Capering & Kickery

Dance Card: Ocean View Amusement Park, 1917

The dance card at left (click to enlarge) is an interesting one: rather than being for a private event, it is from a public dance hall, the Dance Pavilion at the Ocean View Amusement Park, Norfolk, Virginia, which was one of the first amusement parks in the United States.  Sadly, I do not own this card myself; it slipped by on eBay and is now in unknown hands. 

The card is printed in monochrome, with a small picture of the Dance Pavilion.  No orchestra or dance leader is mentioned, only the name of the company that owned the amusement park and its owner, Otto Wells.  In keeping with its commercial nature, there is actually an advertisement on the inside.  On the back of the card is a note that "objectionable dancing" is "positively prohibited", an admonition which would be unnecessary at a private ball but a potential problem at an event open to the general public, and directions to the check room; ladies' retiring room; and gentlemen's smoking room.  The card is not for a specific evening's event, but instead is a generic dance program for any evening of the 1917 season. Written in pencil at the top of the front page is the date "Saturday, June 9, 1917".

There is no sign of any attachment point for a pencil.

Dance Cards: Solon, Maine, 1918-1919

Pictured at left (click to enlarge) are two dance cards which I purchased as a set.  The first is clearly as the card as the Programme from the Annual Alumni Ball of Solon High School held on June 23, 1918.  Music was provided by Lyon's Orchestra, and the location was Caratunk Hall.  There are several Solons in the United States, but the hall name enabled me to trace this card to a tiny town in western Maine. 

Caratunk Hall, built in 1840, was named after the Caratunk Falls, and was standing at least through 2005 as the "Solon Flea Market".  The card is printed in color, and a green cord and tassel for an attached pencil are still present.

Dance Card: Y.M.P.S. Masquerade Ball, 1900

Here's a dance card from a ball given in Wisconsin on February 10, 1900, placing it halfway between two cards I had previously posted (from 1894 and 1906).  The name of the town is cut off by damage to the card, but I'd guess it to be Westboro.  The sponsoring organization is the Y.M.P.S.  The card is printed in red with an American flag in blue (click the images at left to enlarge).  The red pencil cord is still attached, though the pencil itself is long gone.

The card evidently belonged to a lady, since the first half of the card is filled with men's names.  Most appear to be in the same handwriting and it's interesting to see that some partners are recorded by first name ("Richard") others with an honorific ("Mr. LaBeau") and others with both first and last names or initials ("Otto Rindt", "Frank H.").  Frank and Richard seem to have been particularly favored partners, having received two dances each, though Frank got two quadrilles while Richard enjoyed a waltz and a polka.  The back cover is covered with mathematical scribbles -- perhaps she used it as scratch paper later.

The dance mix on the card is typical of the late nineteenth century: seven quadrilles, five waltzes (including the final "Home Sweet Home"), three polkas, two two-steps, one schottische, the Virginia Reel, the Fireman's Dance, and a Grand March

Of particular interest are the two two-steps, a newly popular dance which appears not at all on the 1894 card but, in alternation with the waltz, dominates the 1906 one, and the interesting placement of the Grand March as the ninth dance out of the twenty-one on the card, with the first dance being a quadrille.  This might be because the card is from a masquerade (costume) ball, and such balls were sometimes opened with a special Fancy Quadrille, as described on Kickery's companion blog, Historical Fancy Dress, in which a group of dancers with costumes matching a particular theme would perform:

At some fancy balls quadrilles are arranged beforehand, in which all the dancers are to be dressed after the fashion of some particular period.  One of these quadrilles should open the ball, and others may be interspersed in the programme at irregular intervals.

      -- Armstrong, Lucie.  The Ball-Room Guide.  London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1880s.

 

The English Liked to Waltz

A telegraph from London updates Americans on the early twentieth-century dance scene in London:

Waltz Popular in London

    London, Jan. 2. -- The lancers, quadrille, polka, and mazurka, once popular dances, have now almost disappeared from the ball programmes of fashionable London.  The American two-step to some extent has taken the place of the polka, but the dance most in favor is the waltz, which, according to an Italian expert, the English people seem to dance like persons in a dream, so slowly is the time usually taken.

    --- The New York Times, January 3, 1909

English dance teachers felt that this state of affairs called for high-level assistance, as a later article alerts New Yorkers:

Thinks Waltz Overdone
English Teachers Want King to Lead in Introducing Other Dances

    London, March 13. -- R. N. Compton, President of the Imeperial Society of Dance Teachers, has appealed to the king to assist the movement for breaking the exclusive popularity of the waltz.  He says:

    "If the King would command that one new dance be included in the programme of each State ball he would set a vogue for all the ballrooms of the kingdom.  The mazurka, schottische, polka, and waltz cotillion all have their places in a properly balanced programme, and on such occasions of ceremony as a State ball arranged in honor of some distinguished visitor I would suggest that some one should arrange to provide dances of a former period, as was done at the ball given by the Kaiser in Berlin in honor of the King.  The gavotte, minuet, and pavane suggest themselves, and, in addition, a new dance which would become the dance of the year."

    The last State ball, on July 10, was made up as follows: Waltzes, 10; quadrilles, 3; polkas, 2; galops, 1.  Mr. Compton suggests instead: Waltzes, 6; quadrilles, 2; polkas, 2; mazurka, 1; polonaise, 1; schottische, 1 or 2; two-step, 1; waltz-minuet, 1; and a new dance, 1.

    --- The New York Times, March 14, 1909

Top-down dictation of dance popularity has never worked out all that well, and within a few years most of these dances -- with the notable exception of the waltz -- would be thoroughly out of favor as the new ragtime dances became popular.

Also notice that Mr. Compton quietly slid a waltz-minuet into his suggested ball programme.  I'm sure the fact that he choreographed a waltz-minuet of his own had nothing to do with this...

Both articles are  © The New York Times, though 1909 articles would be out of copyright in the U.S. by now.  Click the article titles to be taken to the original articles in the invaluable The New York Times archive.

Dance Card: 1906

Here's another interesting dance card which, combined with the 1894 one I posted back in August, perfectly illustrates the final collapse in popularity of most of the nineteenth-century dances by first decade of the twentieth century.  While the waltz survives and the recently popular two-step holds its own...that's it.  The entire Order of Dances on the card consists of alternating waltzes and two-steps.  Click the image to see the list more closely.  There is provision for four unspecified extra dances at the end, but otherwise it's a monotonous alternation of those two dances. 

You can see why the Turkey Trot and then the one-step were considered a welcome change of pace!

The card was printed by "Jaccard" in Kansas City, Missouri, and appears to be from a fraternity or sorority ball, judging from the Greek letters in the small red logo on the front cover (again, click to enlarge).  It is helpfully dated 1906 in a large monogram above.  The white cord for the pencil survives, though the pencil itself is long gone.

While modern custom attaches the cord through a hole punched in an upper corner, this one has the cord knotted around the fold.

Edited 10/19/10 to add:

Karen Ann in the comments writes:

Phi Lambda Epsilon was founded February 12, 1892 at Clinton Academy, Missouri. There are currently seven extant chapters. It is described as a "national educational fraternity."

 

Dance Card: Las Vegas Benefit Ball, 1894

The last dance card I posted having been well received, here's another one from my collection.  This one is from a benefit ball held in Las Vegas on April 24, 1894, with music by the East Las Vegas Military Band "Assisted by "Prof. J.A. Hand's Full Orchestra." 

The card is badly stained, but the lovely cover image of a putto playing a guitar to a group of birds is still charming.  The cord for the pencil is still attached, though discolored.  The edges are pinked.  The card has not been used, though one dance ("Comus Waltz") has been crossed out and "Waltz" written in, presumably after a last-minute program change.  The ball committee -- all men -- is listed on the back cover.

(click to enlarge the images)

Dance Card: Improved Order of Red Men, 1881

I am not a big collector of dance cards, but occasionally I buy one or get given one as a gift.  I plan to post them occasionally as examples of the order of dances at actual balls of their eras. 

This dance card, for a "Public Installation" of the Improved Order of Red Men, is dated January 6, 1881, and is divided between the a ceremony for a fraternal order and the following ball.  (Click to enlarge the front cover image at left.)

The Improved Order of Red Men is still in existence and claims a history going back as far as 1765 and a descent from the Sons of Liberty who perpetrated, in Mohawk disguise, the Boston Tea Party in 1773.  The current name dates from 1834.  Details of the order's history may be found on its website.  Two of the three "tribes" (local organizations) listed seem still to be in existence, though perhaps not in the same cities: Red Cloud (Indianapolis) and Minnewa (Philadelphia).  Polmete seems to have vanished.

At the Prom: Yale 1921

Yale University's Junior Promenade, held on February 8, 1921, made the cover of the Yale Record, a humor magazine similar to (but predating) the Harvard Lampoon, which had a wide circulation outside Yale as a beacon of collegiate style. (Click the image at left for a larger version courtesy of Yale's Manuscripts & Archives.)  The event is of interest to me not only as a Yale alumna but because I recently purchased one of its ball cards.

The cover of the card (shown below) is made of white leather, with the Yale device and the year 1921 embossed in gold on the front.  A blue and white twisted cord holds the pages in place.  There is no sign of how a pencil might have been attached.  Between the cover and the pages of the card itself is a sheet of translucent vellum with a spiderweb pattern.

Of interest among the list of names given for the ball committee is the Floor Manager, James Smith Bush, the uncle of former United States President George H.W. Bush and great-uncle of former President George W. Bush.

The set of dances listed inside shows the growing dominance of the foxtrot in the upper-class ballroom of the early 1920s.  Forty-two dances are listed, with the twenty-first being the supper dance.  Of those, no fewer than thirty-two are foxtrots!  The other ten are divided between eight one-steps and a mere two waltzes.  The card belonged to a lady; twenty-one of the listed dances have gentlemen's names written by them.  Some names are written in formal style ("Mr. Newmarker") and some more casually ("Roddie").  Several men are listed twice, but none more than twice.

For those interested in details of etiquette, there is a notice on the back that gentlemen should "Please escort ladies to boxes immediately after each dance."