 1993) was the bandleader of a renowned all-girl band (Ivy Benson and her All Girls Orchestra) for over forty years.
World War II gave many women opportunities that would never have been afforded to them in peace time. Ivy Benson filled the void in entertainment created by the lack of male musicians and bandleaders in war time Britain with her undoubted talent.
She was quoted as saying that every time her band played at an American army base they lost another member.
Benson and her band may have been the inspiration for the TV film, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, a fictitious story in which a woman tries to reunite her (almost) all-girl swing band from WWII.
