"Start" - Elizabeth Lee Henderson Wood

The Big Apple, a dance craze from the 1930s, didn’t truly start with my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth “Betty” Lee (Henderson) Wood (1921-2005), whom I called “Nana.”  However, she was instrumental in spreading its popularity nationwide and then worldwide, which led to New York City being nicknamed “The Big Apple” (really!).

The exact origin of the Big Apple dance is not known, though it has similarities to a pre-1860, African-American group dance - the “ring shout” - that was associated religious observances on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia.  Building on the ring shout, the dance that eventually became known as the Big Apple was created in the early 1930s by African-American youth dancing at the a Columbia, South Carolina, juke joint called the Big Apple Club, which is now a historic landmark.  In 1936, several white students from the University of South Carolina started going to this juke joint to watch the black dancers and became fascinated with a particular dance they were doing.

The Big Apple Night Club in Columbia, South Carolina. It was
owned and operated by Mr. H. W. Des Portes, Jr.

Columbia's Big Apple Night Club in Life magazine's 30 Aug. 1937 issue.

The ownership information given is incorrect and was corrected in the next

issue of the magazine.

Swing dancers doing what became known as the Big Apple.

Big Apple marker in Columbia, South Carolina.
Courtesy of Scott Long.

During the summer of 1937, those USC students took the Big Apple dance with them on their summer vacations to the Myrtle Beach.  My paternal grandmother, Betty Henderson, was on her annual family vacation there and first saw the dance at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion.  Six months after that vacation, she won a dance contest performing the Big Apple and earned the nickname "Big Apple Betty."

Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and Pavilion.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library.

News of the dance craze spread to New York; and a well-known New York talent agent traveled to the Carolinas to audition dancers for a show at the Roxy Theatre. At the time, the Roxy was the second largest theater in the world, so it was an amazing opportunity to be chosen to perform there.  Eight couples - one of which included my grandmother - were chosen to dance the Big Apple during a three-week show, starting on 03 September 1937, at Roxy.  They performed six shows a day to sold-out audiences and significantly contributed to starting the spread of the dance's popularity nationwide. After the engagement at the Roxy, the group became known as "Billy Spivey's Big Apple Dancers" and toured the United States for six months.

Marquee of the Roxy Theatre, Broadway, New York City, 1930.
Courtesy of ChairmanZoe's Marvelous Melange.

Betty Wood and her dance partner, Kenneth Clark, dancing
the Big Apple at the Roxy Theatre.

Betty Wood and Kenneth Clark dancing
the Big Apple at the Roxy Theatre.

Following that U.S. tour, the dance’s popularity continued to grow.  By the end of 1937, the Big Apple had become a national dance craze. The 20 December 1937 edition of Life magazine featured the dance in a four-page photo spread.  Arthur Murray, then an entrepreneur dance instructor, incorporated the Big Apple into his swing dance class syllabus, and it ended up being the driving force behind creating the largest chain of dance studios in the world.  Moreover, the initial cut the Judy Garland movie called Everybody Sing (1938) featured the Big Apple, as did the 1939 movie Keep Punching.

In the 1980s and 1990s, my grandmother and Lance Benishek toured the United States and Europe teaching the Big Apple. The tour led to a resurgence of the dance's popularity among swing dancers. In 1988, a celebration of the Big Apple dance's 50th anniversary was held in Columbia, South Carolina, where it all began; and Betty was there for it. Columbia held a 100th anniversary celebration on 23 July 2017.

Lance Benishek and Betty Wood.

Lance and Nana.

It seemed to bring great joy to Nana to have the opportunity to continuing sharing her lifelong love of dance in her later years.  She found an entire new community and set of friends who shared her passion, respected her knowledge and talent, and embraced her as a person.  I feel sure she never imagined that something she started at the age of 16 would still be so prominent in her life when she passed away at the age of 84 on 02 July 2005.

Nana (second from right) and some of her "Big Apple Girls" friends.

For those of you who may enjoy seeing the dance performed and learning a bit more about its history, here's "Dancing the Big Apple 1937: African Americans Ignite a National Craze."

Sources

1. Stevens, Erin, and Tamara Stevens, editors. “The Second Era of Swing, and Beyond.” Swing Dancing, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 177.
2. “Big Apple Dance.” Historic Columbia, Historiccolumbia.org.
3. “House of Peace Synagogue, Richland County (Hampton & Park Sts., Columbia).” SCDAH, South Carolina Department of Archives and History - National Register Properties in South Carolina.
4. Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina (1990), Jookin': the rise of social dance formations in African-American culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, ISBN 0-87722-956-2.
5. Miot, J. D. “Pictures to the Editor - Big Apple.” Google Books, Life Magazine, 30 Aug. 1937. p. 100.Hutto, J. A. “Letters to the Editors - Big Apple & Police.” Google Books, Life Magazine, 20 Sept. 1937. p. 9.
6. DeLune, Clair. South Carolina Blues. Arcadia Publishing, 2015. p. 38.
7. Manning, Frankie; Millman, Cynthia R. (2007), Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, ISBN 1-59213-563-3.
8. Wilkinson, Jeff (2003-08-24), "'The music would just take you'", The State, archived from the original on 2004-04-30.
9. Orchardmovies. “Dancing the Big Apple 1937.” YouTube, YouTube Movies, 2 Sept. 2014.
10. “Dancing the Big Apple 1937.” Dancetime Publications, Dancetime Publications.
11. Big Apple History, archived from the original on 1 November 2007.
12. Jitterbuzz.com, Interview With Betty Wood.
13. Arthur Murray.com, History.
14. Wilkinson, Jeff (2003-08-25), “'You just got in a group and followed along',” The State.
15. Wilkinson, Jeff (2003-08-26), "'The South Carolina dance was social. It didn't have the flash.'," The State.
16. Wilkinson, Jeff (2003-08-27), "'It helps identify and define our culture'," The State.
17. Coveou, M. “My Swing Archives.” The Big Apple, 15 Dec. 2011.
18. Cyberavenger. “The Big Apple.” Eccentric Shadows, 1 Oct. 2007.
19. Nelson, Thomas L. 1000 Novelty & Fad Dances: a Guide to How These Are Danced. AuthorHouse, 2009. p. 26.
20. Pener, Degen. The Swing Book. Little, Brown, 2009.
21. Bratkovich, Colin. Just Remember This. XLibris LLC, 2014. p. 84.
22. Salsi, Lynn. “Columbia: History of a Southern Capital.” Google Books, Arcadia Publishing, 1 Aug. 2003. p. 110.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2018 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

This post is part of +Amy Johnson Crow's 2018 52 Ancestors Challenge.