A Tribute To Irene & Vernon Castle
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers in the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. They were inventors of a number of dances, including the Castle Walk that bears their name, and they also helped to popularize dances such as the Foxtrot, the Hesitation Waltz, the Maxixe and the early ballroom form of the Tango.
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My great-grandparents (Al & Carrie LaCoste) entertained with them. My great uncle Vernon was named for him. They are all buried near each other in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
The invention of film truly is crazy, the fact we can still watch these moments today kind of blows my mind.
Delightful tribute. You can tell a lot of love and care went into it.
Brilliantly caught on camera as many dancers of this era did not want to be filmed because the speed of dance did not quite go with the camera .. Vernon as we know sadly died in 1918 as the result of a plane accident ..
Absolutely love this dance and music! I could watch it all day. Great tribute to Irene and Vernon Castle. Thanks for posting.
Parts of their dance actually looks quite modern and current, the way Vernon wraps himself around Irene and both sway on the dance floor. Fabulous dancers.
this is truely a timely masterpiece. the world does not appreciate this form of arts anymore or be able to produce it anymore...
Sadly so
AMAZING! 15 minutes ago I watched their story on a classic TV show, To Tell the Truth. I was fascinated by their story and wroth their names down so I might look them up later. Then here this is !Thanks!
Muchas gracias
Dancing has come such a long way. When women became more athletic in dance you got a Yulia Zagoruychenko.
wow the similarities between the actual vernons and freds plus gingers dance were amazing. :)
I didn't realise there was so much footage of them! Haven't even seen that much in docos :)
my brother and i with our friends visited Vernons memorial where his plane crashed in benbrook texas yesterday, was pretty cool. Its in walking distance from my house. took pics of it too on myspace.
Ginger had to imitate Irene, and she did a good, well observed job of it. That said, I think it's no big surprise that the original has the edge. Ginger lacks the (carefully planned) spontaneity that Irene (the original) naturally had. I'm not going to rate Vernon vs Fred as Vernon because Vernon's dancing is hard to see - Irene stands out much better. Irene's dresses are much better than the 1930s versions off them.
In the movie I think the studio wanted the dancing to look a bit more current. I read that Irene Castle wasn’t happy about the way some of the dances were performed. Personally, I love both, from what I can glean on RUclips the Castles dancing, and Ginger and Fred in the movie.
Tjey were everything in those days had a bunch of dancing schools
Foxtrot! Beautiful.
The Castles were an unprecedented and colossal show business phenomenon and possibly the two most famous people in the world in their short career together in the WW1 era before Vernon went down tragically in that famous airplane crash. My folks, Veloz and Yolanda, met Irene Castle McGlaughlin (sp?) when she famously came to the Empire Room of the Palmer House in 1932 to watch them dance, and they quickly became intimately friendly. Irene spending most of her free time then rescuing animals in her Orphans of the Storm foundation. The absolute BEST of the Fred and Ginger movies IMHO, their last with RKO, I think, was the story of Vernon and Irene Castle, which I daresay no one can watch without ending up in tears. A very moving film, but somewhat rocky at times during the filming when Irene Castle herself, as chief adviser, kind of got in the way of the film's progress, insisting on this or that minuscule detail, but whatever she did, it sure WORKED. Ginger Rogers, who attended the same church as my mom, told her once that it nearly drove her crazy that Irene Castle hovered over her from beginning to end, but hey, you cannot argue with the exquisite results. Ginger was a true trooper and put up heroically with no end of grief, at times. Simply a wonderful talent and not just as a dancer but as a genuinely GREAT actress with loads of range in the parts she was offered to play, winning an oscar at least once for best actress, a fact I am not sure very many appreciate or even remember.
DUu temps de la génération de nos grands-parents voir de nos parents on savait bien danser et apprécier la bonne danse et la bonne musique. Ca fait du bien de découvrir ces danses du début du siècle, maintenant où c'est un peut n'importe quoi et que farfois l'on en a plus envie étant dans un monde qui va trop vite, voir qu'à cette époque
on appreciait l'instant présent sans se poser des questions. La belle vie quoi.
OMG! Is that really Irene and Vernon Castle? I've only seen Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film. Fell in love with the Castle walk, ragtime music and those hobble dresses from the film
Me too! I love the Maxixe dance. Also Irene’s style, she was so poised and fashionable.
The Castle walk is done here with authentic period music, "Too Much Mustard."
The authentic music was as great as the dancing.
the book 'vernon and irene castle's ragtime revolution' is available to read online thanks to google books and offers an interesting insight into their life together
when i was in new york a couple of weeks ago i made the time to go pay my respects at the woodlawn cemetary in the bronx where vernon and irene are interrred and then when i was in los angeles the following week i went to chatsworth and paid my respects to fred and ginger :-)
1st tune is a maxixe by Ernesto Nazaré - "Dengoso"
it's wonderful to be able to compare the original with fred and ginger's interpretation, however i prefer fred and ginger, they looked like they were having more fun! then again the biopic was made slightly more recently
I love the way the Castles danced. The technology at that early time though it’s a bit fuzzy and film moves too fast.
Eve Golden, author of "Platinum Girl: The Life and Legend of Jean Harlow"; "Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara"; "Anna Held and the Birth of Zeigfeld's Broadway"; "The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall" and other such fantastic books, has also written an amazing book about the Castle's..."Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution."
They can be gotten in many libraries around the world or purchased at Amazon and Borders!
Thanks for posting Vernon and Irene!
Wouldn't be a castle walk without pivots!!
Vernon and Irene Castle were amazing dancers! Really beautiful, and I have to honestly say I don't think Fred and Ginger quite make it to their standard. .
+lulubelle8484 Oh come ON! You are really dissing Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers? You've got to be kidding.
They are all wonderful in my opinion.
Fred Astaire actually said the same thing; Vernon was his idol@@swarzeoz2550
Are the films moving too fast ? The occasional people seen walking in the background all seem to be going at breakneck speed.
That's how old videos look because they had a lot less frames per second
@MrKeithGreene i can't see how you can get much more period than too much mustard...
@MrKeithGreene its the film's soundtrack isn't it..
Castle Walk = Shipoopee
What wonderful dancers! And what a sad story. No WONDER it wasn't as successful as the other Astaire- Rogers films. A real downer! :(
I don't see tango, I believe you meant Maxixe.
I believe there is a tango as well as one of the Castles' signature dances, the famous Maxixe. I seem to recall Fred vividly in a gaucho hat for the tango scene of the Castle story. I think it might have been the only time Fred ever wore such a hat for a dance, but I am really just guessing, possibly conflating two separate movies wherein Fred and Ginger danced. Or possibly even when Fred was paired with Rita Hayworth, whom began her showbiz career as the female half of a famous ballroom/tango team, her FATHER the male half, which made them pretty unique in the dancing world. I believe her name at the time was Rita Cansino or something very close to that.
There IS most assuredly a tango with Fred in Bolero hat, broad sash and flaring, almost bell bottom spanish pants, the only time in his career, I do believe, when he donned such an outfit.