How to be a Good Dancer

How to be a Good Dancer is 60+ pages of pulse-pounding, rug-cuttin' awesome. Well, the last half of the book is anyway, as the first half focuses more on old timey waltzes and tangos and other moves not quite as sexy and exciting as later 50's and 60's go-go era styles like The Kangaroo, The Frug, The Hully-Gully, and the exquisitely named Waddle-Watusi-Wobble! I think we'll also skip The Merengue, and The Cha-Cha (sorry Barry!) and kick this post off in Jitterbug territory. And because Mr. Karswell is always here to help, I've included some very important good advice do's and don'ts, as well as invaluable dance etiquette at the end of the post. So read up, don't be the one shufflin' on down the road to ridicule and unpopularity! NOTE TO BOYS DOING THE MONKEY: (see images below) It's important to remember that you're doing The Monkey and NOT scratching at the window like a vampire kid from Salem's Lot-- that's a whole other awesome dance!

Art of Benier

All of the chapter header art by Benier, as featured in John O'Grady's "Aussie Etiket, or Doing Things the Aussie Way" published in Australia in 1971 by Ure Smith, Sydney. A super fun and very funny art style that really livens up the bulk of this humorously helpful collection of "down under" info.

Oops! Merry Eating...

Is anyone else a fan of finding a folder of scanned images that you actually meant to post weeks ago during a more appropriately themed time frame? Yes, I've done it again-- but we're not exactly so far beyond xmas to just completely ignore some fantastic holiday key art imagery featuring sexy cute angels and whatnot. So these are also from a grand old 70's McCall's recipe booklet (see December for more.) Hope everyone is enjoying their New Year so far, hope to get more on track with posts here in the coming months-- thank you for your patience! :)

Illustrations by Kay Lovelace Smith