Vernon and Irene Castle
The couple Vernon and Irene Castle (Vernon Castle, née William Vernon Blyth: * May 2, 1887 in Norwich , Norfolk , England ; † February 15, 1918 in Fort Benbrook / Texas . Irene Castle, née Irene Foote: * 17. April 1893 in New Rochelle ; † January 25, 1969 in Eureka Springs / Arkansas ) was a well-known American dance couple who contributed significantly to the spread of new ballroom dances such as foxtrot, tango or rumba at the beginning of the 20th century and celebrated great international success .
The early years
Vernon Castle was born the son of an English innkeeper and graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in civil engineering. On the side he appeared in private clubs and at family celebrations as a magician. After completing his studies, he finally turned to show business and took the stage name Castle. In 1906 he moved to New York with his sister Coralie Blyth and her husband Lawrence Grossmith, both established actors. In the early 1900s, he appeared on a number of shows produced by Broadway comedian Lew Fields . His specialty were slapsticks combined with crude wit . He often took on the role of the “second banana” (contrasting figure) in Fields' appearances or acted as a dancer.
Irene Foote was the second daughter of Dr. Hubert Townsend Foote and Annie Elroy (Thomas) Foote, whose father was press officer for the Barnum and Bailey circus . She received dance lessons from an early age and starred in amateur theatrical productions as a teenager. As a young woman, she began to orientate herself in her appearance and body language on the Broadway actress Bessie McCoy .
In 1910, Irene and Vernon met at the Rowing Club in New Rochelle, New York, a popular meeting place for people from the entertainment industry. A short time later, through Vernon's mediation, Irene had her first professional appearance as a dancer. The couple married on May 28, 1911.
Career as a dancing couple
The castles achieved their first greater popularity as a dance couple in Paris , where in 1912 they were forced to accept an engagement as a show dancer in the “Café de Paris” cabaret. There they performed the new American dances such as ragtime and had enormous success with it. When they returned to the USA, they were not only able to repeat this success, but significantly increase it. A large number of appearances in variety shows and in films followed.
In 1914 the couple opened their own dance school in New York, the so-called "Castle House". There was also the nightclub called “Castles by the Sea” in Long Beach , New York, and the “Sans Souci” restaurant. In their school they taught the latest dance moves, also gave private dance lessons, and performed at fashion shows. The dance couple had a lasting influence on the style of the following dances (the Castle Walk is its own choreography): Bunny hug , Castle Walk , Foxtrot , Grizzly Bear, Waltz , Maxixe , Tango and Turkey Trot .
The Castles appeared in a newsreel in 1914 called Society and Show Dance , and in the same year they wrote a bestseller entitled "Modern Dancing". The couple also appeared in the hit film The Whirl of Life (1915). Vernon and Irene Castle celebrated their greatest success in Irving Berlin's Broadway show Watch Your Step . The couple used this piece of equipment to refine the foxtrot and increase the popularity of the dance. After debuting in New York in 1914, Watch Your Step toured the States until 1916.
Vernon Castle had enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps as a native of Britain during the war . After deployments at the front, he was posted to the USA and trained aviators there. In 1918 he was killed in an air accident near Fort Worth .
Irene Castle was active in the film business until 1924. Her memoir Castles in the Air served as a template for the 1939 feature film The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the lead roles.
Irene Castle as a fashion model
Due to her increasing popularity, Irene Castle became a fashion model for many women in the middle of the second decade with short hairstyles and shorter skirts, ten years before the actual fashion trend. The hairband-like wearing of a string of pearls, which is today associated with the appearance of the flappers of the twenties, goes back to Irene Castle.
Irene Castle's own wardrobe came almost exclusively from the fashion designer "Lucile" . It earned her the reputation of safe taste combined with a stylish overall appearance. In the handbook Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank published in 1917, Irene Castle presented women's fashion from 1916 and 1917.
Ball gown
summer-dress
Street dress
Winter dress
literature
- Djuna Barnes: portraits . Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-8031-3524-9 , p. 15.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eve Golden: Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution . University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2007.
Web links
- Vernon and Irene Castle Biography (English)
- Irene and Vernon Castle: Dancers (English)