Women Star as Parkerfest Singers at Speakeasy Night

We are really excited about the live music for the Dorothy Parker Bathtub Gin Ball & Speakeasy Cruise. We have two incredible women who are performing on our 1930 yacht cruise around New York Harbor.

Bliss Blood and the Cantonement Jazz Band (visit site and hear music here) is now booked. She is joined by special guest Cindy Ball, who is going to do her famous Helen Kane show. Cindy sat down for a Parkerfest interview. She performs many of the songs that Helen Kane popularized (and Betty Boop swiped), such as “Dangerous Nan McGrew” and “I Wann Be Loved By You”.

“What I find so tragic,” Ball says, “is that at the time Betty Boop was created, the whole world knew it was a cartoon version of Helen Kane, and yet Helen gave no permission, received no credit nor royalty. Eventually Betty’s career became bigger than Helen’s and Helen was ousted from the spotlight by a cartoon imitation of herself. So, it’s my hope that Betty Boop fans come away with an appreciation for what Helen created and her contribution to Betty Boop, and also see Helen as a person, three-dimensional, a seperate entity from the cartoon character.”

Blood leads a band that really captures the 1920s and early 1930s. “Our band is an authentic 1920’s jazz band, playing jazz, pop, and blues songs from the 20’s and early ’30s,” she says in a DPSNY interview. “We try to re-create the raucous fun of the 20’s, when jazz was the music of flaming youth.”

“We dress in glamourous evening clothes, suits and 20s style gowns, and play a wide selection of styles, from Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey blues tunes to “sweet” jazz tunes originally sung by Annette Hanshaw, Ruth Etting, Cliff Edwards, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, and Bing Crosby.”

Among the songs she’s got lined up are:
“I Wished on the Moon”
“Six Feet of Papa”
“The Way I Feel Today”
“Trombone Cholly”

Sail with us back in time!