The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-01-01

from ever
larize the music and dances o.
yesterday, finds an answer in the
Detroit News in the review of an old
fashioned dance held as an expert
ment in a Detroit dance hall fire.
quented by the so-called younger
set.
Officials OF the dance hall had
staged the dance for the express
benefit of those of another genera
ton who had been literally crowded
from the dance floor by modern jazz
music. But, they scarcely antici-
pated five thousand men and
women bowling for the right to
dance the waltz, schottische, polka
and form dances And. included in
those who participated in this dem
onstration were all ages from sixteen
to sixty.
1.-THE spirit of the quadriile, that
began in lowty way must have
blinked its eyes in wonderment, .
says the Detroit News 1T was born
to the swish of hoop skirts and the
times when the society reporter
gravely reported, the brave and the
fair were in attendance. 1t was
born in an era of kerosene lamps.
tin-types and fidslers. Tuesday
night, it faced high power Hood
lights, moving pictures and super
orchestra aided and Allotted by
Henry Ford's four-piece old fashion.
ed orchestra.
st faced an audience that literally
jammed the vast hall, damned until
police were called and the big front
doors locked in the faces OF hun
dreds who tried in vain to jam into
the seething crowds. Henry Ford
was not there; but a party OF Ford
executives and their friends were
1t was different crowd from that
which usually appears at public
dance halls, although the sheik-ane
his sheba were not missing. Hun
dreds of old men and women and
thousands of middle-aged couples
crowded the floor from the first
note and stayed until the last.
ut was $3.50 before Mr.. and Mrs.
Ben Lovett, the Ford dancing
teachers, appeared and gave a brief
demonstration of the old-fashioned
dances on the stage. Then began
fDr Il
rifle. Every man and woman of
the audience seemed determined tc
dance it. 1t took almost half an
hour to drive some of the less
that the set could be made up. 1t
began at last and things went with
whoop. At the end OF the first
dance such yell arose as has not
echoed through the hall since it was
built
Hand clapping was lost in the
shouts and demands for More
more" The spirit of the dance
communicated itself to the younger
generation. and they fought wit
The old timers for space to dance
If the orchestra had been able to
stand it the jam would have kept
them busy all night. AS it was, the
quadrille was no sooner over and
the regular hall orchestra called ir
for relief than demand for rye
waltz arose, and to the establishment
of the management and others who
had declared the old-fashioned
dances would never catch on the
floor was damned even more than
for the quadrille, and the yells were
just as loud for more of that.
"It became necessary to plead
with the crowd to get off the floor
and give others chance, but it was
not until promises had been mega
phoned for old-fashioned dances
every Tuesday that anything like
order was restored. At this several
hundred, seeing the fopelessnessN of
trying to dance in the throng depart
ed with a promise to return next
Tuesday when conditions may be
better.
Il never saw anything like it in
my life, and l have been in the
business for rs years." said j. L..
Wood. owner of the Arcadia. Il
doubted if there would be more
than hundred try to dance these
old-fashioned dances. But look at
it."
''It was a sight worth seeing
Thousands were damned on the
floor trying to take the three skip
ping steps of the rye waltz. and
under the glare of the flood lights,
1T for the motion pictures, the
moving mass resembled nothing so
much as a great school of minnows
in narrow space being driven for
ward and back by some unseen
mower. White hair, bald heads,