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Tag: 1940s

Time To Dance! Vintage Instructions To Get You Dancing In No Time

If you follow my blog then you know that I’m an avid Lindy Hopper and I’m also working on my “Rock & Roll” and “Jiving” for my Rockabilly side. I LOVE to dance so while in my Lindy class last night a blog post hit me…Vintage Dance Instructions!

So gang lets see how some of our predecessors learned how to cut a rug, shall we?

Note: While these instructions say “guys do one things, girls do another” I am a big believer in DANCE ANY ROLE YOU LIKE! So just ignore the “role designation”.

1940s vintage ad for Recca Records featuring illustrations of people dancing different kinds of dances. Like Swing dancing, polka, latin, ballroom.

Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy , eBay, are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

Note: If an item is no longer for sale after you click on it, don’t worry! Etsy & eBay are updated daily with 1000’s of products. Take a look around and see what you find!


Vintage Dance Instructions

Vintage Advertising & Vintage Dance Books

1920s ad: Nobody wants to be a wallflower do we? So time to take some lessons from the famous “Arthur Murray”

Vintage 1920s Ad for Arthur Murray Dance Studio-Why be a wallflower?!

Here is a wonderful 80 page softcover booklet by Arthur Murray, the King of Ballroom Dancing (as mentioned above).

Detailed instructions of how to present yourself in the ballroom, how to dance the various dances in conversation mode in addition to how to do just about everything correctly at a ballroom or any formal affair.

Dance instructions for the Fox Trot, The Waltz, How to be Graceful, The Samba, Mambo, Lindy and much more great instructional material.

(See inside the book & purchase as of July 20th, 2022 HERE).

1950s Vintage dance instruction book from Arthur Murray featuring a couple dancing on the cover.

Learn how to do the Mambo Box Step from Arthur Murray.

Learn how to do the Mambo Box Step from a 1950s Dance Instruction book from Arthur Murray

Source: Etsy

1930s vintage ad: Being popular and having fun all depend on that dancing, so off you go for more lessons!

1930s dance ad featuring a couple in 1930s evening wear dancing together-Learn to dance!
1930s Dance Ad

Time to do some Swing Dancing (Lindy Hop), Shag, Trankey Doo, The Big Apple & Solo Jazz moves!

Further Reading: Vintage Photos of The Lindy Hop

Vintage Dances-Time to do some Swing Dancing (Lindy Hop), Shag, Trankey Doo, The Big Apple & Solo Jazz moves!

1940s ad: It’s Suzy-Q time! We do this move a lot in Lindy Hop Solo Jazz.

1940s vintage dance instruction -Learn how to do the Suzy Q solo jazz move.

Want to learn how to “Collegiate Shag“? Here are some starter points.

Collegiate Shag -Lern how to dance "The Shag" in the 19490s as per these vintage dance instructions.
Source: CollegiateShag.com

Dominion Round and Square Dances | Learn Square Dancing Instructions by Hugh Bryan. Book is from 1951 Canadian Music Sales Corporation Ltd (avail as of Nov 2023 HERE).

1950s Dance Instruction Book: Dominion Round and Square Dances | Learn Square Dancing Instructions by Hugh Bryan

Source: Etsy

1950s dance instruction. Not so much “HOW” to dance but how “NOT to be”…I think.

1950s vintage dance instruction-How not to dance.

As mentioned above I’m also a big fan of the 1950’s and Rockabilly so I’m learning Jive (sort of) and also have taken Rock n Roll classes in the past.

"How to dance the Rock & Roll" vintage dance instruction 1950s.
Thank goodness for this book or I would truly be lost! Source: Etsy- Props & Pieces

I agree about # 4 below. Thinking ruins everything…It really does!

"How to dance the Rock & Roll" vintage dance instruction 1950s.
Source: Etsy-Props & Pieces

Last BUT not least you cannot mention dance instruction and NOT mention “Fred Astaire”.

The Fred Astaire Dance Book-vintage dance instruction
Source: Etsy-JeanRameyArt

So many shoes! Quick, Quick, Slow……Got it??

The Fred Astaire Dance Book-vintage dance instruction
Source-Etsy: JeanRameyArt

I will leave you with this Tillie the Toiler Cartoon. It made me giggle because I’m a tall woman and many of my dances look like Tillie’s 🙂

Further Reading: See more images featuring Tillie the Toiler at “The Stylish Fashions of Vintage Paper Dolls“.

Tillie the Toiler vintage cartoon.

So my lovely readers, did these images get you motivated to go dancing? Take a lesson or two? If you do dance, please share what got you into dancing I love those stories.

FURTHER READING:

Liz 🙂

My Recent Vintage Store Finds

It is so nice in Toronto right now, so it is pretty much impossible to stay home at night. So on one of those beautiful nights I took a walk down to my local antique store for some treasure hunting. I was pretty excited to do this because normally I'm with my husband and he is not much of antique shopper and so I usually get 5 seconds in before he starts giving me the “please can we go!” look! Not tonight though he was working so I was free to take my time.

My plan… To find some amazing 1930s-1950s real-life pictures of well dressed people as this has recently become my obsession. I just love seeing how everyday people dressed as opposed to movie stars who had lots of money and designers on demand (not that I don't enjoy those photos too, Oh I most certainly do!). Tonight though was about the regular folks and I scored huge with the following 4 images.

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Photo number 1: A wedding photo from the 1940s, clearly during war times. Don't you agree that the bride and groom are so gorgeous together that they could have been movie stars?? Sigh…so fantastic!

I am just swooning right now over the handsome groom in uniform and his equally handsome best man in his navy uniform. Love.

1940s wedding photo

Now the lovely bride. That dress is making me just drool all over my ipad right now with envy. The cut, the sequined design on the bust and that corsage..wow! Just beautiful. In my mind the dress is a gorgeous blue or maybe green! And how adorable are the peep toe shoes (on both ladies)?? This gal has style and her maid of honour is just as stylish too! I want a 1940s suit badly and honestly one like this would make my day. It is such a nice fit on her and I think she made a wonderful choice by wearing this.

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Photo number 2: 1940s woman. This photo was the first image I found and I nearly died from how amazing this image was. Like seriously, how could you look at this photo and not think “Wow that woman has style!”? I don't think it is possible and that was the exact words that came out of my mouth.

1940s woman in dress

First off her 1940s gown fits her like a glove, look how tiny her waist is? The detail at the hip adds to the slim look of her waist and I'm just loving it so much (great undergarments I'm sure are helping too). The fabric is just as wonderful with the random flower detail and I envision this dress to be black with the flowers and dots to be silver (do you agree?).

Now let's talk about her hat. Yes her hat is one amazing work of art with a giant pouffy flower (I think) as the embleshment. Even with the giant beautiful corsage on her dress I don't think the hat is too much. Ohh I have a thought! Maybe she is the mother of the bride to the couple above?? Most likely not but she is going some where wonderful enough to wear long black gloves (question: are they gloves if they have no hand part?) and I'm sure will be the hit of the party.

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Photo number 3: 1940s gentleman. This image when I saw it, reminded me so much of Cary Grant or Clark Gable and I just knew he had to come home with me. I was also really drawn to how well his suit fit and how he paired it with a bow tie and two toned oxfords, classy! The hand in the pocket says “yup I'm a man of style”. And yes mister handsome well dressed man, the Vintage Inn agrees.

1940s man in suit

Photo number 4: The final image I found of this 1950s woman playing with her cat, made me want to buy it for 1 reason and 1 reason alone….her saddle shoes. Yes I know saddle shoes are not rare in images from the 50s but what intrigued me even more was the fact that I believe this woman is not a young girl but much older then that.

You don't see very often older woman wearing saddle shoes, in fact I have never seen it and was always under the impression that that style was for the “younger” generation. Now that might be true but clearly this lovely fun loving lady does not care and she is rocking them anyways and for that, I love her style and she deserved to be in this post.

1950s housewife in saddle shoes

So there my wonderful readers is my most recent vintage shopping find. I hope you enjoyed looking at the images as much as I did when I bought them.

Have a fantastic day!

Liz 🙂