Viola Smith: Female Swing Drummer

A recent post on Boing Boing featured this clip of swing drummer Viola Smith, one of the earliest female professional drummers.  A little more research revealed that this film was part of Warner Brothers' "Melody Masters" film series, which consisted of big band musical film shorts.  Released from 1931 to 1947, they were essentially swing music videos.  Think early MTV (back when it played music videos) meets Jimmy Dorsey.  In this particular short, released in 1940, Viola Smith was playing with Frances Carroll and the Coquettes, an all girl swing orchestra.