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As the Castles’ profile rose in early 94, Elisabeth Marbury came up with a new scheme, one that would earn them more money and publicity than a regular vaudeville tour: the Castles would dance from city to city, from coast to coast. In the 939 biopic The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, their 94 Whirlwind Tour was cleverly depicted by director H. C. Potter, cinematographer Robert de Grasse, and choreographer Hermes Pan. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were shot on an outdoor set, dancing atop a huge map of the United States, one-stepping happily and smoothly from one coast to the other. The real tour was quite another story. For one thing, a cross-country tour turned out to be impossible, so they never got further than the Midwest . Each show was to be half dancing exhibition and—to drum up local excitement—half dance contest, judged by the Castles. Irene did not like this idea: mingling with the public at large had never been her favorite pastime, and she felt that “a stage is a conspicuous place . . . most people would think twice about climbing up on a stage.” She was wrong about peoples’ willingness to participate, but the competition did, predictably, result in some hard feelings. The evening with the Castles began with a snappy overture by James Reese Europe’s orchestra, followed by Vernon and Irene doing a one-step. Castle House dancers Jean Ott and Holton Herr did the hesitation waltz while Irene changed frocks; she and Vernon then danced a tango. Another costume change while Europe played “The Dance Furore,”then the Castles demonstrated the maxixe, half and half, and gavotte. Europe’s band played during the intermission, and at most stops,Vernon came out from backstage to take the drums over from Buddie Gilmore . According to the Boston Transcript, he “produced such a hellish noise  “THE CASTLES ARE COMING! HOORAY! HOORAY!” CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN 107 as no Tartar band ever could equal,drowning even the music of the orchestra , to the great delight of the audience.” After the intermission, Vernon gave a talk on the dos and don’ts of dancing, which he delivered with a breezy, offhand comic touch.“Mr. Castle is a comedian,”noted a Toronto paper admiringly.“He gave a very funny little talk on dances and dancing, and when the other members of the company from Castle House [Margaret Geraty, Sterling Pile, Dorothy Taylor, and Raymond Kirwan] were giving exhibitions, he made remarks which kept the audience on a broad grin.They showed how dances should and should not be danced, and the should nots closely resembled some fantastic dances which have been noticed during the past winter in nice, proper Toronto. Mr. Castle said,‘You notice, we are not wrestling with our partners this season. It is not necessary to sink down on one knee to be a good waltzer.’ It was very entertaining, but one hopes that youthful Toronto will take to heart Mr. Castle’s remarks that certain of the dances are not meant for the ballroom.” The big finale, the Castle Trophy Tournament, was a minefield for local pride and hurt feelings. Often, several talented couples would be in the running, so, Irene recalled, “we had to depend on Jim Europe’s ability to change the tempo of the piece he was playing without an apparent pause. Without changing the tune he would jump from one-step to waltz time and in this way we were able to weed out the couple or couples who did not at once perceive the change and swing easily into the new time.” The tour was to open in Boston and wind up back in New York twenty -four days and thirty-five cities later, culminating in a final exhibition at a “Carnival of Dancing” to celebrate the opening of a new dance palace, Danseland, atop Madison Square Garden. It was widely promoted and advertised with the slogan “The Castles Are Coming! Hooray! Hooray!” The company would bring along the thirty-five Castle Champion Cup− winning couples, for one last grand dance-off. It was a happy little band that took off from Grand Central Terminal, and Vernon was determined to keep it happy. The Whirlwind Tour train consisted of three cars: one for the Castles, one for Europe and his eighteen musicians, and one baggage car/diner. Banjo player William Elkins recalled the group as “one of the most perfectly disciplined organizations...

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