Turns out the secret to a long and happy life has been found! Viola Smith has the key to a healthy lifespan, and it involves wine consumption and around 80 years of energetic drumming.
Now aged 106 and actively drumming until quite recently in a Costa Mesa band named Forever Young Band: America’s Oldest Act of Professional Entertainers, Smith’s remarkably long career has spanned the length and breadth of modern music from jazz to swing, rock n’ roll and beyond. What a powerhouse.
Born Viola Schmitz on November 29, 1912, in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, she was one of ten kids. The whole family studied piano, and in the 1920’s their dad got Viola and her six sisters together to form the Smith Sisters Orchestra.
In 1938, Viola Smith and her saxophonist sister Mildred started an all-girl orchestra called The Coquettes, that performed until 1942 when Mildred got married. The Coquettes is possibly what Smith is best known for, with the all-girl swing band scoring several well-known swing tunes during the early days of the war.
After she moved to New York City, she joined Phil Spitalny’s Hour Of Charm Orchestra, another famous all-girl orchestra. Viola’s ability to read music fluently, along with her overall musicianship was such that she later played with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of the leading orchestras of the day.
After Viola played for President Harry Truman’s inauguration in 1949, she then formed her own band called “Viola and Her Seventeen Drums.” Then, Viola turned her attention to Broadway, where she played in the original production of Cabaret.
On top of all these acheivements and accolades, she also wrote an article called “Give Girl Musicians A Break!” that she wrote at the height of WWII. Having always been a vocal voice for women in music, Viola strongly campaigned for bands who lost male musicians to the fight in Europe to give female players the opportunity to replace them. The article sparked a nationwide debate about female musicians and the prejudice that many men had about them at the time.
Regarding her longevity, she credited wine as a helping hand in the process, saying:
“I’m a drinker, but definitely always in moderation. Even Dad, he had a tavern in his nightclub in Wisconsin. He’d even bring kids in the family wine. So, we’d have wine (with) dinner. I still drink wine now.”
