Biography for
Ina Ray Hutton More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

13 March 1916, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date of Death

19 February 1984, Ventura, California, USA (diabetes)

Birth Name

Odessa Cowan

Nickname

The Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm

Height

5' 2" (1.57 m)

Mini Biography

Ina Ray Hutton, daughter of pianist Marvel Ray, sang and danced in stage revues from the age of 8, culminating in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934. In mid-1934, she organized an "all-girl" band, the Melodears, featuring hot swing music and Ina Ray's hot dancing in sexy gowns. Ina Ray starred with her band in several Paramount musical shorts, 1935-37, and appeared as herself in a few feature films, but her chief claim to film fame is the starring role in a Columbia musical, Ever Since Venus (1944) (1944). The Melodears broke up in 1939 and Ina Ray organized an all-male band which played through the forties. She was the only woman to lead a prominent Big Band in that era. From 1951-1956 her new all-female band had a show on regional TV, with a brief national network run in 1956. She retired from music in 1968; she was divorced from her fourth husband, businessman 'Jack Curtis' when she died at age 67 of complications from diabetes.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Spouse

Randy Brooks	(1949 - 26 June 1957) (divorced)
Lou Parris	(1944 - ?) (divorced)
Jack Curtis	(? - 1981) (divorced)

Trivia

Older half-sister of June Hutton, singer, seen with Charlie Spivak's band in Pin Up Girl (1944).

First husband, Lou Parris, a saxophonist in her band; second, 'Randy Brooks' (not the actor), a fellow bandleader; third unknown; fourth, 'Jack Curtis' a businessman.

In stage appearances 1933-4 she used stage name 'Ina Ray'.

Stepsister-in-law of Axel Stordahl and Kenneth Tobey.

Personal Quotes

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a good female trumpet player.

I'm selling the show as a music program, not on a sex appeal basis, but if curves attract an audience, so much the better.