Bob Sumrall - Olcutt Sanders correspondence, 1939
These letters between Bob Sumrall and J. Olcutt Sanders provide a glimpse into Texas square dances in the late 1930s. Sanders was a serious student of square dance history, part of a group of enthusiasts in the Austin area and later one of the editors of Foot 'n' Fiddle magazine. Born in Fort Worth in 1917, he graduated graduated from the University of Texas in Austin in 1939, right at the time when these letters were exchanged.
Sanders has apparently contacted Sumrall, who was leading the Abilene Set, winner of numerous square dance competitions at the time. (Sumrall, born in 1916, was only a year older than Sanders, so the letters document two young men with early enthusiasm for the dances.) Sumrall describes the dances in his repertoire (see p. 3). At some point, Sanders sends Sumrall some additional figures (Texas Dances) and Sanders thanks him for the material.
The letters came to caller Bob Dalsemer in the late 1980s from Sanders's daughter, Elizabeth, who was moving and cleaning house. Dalsemer comments, "I think these letters illustrate the “folk process” as well as anything. Here's Bob Sumrall, who many would consider a bastion of traditional square dance - the real deal- trading licks with a young folklorist and getting new material. The figures Lady Walk Around, Shoot the Owl, and Promenade the Outside Ring that Sanders sent him all appear (with no attribution) in Sumrall’s book Do-Si-Do (the expanded 1949 edition - I don’t have the 1942 edition). I love it that he asks Sanders for further explanation of "right a left through”. In Do-Si-Do, it is included (as “right and left through”) in the explanation of square dance terms at the beginning."
Subjects: Traditional Western (pre-1940)
Tags: Bob Sumrall, Olcutt Sanders, Texas
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Bill Litchman - Rocky Mountain Square Dancing |
| This Item | is related to | Item: 1940 Texas Square Dance Contest |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Abilene Lift - Rickey Holden |
| This Item | is related to | Item: "The Texas Cattle Country and Cowboy Square Dance" – Olcutt Sanders |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Texan Whirl - Rickey Holden |
| This Item | is related to | Item: 1940 Texas Square Dance Contest |
| Item: Bob Sumrall | is related to | This Item |
| Item: Bob Sumrall - newspaper clippings | is related to | This Item |
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These letters between Bob Sumrall and J. Olcutt Sanders provide a glimpse into Texas square dances in the late 1930s. Sanders was a serious student of square dance history, part of a group of enthusiasts in the Austin area and later one of the editors of Foot 'n' Fiddle magazine. Born in Fort Worth in 1917, he graduated graduated from the University of Texas in Austin in 1939, right at the time when these letters were exchanged.
Sanders has apparently contacted Sumrall, who was leading the Abilene Set, winner of numerous square dance competitions at the time. (Sumrall, born in 1916, was only a year older than Sanders, so the letters document two young men with early enthusiasm for the dances.) Sumrall describes the dances in his repertoire (see p. 3). At some point, Sanders sends Sumrall some additional figures (Texas Dances) and Sanders thanks him for the material.
The letters came to caller Bob Dalsemer in the late 1980s from Sanders's daughter, Elizabeth, who was moving and cleaning house. Dalsemer comments, "I think these letters illustrate the “folk process” as well as anything. Here's Bob Sumrall, who many would consider a bastion of traditional square dance - the real deal- trading licks with a young folklorist and getting new material. The figures Lady Walk Around, Shoot the Owl, and Promenade the Outside Ring that Sanders sent him all appear (with no attribution) in Sumrall’s book Do-Si-Do (the expanded 1949 edition - I don’t have the 1942 edition). I love it that he asks Sanders for further explanation of "right a left through”. In Do-Si-Do, it is included (as “right and left through”) in the explanation of square dance terms at the beginning."