Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9780813124599
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2007
Imprint: University Press of Kentucky
Illustrations: 64 photos
Description:
Vernon and Irene Castle popularized ragtime dancing in the years just before World War I and made dancing a respectable pastime in America. The whisper-thin, elegant Castles were trendsetters in many ways: they traveled with a black orchestra, had an openly lesbian manager, and were animal-rights advocates decades before it became a public issue. Irene was also a fashion innovator, bobbing her hair ten years before the flapper look of the 1920s became popular.