Terry was practically alone in her chosen profession at the time and hardly found it easy to conduct the business of playing jazz as she would have liked. The boys in her all-male units sometimes didn't take her very seriously and, as one old-timer put it, "only played in the band because they wanted to get into (Terry's) pants." Terry eventually wearied of the struggle, and in 1929 she married and rang the curtain down on her musical career. Later attempts to make a comeback were rebuffed for various reasons.
Thelma Terry and her Playboys made only six issued recordings, and these are regarded as outstanding examples of classic Chicago-style jazz. In 1998 a test recording from these sessions was discovered where Thelma Terry sings vocalese on Bix Beiderbecke's solo in "Singin' the Blues," demonstrating that Terry was already using this technique some 25 years in advance of its "official" introduction. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi