Babe Egan

Babe Egan
Born
Mary Florence Cecilia Egan

(1897-05-01)May 1, 1897
Seattle, Washington, United States
DiedFebruary 7, 1966(1966-02-07) (aged 68)
Glendale, California, United States
GenreJazz
OccupationBandleader
InstrumentViolin
Formerly ofBabe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads

Mary Florence Cecilia Egan (May 1, 1897 – February 7, 1966), who performed as Babe Egan, was an American jazz musician. She was a ragtime violinist and the band leader of the all-female vaudeville ensemble Babe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads.

Biography

Egan was born on May 1, 1897, in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of seven children. She was the granddaughter of Irish immigrants to America.

In 1919, Egan moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, with her widowed mother and a brother. She began her career in movie theater pit orchestras for silent films during the 1920s.

In 1924, Egan formed the all-female vaudeville ensemble Babe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads. Members of the ensemble were to be unmarried redheads as well as "collegiate, glamourous, and a little sexy, but "proper enough for family entertainment in America's heartland." They included Californian drummer, xylophonist and tap dancer Estelle Mae Dilthey, banjoist and guitarist Billie Farley and clarinettist Juanita Klein. Babe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads gave their first performance at Sacramento Fair and their first booking outside of Los Angeles was for three months in Honolulu, Hawaii. The ensemble were reviewed as "a whirlwind of mirth and rhythm."

Babe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads toured the vaudeville theater circuit across the United States and Canada from 1926, which included a performance with Ginger Rogers, meeting President Calvin Coolidge, and an encounter with a Ku Klux Klan rally, before performing in Europe in 1929 and 1930. They also performed on Broadway with Thelma White, the leader of another all-woman band, and on the RadioKeith-Orpheum (RKO) Pictures circuit. In 1929, Egan earned $50,000.

In 1933, Egan and her ensemble toured Europe again for a year, accompanied by a 16 piece band which included pianist Dorothy Sauter (known as Dot) and saxophonist Geraldine Stanley. A performance by Babe Egan and The Hollywood Redheads in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, inspired Dutch pianist Annie van 't Zelfde to take saxophone lessons and pursue a career performing jazz. Another performance was held at the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris, France.

Egan was bisexual and had a relationship with an actress who she met touring Europe.

Egan retired from professional life in the 1940s, but later reformed her band and toured in Australia for eight years, visiting Geelong, Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Warrnambool, Horsham, and Melbourne.

Egan lived her final years in the Rockhaven Sanitarium in Glendale, California, where she died of a stroke on February 7, 1966, aged 68. She was buried at Resurrection Cemetery in South San Gabriel, California.

Egan is the subject of the 2022 book Babe Egan and the Hollywood Redheads by Jeannie G. Pool.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pool, Jeannie Gayle (2022). Babe Egan and the Hollywood Redheads: Women Musicians in the Jazz Age. Jaygayle Music Books. ISBN 979-8-4328-3133-0.
  2. 1 2 Pool, Jeannie Gayle (February 8, 2008). Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. pp. 15–18. ISBN 978-1-4617-3734-6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Spitzzeri, Paul R. (January 11, 2017). "Striking a Chord: Babe Egan and Her Hollywood Redheads, 1925". The Homestead Museum. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  4. 1 2 "AFM 47 Women in History: 'Babe Egan and the Hollywood Redheads'". American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 47. January 5, 2023. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "Musician Bios". Some Liked It Hot – Jazz Women in Film and Television. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Smith, Angela (April 10, 2014). Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8108-8835-7.
  7. ↑ Zietz, Karyl Lynn; Lynn, Karyl Charna (October 14, 1996). The National Trust Guide to Great Opera Houses in America. Wiley. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-471-14421-2.
  8. ↑ Hadden, Briton; Luce, Henry Robinson (1929). Time. Time Incorporated. p. 50.
  9. ↑ Placksin, Sally (1982). American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present : Their Words, Lives, and Music. Wideview Books. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-87223-760-5.
  10. ↑ de Haas, Anna (March 25, 2024). "Zelfde, Janna Johanna van 't (1913-2002)". Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland (in Dutch). Archived from the original on March 24, 2025. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  11. ↑ Schulz, Klaus (2003). Jazz in Österreich 1920-1960 (in German). Album. p. 27. ISBN 978-3-85164-136-3.
  12. ↑ Bisset, Andrew (1987). Black Roots, White Flowers: A History of Jazz in Australia. ABC Enterprises for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-642-53067-7.
  13. ↑ Jordan, Elisa (October 22, 2018). Rockhaven Sanitarium: The Legacy of Agnes Richards. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-6558-9.
  14. ↑ "Founder of Girls' Orchestra Dies". Pasadena Star-News. February 8, 1966.
  15. ↑ NACUSA-LA (October 25, 2020). BABE EGAN AND THE HOLLYWOOD REDHEADS: Pioneer Bandleader. Retrieved April 14, 2026 – via YouTube.
  16. ↑ Mirchandani, Sharon (2023). "Babe Egan and the Hollywood Redheads: Women Musicians in the Jazz Age by Jeannie Gayle Pool (review)". Notes. 80 (1): 168–170. doi:10.1353/not.2023.a905336. ISSN 1534-150X. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  17. ↑ Tomita, Fumi (2023). "Babe Egan and the Hollywood Redheads: Women Musicians in the Jazz Age". Association for Recorded Sound Journal. 54 (2): 343–346. Retrieved April 14, 2026.