Peggy Gilbert

Peggy Gilbert (January 17, 1905 – February 12, 2007), born Margaret Fern Knechtges, was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader.

She was born in Sioux City, Iowa. When she was seven years old, she played piano and violin with her father's band; she later discovered jazz and started to play the saxophone. After high school, she performed in local theatres and resorts and became a performer on radio and television.

In 1928, she moved to Hollywood, where she appeared in movies and toured with Fanchon and Marco vaudeville shows. In 1933 she founded her all-female jazz band, whose name often changed from "Peggy Gilbert and Her Metro Goldwyn Orchestra" to "Peggy Gilbert and her Symphonics". She performed on saxophone, vibes, piano, and vocals. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gilbert and her band performed in the most famous nightclubs in Hollywood, including the Cocoanut Grove. At one of these clubs, she met and fell in love with Kay Boley, a vaudevillian and contortionist.

During this period, she appeared in films, toured Alaska with a USO troupe, and began to be an advocate for women musicians. After a difficult period following the Second World War, Gilbert had success on radio and television programs in the 1950s. In 1974, at 69 years old, she created her last great all-female band, The Dixie Belles, with musicians from vaudeville and the Big Band era. The group performed on TV and at jazz festivals, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Golden Girls, and in the 1980 Rose Parade. In 1985, the band recorded the album Peggy Gilbert & the Dixie Belles. Gilbert lived until the age of 102 and died in Burbank, California. She began to take piano lessons at age eight, and frequently accompanied her father to stage shows, playing piano in her first performance with his band.

Gilbert lived in a nurturing home environment. She and her brother Oral Lloyd Knechtges, who was born in 1900, were always encouraged to listen to music, and they lived a very comfortable life. In addition, her parents did not tolerate prejudice, and they "learned right from the beginning to treat everyone with respect and consideration, regardless of race or ethnicity." Gilbert admired her father and his musical ability and took much of her inspiration from him.

Gilbert's article in Down Beat In 1938, Gilbert wrote an article for Down Beat magazine in response to an anonymous article titled "Why Women Musicians Are Inferior." The article criticized men who discourage women musicians. She said that women musicians faced a double standard: they had to look beautiful while playing their instruments. It was nearly impossible for an all-female band to survive "on musicianship rather than looks." While men were hired for musical talent, women were, for the most part, hired strictly for looks. Gilbert experienced this discrimination throughout her career, as "she encountered incredulity, outright rejection and auditions at which band members were asked to lift their skirts to prove they had good legs."

Early 1940s and World War II By the late 1930s, there was very high demand for all-female bands. This rise of women's bands that correlated with the United States' involvement in World War II did not mean that women musicians were solely filling the men's shoes for a few years. Although "All-woman bands had been abundant in the '20s and '30s, yet musicians who played in the groups of the '40s were regarded as temporary war-time phenomena: Rosie the Riveter with a trumpet." Despite the growing competition, Gilbert refused to make her shows risqué, and she avoided being a "glamour girl" bandleader. Instead, she focused on the music and on how the band sounded, gaining respect from all who played with her.

1950s and 1960s In 1951, Gilbert received permission from Local 47 to perform with Ada Leonard on KTTV television for a year. In 1953, she left her job at Local 47 for a job as secretary to the president of a barbecue manufacturing company, but she did not stay long at her new job, returning to Local 47 and working there until 1970.

Legacy Gilbert's archives are held in the University Library at California State University, Northridge.