During the early twentieth century, America witnessed a huge revolution in public venues for music and dancing. The Roaring 20's was an era that spared no expense when it came to the new popular form of social entertainment, ballroom dancing. Vernon and Irene Castle had published their Dance Manual in 1914, paving the way for the evolution of modern ballroom dancing as we know it today. The following years saw a wildfire of public ballroom dancing that swept across the nation. The always popular, centuries-old Waltz was given a new modern make-over, while Rudolph Valentino popularized the new American Tango in The Four Horsemen and the Apocalypse (1921). The Harlem Renaissance and its Jazz music fueled an energetic dance craze that began in the mid-1920's, the Lindy-hop, which would branch into many forms of what would later come to be called Swing dancing. The Big Band Era that resulted from the "whitening" of these original Jazz bands helped to inspire the making of Hollywood stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who further defined the formal look and the mannerisms and glamour of the ballroom.
During the 1920's, 1930's, and early 1940's, dancing spread into every corner of the nation and huge, lavishly decorated ballrooms were built to accomodate America's new fascination for ballroom dancing. Grand stages were included to accommodate the big bands that toured the country, and most of these ballrooms were no stranger to the greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and others. By the end of World War II, the business was so lucrative that a "Cabaret" tax was levied against any and all dancing establishments to help pay for the war, making it difficult to pay large music ensembles. Most ballrooms either closed their doors or covered the dance floors with tables and chairs, and patrons sat while listening to the many forms of Jazz music that flourished from the reorganization of smaller music groups during the late 1940's and early 1950's. The introduction of television, the loss of musicians such as Glenn Miller, and post-war financial recovery also contributed to the sudden decline in ballroom dancing. Although Latin music and dance would continue to flourish and develop in New York City at ballrooms such as the Palladium and on television (for example Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy), it was not until 1956, when the Rock and Roll Revolution stirred a new Swing dance craze, that public dancing once again became so widespread.
However, despite the end of the stately ballrooms and big bands, some ballrooms survived and have been restored to their early grandeur and now function as elegant places to host dances, weddings, and other private parties or public festivals. Although this article comes short of picturing them all in the slideshow below, it will hopefully inspire a deeper desire to pursue more on your own. If you travel to different American cities, try to visit these historic landmarks that have preserved the early twentieth-century fascination of the dramatic social change that American ballroom dancing brought to many who had grown weary of the rigidity of the previous Victorian era.
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