Editing Billy Tipton (section)

=== Early work ===
In 1936, Tipton was the leader of a band playing on KFXR radio.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1938, Tipton joined Louvenie's Western Swingbillies, a band that played on radio station [[KTOK]] and had a steady gig at Brown's Tavern.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1940 he was touring the Midwest playing at dances with Scott Cameron's band.<ref name="HIST"/> In 1941 he began a two-and-a-half-year run performing at the [[Joplin, Missouri]], Cotton Club with George Meyer's band before touring with the Ross Carlyle Band for a while.  He then played music in Texas for two years.<ref name="HIST"/>

In 1949, Tipton began touring the Pacific Northwest with Meyer.<ref name="HIST"/> While this tour was far from glamorous, the band's appearances at Roseburg, Oregon's Shalimar Room were recorded by a local radio station, and so recordings exist of his work during this time, including "If I Knew Then" and "Sophisticated Swing".<ref name="HIST"/> The trio's signature song was "[[Flying Home]]", performed in a close imitation of pianist [[Teddy Wilson]] and [[Benny Goodman]]'s band.<ref name="Middlebrook 1998">{{cite book |last=Middlebrook |first=Diane Wood |author-link=Diane Middlebrook |title=Suits me : the double life of Billy Tipton |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |year=1998 |isbn=9780395957899 |oclc=607072271 |url=https://archive.org/details/suitsmedoublelif00middl |access-date=December 26, 2018 |chapter=Born Naked |chapter-url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/m/middlebrook-suits.html}}</ref>

As George Meyer's band became more successful, they began getting more work, performing at the Boulevard Club in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, sharing the bill with others such as [[The Ink Spots]], the [[Delta Rhythm Boys]], and [[Billy Eckstine]].<ref name="HIST"/>