Dancing with the Castles

Irene was idolized for her dancing, fashions and bobbed hair.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs

LOVE "DANCING WITH THE STARS"? It's just the most recent cultural sensation to popularize ballroom dancing.

A century ago, Irene and Vernon Castle were the "it" couple in American dance, not just conquering Broadway, vaudeville and motion pictures but popularizing such American favorites as the foxtrot and the turkey trot.

Soon the couple capitalized on their success, opening a restaurant, a nightclub and a dancing school (at which they sometimes charged $1,000 a lesson for particularly demanding clients); wrote the instructional book, Modern Dancing; and endorsed myriad products — from cigars to shoes.

Interestingly, their commercial success didn't mean they shied away from controversial choices, or perhaps it afforded them the luxury of making those decisions. After hearing the James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra at a private party, the Castles hired Europe's African-American orchestra to accompany their dance performances. They also hired Elisabeth Marbury, an open lesbian, to manage their dance team.

So popular were the Castles that even 20 years later — following Vernon's death while serving during World War I and Irene's several subsequent marriages — Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers starred in the major motion picture, "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle." For a quick peek, check out this video.

Starry, starry girl

As a child, Annie Jump Cannon gazed at stars with her mother. As an adult, Cannon fell in love with astronomy.

One hundred years ago this month, Cannon began the work at Harvard University that would garner her awards and accolades — not only because she was the preeminent woman in her profession but because her work was unprecedented.

Within four years, Cannon, who was deaf, had compiled data on a whopping 225,300 stars and identified them under the spectral classes O, B, A, F, G, K and M — which developed into the famous mnemonic, “Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me.”

During her 40-year career, Cannon published additional star catalogs and discovered 300 yet-unknown stars. No wonder:

• Oxford University awarded Cannon in 1925 an honorary doctorate — the first ever for a woman;

• the National League of Women Voters named her in 1929 one of the 12 greatest living American women;

• and a moon crater was named after her.

Today, astronomers still rely on her work and the American Astronomical Society presents an annual award in her name to a female astronomer. This year’s recipient? Rachel Mandelbaum, a Princeton University researcher, whose many accomplishments include helping design children’s curriculum on the formation of the early universe. No doubt Cannon would approve.

Workplace Poetry, 1920

You think fax machines are obsolete? Check out this comptometer, a machine popular in business offices roughly 100 years ago and mentioned in the first poem below.

Back in 1970 when my first-grade teacher asked us to go around our classroom, telling what our fathers did for a living (can you imagine that happening today without myriad phone calls to the principal?), I was the only one who spoke up to say what my father and mother did. In fact, my mother was a writer, working in her home office, and even as a child, I understood that her job was important. What a role model she was for me.

Today I'm hopeful that the value women bring to home and the workplace are understood to be equally important. But you might be surprised how long the debate has gone on.

In 1920, sociologist Annie Marion MacLean published work-related poems in the Y.W.C.A.'s  Association Monthly. A sociologist and also a professor at the University of Chicago, MacLean focused her work on advocating for women's workplace rights. Two of her poems (below) address each side of the work-at-home and work-outside-the-home debate.

The Comptometer Operator

Alice is happy as can be.

She runs an adding machine

In an office downtown

At seventy-five dollars a month,

With a chance for promotion. 

And is infinitely happier

Than when she was nursing children 

At sixty a month and home.

"Silly," you say.

"Girls don't know when they are well off."

"Don't they?" sings Alice. 

"I have a key to the front door

Where I live, and no one reproves me."

"Stuff!" say you.

"Stuff of life," says she.

One of the Idle Rich

She was only a lady of leisure.

Yet she kept regular office hours

Like a paid worker,

For a philanthropic organization.

And superintended a household

Besides. She served on committees

To the number of ten, and

Kept her eye on the health 

Of her family.

People knew she would do

What she promised to do,

And urged work upon her. . . 

When the census taker came around,

He listed her as 

"A woman without occupation."

Swim suits and high heels

A 1911 issue of Puck magazine featured mermaids. Library of Congress.

SO HOW HAVE YOU BEEN SPENDING YOUR SUMMER? In a tent? By a pool? In front of a fan?

 

One hundred summers ago, girls and women were also trying to keep cool (1911 temps soared past the 100-degree mark in early July on the East Coast—sound familiar?) — plus living their lives and making headlines. Read the news’ items below and guess which ones are true. Then check out the answers — and the rest of the story.

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Thousands of young women were irate when scolded for “promenading on the beach and on the streets of this resort, clad in bathing suits and high-heeled shoes” by the Atlantic City mayor.
2. A group of girls canoeing on the Allegheny River fought off 20 large muskrats as they tried to climb into their canoes.
3.  Who needs lunchtime yoga? Many Manhattan “office girls” spent their breaks skipping lunch to ballroom dance to such hits as “The Glow Worm.”
4.  The minister at a New York church started a girls’ gun club, hoping to develop his congregation’s young women into “crack shots.”
5.  Seniors at a women’s college in South Carolina refused to receive diplomas at graduation from their state’s governor.
6.  Despite the plane’s steering wheel snapping in two, a female aviation student brought the plane safely to the ground in St. Louis.
7.  Female hotel employees played – and beat – a male baseball team.
8. A teenage girl swam a whopping 21 miles — in 8 hours and 7 minutes — from East 26^th Street in Manhattan to Coney Island.

ANSWERS:

1.  True. While the combination of a swimsuit and high heels creates a scandalous vision today, back in 1911 the latest swim fashions meant knee-length woolen swimsuits, worn with black stockings and buckled shoes — hardly enough to get your undies in a bunch, even back then. 
2. True. A couple of the girls actually fell out of the canoes and were bitten by the swimming rats. Yikes.
3. True. Young women flocked to a restaurant that offered complimentary ballroom dancing to a live orchestra over lunch. While there were some male-female couples, most young women danced in groups for exercise.
4. True. The minister at the Broad Street Park Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Girl Rangers Club.
5. True. Winthrop College seniors snubbed tradition — and Governor C.L. Blease — for his racist policies and asked their college president, Dr. R.B. Johnson, to instead hand out the diplomas.
6. True. Nina Hibbard grabbed the plane’s “elevator rod” and landed the plane with finesse. Onlookers cheered her death-defying feat. 
7. True. The male players wore “ballet costumes, draperies of lace curtains” and other costumes. Perhaps they thought doing so would put them on equal footing with the women? Not so much. Go, girls!
8. True. A crowd of thousands welcomed 17-year-old Rose Pitonof for her amazing swim.