These bands typically played one-nighters, six or seven nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges, Lions Clubs, hotel ballrooms, and the like.
He said, "many historians give much credit to territory bands for popularizing modern ballroom dancing that began during the World War I era with the influence of Vernon and Irene Castle.
Many developed original repertoires and signature sounds, none more storied than Walter Page's Blue Devils, the Oklahoma City-based outfit that Count Basie joined in 1926.
Texas, with its open geography and relatively large population, offered the greatest opportunity with developed markets for dance music in Austin, Amarillo, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.
McShann's band was on par with these groups and was where Charlie Parker began to show signs of true innovation.
Bands from Los Angeles and Seattle performed not only in California, Oregon, and Washington, but also in Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
The Glenn Henry Orchestra, which got its first big break playing summers at Yellowstone Park from 1935 to 1940, became a popular West Coast territory band.
The Midwest settlements of Europeans of various ethnicities, brought their community dancing and revelry with them, in the form of popular polka bands (and also old time waltzes, leandlers, and schottisches).
The introduction and technological advancement of amplification and gramophone recording led to the development of crooning, an intimate vocal style perfected by singers such as Bing Crosby and, later, Frank Sinatra.
Popular culture seemed to regard the musical performances dance bands provided as an area meant to be dominated by men.
One example that shows just how foreign women could be considered appears in the name of a band Mary Lou Williams headed that was called "Six Men and a Girl.
"[11] Other bands popular in the 1930s include The Harlem Playgirls, The Dixie Sweethearts, the Darlings of Rhythm, and Gertrude Long and Her Rambling Night Hawks.
Often the ultra feminine clothes they had to wear, such as strapless dress and high heels, also affected their ability to play and perform.
Furthermore, chorus line girls had an association with loose morals and even prostitution, and loss of face for an instrumentalist could mean the end of a career.
While it is true that many agencies required photographs in their applications to join female bands, the musicians in them still tended to be quite talented.
[12] While many people view the end of the swing era as the opening of World War II, this was not the case for all woman dance bands.
Once it was realized that women could fill a major hole in the entertainment industry and that they could not be drafted, agencies and managers everywhere began trying to put together all female bands.
In many ways, these musicians were very prepared to take over for the men because they had more advanced experience in playing instruments, either from hobbies or school bands.
Soldiers shipped off to foreign lands, under the pressure war and deprived of any female presence were more than welcoming to these all woman groups.
The bands that were racially integrated commonly experienced problems, mostly from having to dodge different applications and degrees of Jim Crow among cities and regions.
When musicians grew wary or even felt vulnerable to injustices of Jim Crow, the band bus, for those who had one, served as a safe haven.