For other persons named William Banks, see William Banks

William Banks (disambiguation)

William Banks may refer to:*William Banks, alderman in Chicago*William Banks , rugby league footballer of the 1940s and '50s for Great Britain, Wales, and Huddersfield*William Banks , the owner of the performing horse Marocco...

For other persons named Willie Banks, see Willie Banks

Willie Banks (disambiguation)

Willie Banks may refer to:* Willie Banks, American track and field athlete* Willie Banks , pitcher in Major League Baseball* Willie Banks , offensive lineman in the National Football League-See also:...

Billy Banks (b. c. 1908; d. October 19, 1967, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

) was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer. Banks is most prominently remembered for being a successful female impersonator on record.

Banks recorded in 1932 with an all-star, multi-racial jazz lineup made up of Red Allen

Red Allen

Henry James "Red" Allen was a jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.-Life and career:...

 on trumpet, Pee Wee Russell

Pee Wee Russell

Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....

 on clarinet, Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey

Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...

 on trombone, Joe Sullivan

Joe Sullivan

Michael Joseph "Joe" O'Sullivan was an American jazz pianist.Sullivan was the ninth child of Irish immigrant parents. He studied classical piano for 12 years and at age 17, he began to play popular music in a club where he was exposed to jazz...

 on piano, Zutty Singleton on drums, and Fats Waller

Fats Waller

Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

, also on piano; most of the black musicians were from Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

's retinue, while the white ones had been brought to the studio by producer Irving Mills

Irving Mills

Irving Mills was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919...

. The vocals were once thought to have been performed by Una Mae Carlisle

Una Mae Carlisle

Una Mae Carlisle was an American jazz singer, pianist, and songwriter.Fats Waller discovered Carlisle when she was still in her teens, while she worked as a local Cincinnati performer live and on radio...

, but Banks is the actual vocalist.

Banks worked with Russell as a showman and vocalist, and later worked with Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...

. He later performed in cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

s under Billy Rose

Billy Rose

William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...

, then toured Europe, Australia, and East Asia in the 1950s. One of his last recordings was done in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 in 1954 with Cy Laurie

Cy Laurie

Cyril "Cy" Laurie was an English jazz clarinetist and bandleader.Laure was an autodidact on clarinet. He put together his own band in 1947; George Melly debuted in this ensemble in 1948...

. Late in the 1950s he relocated to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and died there in Tokyo in 1967.