Square dance - Ary, KY - 1963 (big set)
The caller is Corbett Grigsby, with music provided by fiddler Marion Sumner and guitarists Martin Young and Roscoe Holcomb. Grigsby introduces the figure as "around behind, lady in the lead."
This footage was recorded by filmmaker George Pickow at the Home Place Community Center in Ary, Kentucky, a small town in south central Kentucky. (Ary is about half an hour north of Viper, KY, the birthplace of Jean Ritchie, who was George Pickow's wife.) These sequences were was used in the "Lyrics and Legends" series that aired on National Educational Television (later, PBS) in 1963; the series was hosted by folklorist Tristram Coffin. This episode includes Edna Ritchie (Jean's sister) setting the scene at the dance; other segments of the edited program include Coffin and Jean Ritchie in studio discussing square dance.
The original film is now in the collection of materials donated by Jean Ritchie and George Pickow; it is housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. More information about other items in the collection can be found here and in the lengthy article in the Folklife Center News, which can be downloaded as a PDF here. (The discussion of the Ritchie-Pickow collection starts on page 20 of that issue.)
Permission to use this historically significant footage on the SDHP website was granted by Peter Pickow and Jon Pickow, sons of George and Jean; we thank them for their willingness to make these moving images available.
Subjects: Southern / Appalachian / Big sets
Tags: Ary, Corbett Grigsby, George Pickow, Kentucky, Marion Sumner, Martin Young, Roscoe Holcomb
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Square Dance - Ary, KY - 1963 (4 cpl square) |
| Item: Kentucky Set Running - 1917 firsthand account | is related to | This Item |
| Item: Big set - Silver Spurs | is related to | This Item |
| Item: "Southern Appalachian"- overview of structure | is related to | This Item |
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Description
The caller is Corbett Grigsby, with music provided by fiddler Marion Sumner and guitarists Martin Young and Roscoe Holcomb. Grigsby introduces the figure as "around behind, lady in the lead."
This footage was recorded by filmmaker George Pickow at the Home Place Community Center in Ary, Kentucky, a small town in south central Kentucky. (Ary is about half an hour north of Viper, KY, the birthplace of Jean Ritchie, who was George Pickow's wife.) These sequences were was used in the "Lyrics and Legends" series that aired on National Educational Television (later, PBS) in 1963; the series was hosted by folklorist Tristram Coffin. This episode includes Edna Ritchie (Jean's sister) setting the scene at the dance; other segments of the edited program include Coffin and Jean Ritchie in studio discussing square dance.
The original film is now in the collection of materials donated by Jean Ritchie and George Pickow; it is housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. More information about other items in the collection can be found here and in the lengthy article in the Folklife Center News, which can be downloaded as a PDF here. (The discussion of the Ritchie-Pickow collection starts on page 20 of that issue.)
Permission to use this historically significant footage on the SDHP website was granted by Peter Pickow and Jon Pickow, sons of George and Jean; we thank them for their willingness to make these moving images available.