Big Apple dance craze (1937)
The Big Apple dance craze of 1937 popularized the “Big Apple” term, but didn’t originate it.
New York (NY) Morning Telegraph track writer John J. Fitz Gerald (1893-1963) had been calling the New York racetracks (and New York City, by extension) the “Big Apple” in his newspaper columns since 1921. A nightclub called “Big Apple” opened in Harlem in 1934, at the northwest corner of West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue (now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard). The nightclub, opposite the popular Smalls Paradise, spread the “Big Apple” term to Harlem in the 1930s.
The 1934 “Big Apple” night club in Harlem probably inspired the name of the 1936 “Big Apple Night Club” in Columbia, South Carolina—where the “Big Apple” dance originated. The August 1937 article (below) provides a different origin of the Columbia night club’s name, but it is very difficult to believe that Columbia wasn’t heavily influenced by the Harlem night club of the same name.
“The Big Apple” of Columbia, South Carolina, was featured on the city ornament in 2021.
The 1937 dance of the “Canned Apple” (Big Apple dance + Can-Can dance) began at La Grosse Pomme, a nightclub in Paris, France.
Wikipedia: Big Apple (dance)
The Big Apple is both a partner dance and a circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century.
History
Origin (1860–1936)
The exact origin of the Big Apple is unclear but one author suggests that the dance originated from the “ring shout”, a group dance associated with religious observances that was founded before 1860 by African Americans on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. The ring shout is described as a dance with “counterclockwise circling and high arm gestures” that resembled the Big Apple. It is still practiced today in small populations of the southern United States.
The dance that eventually became known as the Big Apple is speculated to have been created in the early 1930s by African-American youth dancing at the Big Apple Club, which was at the former House of Peace Synagogue on Park Street in Columbia, South Carolina. The synagogue was converted into a black juke joint called the “Big Apple Night Club”.
In 1936, three white students from the University of South Carolina – Billy Spivey, Donald Davis, and Harold “Goo-Goo” Wiles – heard the music coming from the juke joint as they were driving by.[3] Even though it was very unusual for whites to go into a black club, the three asked the club’s owner, Frank “Fat Sam” Boyd, if they could enter.
Big Apple (1000 Hampton St. Columbia, SC 29201)
HISTORIC VENUE
Birthplace of “The Big Apple Dance”
Built in 1915 as the House of Peace
Historical Newspapers of South Carolina
29 October 1936, The Gamecock (University of South Carolina), “Satellites” by Mary Belle Higgins, pg. 3, col. 1:
Before the Gamecocks meet the militarized Bull Dogs this next day on the field of honor (if we win), or sport (if we don’t) over in Orangeburg, the girls and boys will be Big Apple swinging and Magnoliaing all around tonight.
27 February 1937, Columbia (SC) Record, pg. 6, col. 8:
School after a week’s tussle with the villain flu: Lucy Lewis and Jane Preston are prize exhibitors of crazy dance steps. They got the campus doing the ‘Big Apple” and the “Magnolia” and now there’s a new one, as yet unchristened.
Newspapers.com
7 August 1937, The State (Columbia, SC), pg. 3, cols. 6-7:
THE BIG APPLE; HOW IT GOT THE NAME; WHERE ORIGINATED
Fred Sams, Owner of Night Club Converted From Synagog, Says Business Double Since Dance Became Popular—White Visitors Nightly, Three Hundred
BY JOHN A. MONTGOMERY
You go down to the middle ot the 1300 block of Park street near where it becomes an extension of Gates street. On one side is a frame building with steeple and glass-stained windows. It was once used as a synagog, but one look shows that it is no longer used for religious services.
Signs advertising beer are displayed prominently on the front, almost overshadowing the red letters informing the public this is the Big Apple Night club.
It is 10 o’clock at night. You approach the place and find a rotund Negro doorkeeper who weighs around 300 pounds. His name is Elliott Wright.
Place for White Folks.
“Have you a place reserved for white people?”
“Yas, suh right upstairs to the left.”
And as you go back for the rest of your party Elliott yells “Clear the way! White folks is coming.”
A lanky Negro, about the size of Stepin Fetchit, stands at the foot of the narrow winding stairway leading up to the gallery once used to care for overflow congregations.
The gallery is small and there are no seats, but you can lean against the four-foot railing and watch below. Immediately under you, in one amen corner, is the bar where beer, soft drinks, cigarets, candy and the like are sold. In the other amen corner is a billiard table. Walls and windows are plastered with beer, cigaret and candy advertisements.
You face the front and center and there you see what was once a pulpit. Now taking up most of its space on the rostrum is an automatic phonograph. Before the evening is over the music will stop and the lanky Negro boy with the hat—the one you met at the foot of the stairs—will come around and ask for more nickels. “We haven’t got any more in the piccolo,” he says.
Why Called “Piccolo.”
The phonograph is called a piccolo because one can PICK one’s selections before inserting a nickel, dime or quarter into the slot.
Pews are no longer evident. That space is now reserved for dancing. It is there that the popular dance now sweeping the country and known as the Big Apple originated. The story has been told that collegians attending a German at the University of South Carolina dropped in out of curiosity, learned a new dance in the Negro night club, made innovations and introduced it during the summer vacation at various beaches.
As you go into the Big Apple you find couples dancing. The function is neither a card dance nor a cut-in. Between music selections the boys and the girls mingle. As the music starts a boy picks a girl. Or maybe he just “gets the rhythm” and a girl, a few steps away, sings into time with him. Thus partners are selected. After the dance the partners go their separate ways.
Before the Apple.
There is no cheek-to-cheek dancing or slow weaving, but you see lots of strutting, which you hear is sugar-footing, and swinging and swirling that appear so graceful, rhythmic and fast you would never expect to see the like of it outside ballet.
Tandem spins, single partner spins, counter spins and figure 8 spins, all are executed with the deftness of an Astaire, a Rogers or a Bill Robinson. You find the movements too swift for the eye to follow.
The two lights of the rostrum go off. A big fellow steps out on the floor. He is wearing a brown felt hat cocked on one side of his head. His white shirt is open down to his waist, revealing a round-neck undershirt.
Dancers move back against the wall revealing a space on the floor where six or seven couples line up, boys facing girls. You learn that the master of ceremonies is Fred Sams. He runs the place.
The double line, boys facing girls, is ready. The “piccolo” starts playing a peppy fox trot. Fred calls a figure. Boys and girls step forward, touch hands and move back into a circle moving counter-clockwise. The Big Apple is under way.
Owner, Originator Comments.
At midnight you return to the night club that was built for a synagog. The dancers have left. Fred Sams and his employes are checking over the day’s receipts.
Fred has been in the night club business all his life, he tells you. Before he opened the Big Apple he was proprietor of the Streamline, a club on Assembly street.
Has the popularity of the Big Apple increased business?
“Yes, it’s doubled 100 per cent.”
Do you have any white customers?
“About 300 a night. We don’t charge them anything—just take up a collection at the door. Some don’t give anything. Most of them drop between 15 cents and a quarter into the hat. Every now and then one gives a dollar. Whether they pay or not usually depends on the type of white folks they are.”
Why the Name?
Why did you name your night club the Big Apple? (That’s something you and lots of others have been wondering. You’ve never read an account of the naming of the Big Apple anywhere.)
“That’s a long story,” says Fred, but he boils it down to this:
“There was a drinking party. A crowd of us was there and we had some apple brandy. We had a whole gallon, I guess. After a while someone spilled an apple out of the jar of brandy. And somebody yelled, “Grab the big apple!”
“‘That’s a good name for your place,’ one of those in the crowd said to me right there.
“So when one of the beer salesmen came around and wanted to paint a sign on the place, I told him to go ahead. And the name I gave him was Big Apple night club.”
Then how did the dance, the Big Apple, originate?
“We just sort of got it up among ourselves. It started with just a straight two-step. Then we added the swings and the sugarfoot. We didn’t have a name for it until the white folks picked it up and called it the Big Apple.”
Newspapers.com
13 August 1937, Standard-Sentinel (Hazleton, PA), pg. 16, cols. 1-2:
‘PRAISE ALLAH’: The Big Apple Dance Is Rising & Shining
Probably you never heard of the Big Apple night club in the noisy black belt of Columbia, S. C. But you are bound to hear about the Big Apple Dance. It’s done by from five to twenty couples arranged in a circle who “truck right and left”, “kick high” and perform other gyrations at the direction of the leader. It ends with a loud, “Praise Allah”. It originated in the Big Apple club. Students from the University of South Carolina found it there, took it to the campus and it became the rage. Now it’s getting so dance halls are having to hang out signs like the one at the right. {The sign reads: "SORRY -- NO 'BIG APPLE' WE HAVEN'T ROOM." -- ed.) Here's the story of the Big Apple:
1 -- Here's the birthplace of the Big Apple dance -- a one-time synagogue on Gates street, Columbia, S. C. The stained glass windows inside, like this exterior, are covered with beer signs.
2 -- And here, besides these dusky applers, is the man who might be called the father of the dance, although he probably never danced it. He's 350-pound Elliott Wright, manager of the Apple club.
3 -- This dancing lady is the girl, who with her partner is credited with having lifted the Big Apple into white society. She is Evalyn (Sis) Johnson, niece of Col. Monroe Johnson, assistance secretary of commerce, and a student at the University of South Carolina. The partner is Johnny Campbell, a fellow student.
4 -- And away it goes (the dance) to the other night clubs, dance halls and, here, the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach, S. C. This couple is "shining" with a variation known as the organ-grinder's swing.
YouTube
Big Apple at The Savoy Ballroom
Dan Conner
Published on Oct 29, 2006
Some Lindy Hopper’s doing the Big Apple at The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. probably during the late 1930’s early 1940’s
YouTube
Big Apple Dance
judysavoy
Published on Jul 31, 2010
History of the 1937 swing dance craze that swept the nation. Fascinating look at the African-American roots of this dance in the Ring Shout from the days of slavery. Savoy Ballroom footage shows Whitey himself with Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Columbia, South Carolina roots of the Big Apple.
YouTube
Big-Apple-dance-swing-jazz-roots.flv
easy swing
Published on May 11, 2011
Sur le site http://www.danceconnexion.com , découvrez la danse Big Apple, ainsi qu’une multitude de danses swing comme le lindy hop et le Charleston. Découvrez également, une foule d’information concernant le Swing et le Jazz en générale : Cours, festivals, musiciens, orchestres, soirées, ateliers,...
YouTube
Big Apple - Outdoor Big Apple dancers with narration (1937)
Sonny Watson
Published on Dec 20, 2012
The Big apple - 1937 Para Mount News~reel.
Shows and narrates the big apple being performed by the looks of some college students in a circle outdoors. Dancers unknown to me.
YouTube
The Big Apple - ‘From the Minuet to the Big Apple’ (1937)
Sonny Watson
Published on Dec 20, 2012
‘From the Minuet to the Big Apple’ (1937).
Synopsis: Musical Short Film that depicts how the Big Apple is basically done by short demo’s of each dance within the Big Apple Circle called out by the emcee. Then the dancers take to the floor and begin to dance the Big Apple as well as the other dances. Then the whole cast and crew and Audience take to the floor and cut a rug.
YouTube
Miley Cyrus: “Your dance Performance at the 2013 MTV’s VMA was Great!...
imagr81
Published on Aug 28, 2013
Years ago, the dance, “THE BIG APPLE” was considered very raunchy, and risqué. It was featured in the Movie, “VIVACIOUS LADY” of 1938, with Ginger Rogers (excerpted above)...
“Miley Cyrus, your grownup dance performance, with Robin Thicke, to the tune of “Blurred Lines,” at the 2013 MTV’s Video Music Awards was pleasantly exciting, and entertainingly enjoyable.”
To all you naysayers out there, Myley Cyrus’ dance number will be considered “TAME” in future years, same as we, in the 21st century, view “The Big Apple,” dance featured in the Movie, “VIVACIOUS LADY!”
YouTube
The Big Apple (1937)
British Pathé
Published on Apr 13, 2014
Titles read: “Pathetone now has pleasure in presenting - The BIG APPLE! Demonstrated by the famous American Dancing Stars EARL & JOSEPHINE LEACH”.
London - Pathe Studio.
YouTube
The Big Apple in Start Cheering (1938—ed.)
Savoy Hop
Published on Apr 25, 2014
This clip shows the Big Apple along with caller being done. Also shows the Jimmy Durante Cutaway as well as all the dances being performed by the Arthur Murray dancers who also do the 123 Kick version of the Arthur Murray Shag. Also has Hal Leroy doing a Specialty number (Tap).
Maxie Dorf and Mary McCasslin are said to be in this film.
YouTube
The Big Apple Dancers - Spirit of Youth (1938)
vintage video clips
Published on Jul 10, 2014
The Big Apple Dancers performing Spirit of Youth (1938)
YouTube
The Big Apple & Collegiate Shag 1937 (Rare)
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Jun 2, 2015
The entire short: THE BIG APPLE WITH THE ARTUR MURRAY “SHAG’ DANCERS 1937
The picture quality is poor but dancing is great. They frame this all with The Big Apple but there’s some great Collegiate Shag as well. As far as I know I was the first to post this clip on You Tube about two years ago. Since then I’m 99% sure someone else copied it and put it up as his own. Ah the wonderful world of You Tube.
YouTube
Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers 1939 (The Big Apple)
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Jun 14, 2015
From the movie: KEEP PUNCHING 1939
The Big Apple contest featuring Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.
YouTube
The Big Apple 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Jul 20, 2015
From the movie: I AM THE LAW 1938
Actors Edward G. Robinson and Wendy Barrie and others dance the Big Apple and more. Good stuff.
YouTube
The Big Apple 1959/60 (Al Minns & Leon James)
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Jul 22, 2015
From documentary: DANCETIME RESEARCH #1
Al and Leon show us a number of different moves associated with the Big Apple. Things really heat up at about the 1:15 mark.
YouTube
The Big Apple Early 1950’s
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Sep 29, 2015
From the documentary: THE SPIRIT MOVES
The dancers include Al Minns, Leon James, Pepsi Bethel, Esther Washington and I believe, Willa Mae Ricker.
YouTube
The Big Apple In Mexico 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Apr 8, 2016
From the movie: LOS MILLIONES DE CHAFLAN 1938
I really like this one. We have classic Big Apple and a very interesting tap version as well. They even thrown in a little Charleston at one point. Good stuff.
YouTube
The Big Apple 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Sep 17, 2016
From the short: TWO SHADOWS 1938
I posted part of this before however William Brown who posted the entire short has kindly given me permission to post this entire scene. It features “Jean and Her Big Apple Dancers” with background music provided by New Orleans Jazz great Sharkey Bonano and his band. Here’s a link to Mr. Brown’s channel. Check it out he’s got some good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNxN...
YouTube
Swing Dance 1938 (The Big Apple)
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Dec 2, 2016
From the movie: JUDGE HARDY’S CHILDREN 1938
After a cute lead in things get hot at about the :50 mark with Mickey Rooney and French actress Jacqueline Laurent in her only American film leading off and then everybody joins in. Some fun dancing here.
YouTube
Learning the Big Apple 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Dec 29, 2016
From the movie: YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU 1938
A group of kids try to teach the Big Apple to actors Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur. Then at about the 2:05 mark Jimmy and Jean pass on what they’ve learned to a group of friends.
YouTube
The Big Apple 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Jul 18, 2017
From the movie: PENROD’S DOUBLE TROUBLE 1938
A group of kids do a high energy Big Apple. Great stuff.
YouTube
The Big Apple 1938
Vintage Swing Dance
Published on Nov 10, 2017
From the movie: DELINQUENT PARENTS 1938
The print is a bit jumpy in spots but the Big Apple is fun to watch. It’s interesting how often this song is used as background music in these exploitation film musical numbers.