The International Sweethearts broke attendance records and toured as a USO act – but
racism and sexism largely swept them from public record
Rosalind Cron is a vibrant 95-year-old in red lipstick. She stands 4ft 8in tall, and is the keeper of a beautiful, under-told story about America’s first racially integrated, all-girl swing band, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She is one of two surviving Sweethearts in their 90s, and a lucid, bright storyteller.
She greeted me on an early December afternoon in her assisted living facility outside of
Los Angeles, where she had made room for a piano and memorabilia.