The Grange Hall Radio Dance
A dozen families in White Bluffs successfully tune in old-time music for an evening of square dances and waltzes, marking a technological milestone for the remote valley.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Old-time dance music broadcasted was a treat enjoyed by about a dozen families at Grange hall last Friday night. Heretofore, attempts to get dance music by radio with sufficient clearness and volume to dance by, has not been very successful in White Bluffs. But last Friday night it was different. Two receiving sets, Fred Gilhuly’s and Ford Johnson’s, with three loud speakers, were used and the music came clearly and distinctly and with as much volume as from an orchestra. The dance program included square dances, waltzes, polkas, schottisches, and even the old French minuet. Among the square dances were 'The Irish Washer Woman,' 'Turkey in the Straw,' 'Pop Goes the Weasel,' 'The Girl You Left Behind You' and a number of other popular airs of bygone days. The program lasted from about 10 p. m. until midnight, at which time a light lunch was served and everybody left for home with memories of other days clinging to them.
“But last Friday night it was different. Two receiving sets... were used and the music came clearly and distinctly and with as much volume as from an orchestra.”
In 1926, the crackle of a radio broadcast was a social miracle capable of transforming a quiet country hall into a dance floor. Today, we carry instant access to the world’s music in our pockets, but we have largely lost the specific, shared local ritual of gathering in one room to listen to a synchronized, communal broadcast.
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