Viola Smith

Born November 29, 1912 in Mount Calvary, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Died October 21, 2020 in Costa Mesa, California. American drummer, best known for her work in orchestras, swing bands, and popular music from the 1920s until 1975. She was one of the first professional female drummers. Born Viola Clara Schmitz, Viola Smith got her professional start in the "Schmitz Sisters" (later "Smith Sisters"), an all-girl band that her father formed out of her and her six sisters in the late 1920s. When that band fell apart in the 1930s, she and a sister formed the "Coquettes". That ensemble folded in 1941. In Spring 1942, Smith joined another all-girl band, Phil Spitalny And His Hour Of Charm All-Girl Orchestra And Choir, with which she would stay for 13.5 years. In the same year, she also published an editorial in Down Beat magazine, in which she demanded that women musicians shouldn't just be hired during the war as temporary stand-ins for drafted men, but as actual replacements. By the end of the war, Smith had tired of life on the road. She left Spitalny's orchestra, but no other orchestra would hire her even though she had been compared to Gene Krupa. She continued playing, but mostly club dates. She played in the pit orchestra of the 1966 Broadway musical "Cabaret" for three years, then did summer theater until 1974. She died at age 107.