Tracey Magrann
October 10, 2005
Multicultural Dance in the US
DANCE INTERVIEW: Magrann, Thomas. Personal Interview. 10 Oct. 2005.
What is your name? Thomas Joseph James Magrann II
How old are you? I am 82 years old.
Where were you born? Philadelphia, PA.
Do you dance? Yes, I still dance once in a while at parties or banquets.
How old were you when you started dancing the most?
About 15 years old when I started dancing on a weekly basis.
Where did you live then? In Philadelphia.
Where did you go to dance?
One was St. Timothy’s dance on Saturday nights throughout the year. St. Dominic’s was on Saturday nights, but not all year. Occasionally in the Spring or Fall there were block parties and we would dance on the street. The traffic was blocked off for the dance. It was organized by the adults.
How did you get there?
We went by trolley car to St. Timothy’s, walked to St. Dom and bicycled to block parties.
Were there entry fees or other expenses to get there?
Yes. All had a fee. About a quarter or less. The block party was free, but they sold sodas, sandwiches, games, stuffed animals. The trolley car was 15 cents round trip. Sometimes I got a ride from one of the older boys. When I turned 16, I got my own car, a Model A Ford, and I’d drive all the boys in my neck of the woods there. It was great when my older sister’s rich boyfriend would come over with his car to see her; we figured since he was distracted by her, we’d go siphon off a gallon of gas from his car.
Where did you get the money for the costs involved?
The gas for the car we got by all chipping in. Six of us would buy 2 gallons of gas at 11 cents a gallon; about 4 cents each for gas would get us 50 miles worth of fun. We’d all get in the car and say, how much do you have? I got a dime. I got a nickel. That’s not enough… how much do you have? I got my money by working on a farm for $1 a day, and I had a paper route of 30 customers; I got ¼ cent per customer. A few years later, I had worked my way up to 150 customers, and got a whole penny per paper I delivered!
How would you decide whether to go to St. Dominic’s vs. St Timothy’s?
St. Dominic’s was walking distance, but not held all year. Learned how to dance there, then when we got better, we moved up to St. Timothy’s.
What time of day was the dance? Start at 7:30, over at 11 pm.
What was the atmosphere like inside?
A big dance hall, with about 15 chairs around the perimeter. No decorations.
Was there special lighting?
All the lights were on; we could see well.
Was there eating or smoking in there?
St. Timothy’s you could get soda and some snacks. No one made an issue of not smoking, but I don’t remember anyone ever smoking there.
Did they have a live band?
The music came from records. They had a disc jockey handling it. They were popular records, mixed up for fast and slow dancing.
Did groups of people dance together, or couples?
Generally, each couple, a boy and girl, would do the dancing. The boy would ask the girl. He would look for a girl standing by herself. We stood up the whole night where we could see the dancing. Sometimes two girls would dance together, but never two boys.
Was it customary to bring dates?
There would be a few, but the majority went by themselves. We’d say, “I’ll see you at St. Tim’s on Saturday”. We wouldn’t pick up the girl, but we’d meet there, and take a careful of boys and girls home that we knew.
Did you have a regular dance partner?
Not just one. We knew a lot of girls, and they would all dance with us boys. Sometimes we’d see a new girl standing by herself, and we’d ask if we could have this dance. Most of the time they said yes.
Were there spectators? No. You went there to dance.
Were there chaperones?
No, but of course you had a Priest that would be in and out, and the DJ was an adult.
What age groups were there? From 14 to maybe 20 was the oldest.
What kinds of dances did you do?
The main dance was the Jitterbug. That would work to all of the fast music. We’d be moving around, swinging our partner, ups and downs. We also had a slow Straight Dance. They’d mix them up. Even some slow ones you could Jitterbug to parts. We could do a fast Waltz. The Roaring Twenties had some dances we did. I knew the Charleston, the Varsity Drag, which was a slow-drag-your-partner-around, the Lindy Hop was a little faster, so was the Black Bottom, which had a certain melody to it, the Bunny Hop, you just jump like a bunny back and forth. A lot of those dances were seen in the movies at the local theater at that time.
Were there particular steps to the dances?
The Jitterbug had a pattern of steps, and you didn’t follow them around 1-2-3 religiously, you just swing your partner out one direction one time, then another way, and then swing her around you once in a while; whatever move you felt like at the moment. The boys lead the steps. The Straight Dancing was a slow Waltz (gets up and demonstrates with the air in the kitchen), just gliding around and around, sliding with the feet.
Which did you enjoy the most?
In the early days, I preferred the Straight Dance because I knew how to do it because my sister taught me. The slower beat to the music was easier. But the faster music was more popular.
So who taught you to dance the Jitterbug?
I think it was just a matter of observing someone at the dances, and seeing a combination of moves you liked, and then trying to get your partner to follow you. Later, I did more Jitterbug than straight dancing.
Why?
Well, the Jitterbug just had that rhythm, and you just had to get your feet moving. It was more fun, once you got the hang of it. I think the girls liked it more, too.
Do the dance movements symbolize anything?
No, I don’t think so. It was just that fast beat in the music got you moving, exercising. That’s what we were looking for… exercising.
You weren’t looking for girl contact?
Well, we were looking for girl contact, too. I guess it was called Jitterbug because by the end of the night you were sweating like a jitterbug or something.
Are your dances derived from another dance?
Well, I don’t know for sure, but the Lindy Hop had a fast beat to it like the Jitterbug.
Those dances with a particular names (the Charleston, Foxtrot, the Shimmy) were done by better dancers at the more professional dance halls or we’d see them being done by professional dancers in the movies. Some of those movements were blended into what we called the Jitterbug. The Bunny Hop and the Lindy Hop were more common with us
in the smaller towns.
Were there special clothes worn to these events?
The boys wore tight pants, with a flare in the rest of the pant leg, and a wide-brimmed hat (of course, we’d take that off while we were dancing), and when I got older, we had zoot suits. It was hard to get a jacket with the same pattern as the pants, but we tried. We tried to have a gold colored chain showing, even if we didn’t really have the pocket watch. The tie had a big bow instead of a little one; we’d put more wraps around to get that effect. Our shoes were the black and white shoes (called Saddle Back shoes).
Dancing once a week and going to the movies once a week were things we all did on a regular basis. Boys and girls paid their own tickets for the dances, but the boy would pay for a girl’s movie ticket.
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My expectations of the enjoyment of doing this project were exceeded. I knew it would be fun to interview my Dad, and I knew he would really get into reminiscing about the good old days, but he was so excited about it, he wanted to read what I printed and add it to our family’s website, which I did. It was also a lot of fun to research the Roaring Twenties and stop and think how this topic could relate to the things I’ve learned in class so far. It was also a lot of fun coming up with the photos of the costumes and dances. The most fun was incorporating the slang to set the ambiance.
It was a lot more beneficial to research something that related to our relatives rather than be assigned a topic. For one thing, it brings us closer to our older relatives, and they seem to really enjoy the attention and remembering the athletic days of their youth. I saw 60 years melt off my 82 year old father as he got up and demonstrated some of these dance moves for me in the kitchen! This project created a memory for us both.