Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution

Introduction

It’s a chilly Wednesday evening in Manhattan, just above freezing, and you’re out on the town for some fun. Maybe you’re a tired businessman, an out-of-town tourist, a pretty little ribbon clerk, a bored housewife on the loose. Here you are in Times Square, bundled up in your fur or overcoat, and you want to have some drinks, a bite of food. You might go to the theater and see Anna Held at the Casino, Billie Burke at the Lyceum, Bert Williams at the Palace. But if you are really in the swing of things in 93, you’ll want to go out dancing. The newly opened Biltmore Hotel, near Grand Central Terminal, does not allow dancing, but most other hotels do.The Waldorf, Plaza, Astor , and the McAlpine have all converted restaurants or parlors into upscale dance halls and hired orchestras to play the latest in ragtime. The Vanderbilt offers an added attraction: a cotton-wool “snowball”fight at the stroke of midnight. One of the big events that December was famed restaurateur George Rector’s opening of his new eponymous establishment at Broadway and Forty-eighth Street; Nora Bayes, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Lillian Lorraine attended the event. “The new Rector’s,” says Variety, is a sure bet to put a dent in the takings of competing “New York restaurants-dancingcabarets .” It features, in addition to a number of singers and comics, a generous helping of ballroom dancers: Golden and Golden (“Whirlwind Dancers”), the Dixon Trio (“Novelty Dances”), and future Scandals producer George White, “who will dance afternoon and evening.” Not to be outdone, the Garden, at Fiftieth and Broadway, advertises itself as “New York’s Leading Cabaret” and “The Real Bohemian Rendezvous of New York.”Churchill’s (“Better Than the Theatre”) can be found at Forty-ninth and Broadway, or by calling BRyan 575. A newcomer has to be careful to avoid the rougher joints. Recently, Murray’s on Forty-second Street was raided and two dancers were arrested NEW YORK, DECEMBER 3, 93 INTRODUCTION  2 VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE’S RAGTIME REVOLUTION on gambling charges. Variety claimed that female dancers were “wont to ‘steer’strangers into their rooms to gamble.”Unwary visitors are warned of other dangers to one’s pocketbook: “some of the places that harbor the midnight revellers are making it a condition of service at a table that champagne must be ordered.” As an added draw, some of these cabarets feature star dancers, such as Andre and Sherri, who advertise themselves, rather boldly, as the “Foremost Exponents of the Tango in America.” Sadly, Maurice and Florence Walton are out of town this month, touring in San Francisco, and Mae Murray and Carlos Sebastian have been lured away from the New York Roof to a well-paid engagement in Chicago. Some cabarets feel that these star performers are overhyped and overpaid, that “people go to those places to dance and are not particularly interested in the professionals, who, however, have a certain drawing power that is not disputed.” Even the help at these cabarets are bitten by the dancing bug this New Year’s Eve in 93: according to Variety, “the waiters in these places . . . after the hour of closing arrives, go to a place in the Times Square section where they trot for the remainder of the night.” To make your night on the town a complete success, you must stop at Castle House, the newly opened East Side dancing school and club that has swiftly become the hot spot for high society and tourists alike. Located at Forty-sixth Street and Madison Avenue, well out of the rush of Times Square, “The Most Talked of House in New York” is a magnet for everyone who wants to go out dancing in a safe,fashionable,and socially acceptable atmosphere. If you’re lucky, you may see the Castles themselves: Vernon and his wife,Irene,who dance and mingle nightly at Castle House. If you are amazingly lucky,one of the Castles might actually deign to dance with you. Despite the many elegant couples swirling around the two ballrooms of Castle House, everyone knows when the Castles themselves appear. Vernon, impossibly tall and slim, in a new-style tailless dinner jacket, Irene in a pared-down creation by Lucile, her shockingly short hair held by a jeweled band. Lost in the music of James Reese Europe and his orchestra (another shock: black musicians in a...