Square Dance History Project
The rich story of North American square dance finally has a home in the digital age.

Browse Items (36 total)

  • Tags: Les Gotcher
Document

1953 Texas Inaugural Ball square dance program

The custom of having a square dance as part of the Inaugural Ball for the Texas Governor started in 1947; this is the program for the 1953 Inaugural, scheduled for 6:30 PM until midnight. The second… View item
Website

Square Dance - live recordings

In cooperation with the Square Dance Foundation of New England, SDHP has created a page on the Internet Archive with live recordings of some 300 evenings of modern square dancing.Although most files… View item
Still Image

Kirkwood Lodge ad - 1954

This advertisement is for Kirkwood Lodge (Osage Beach, Missouri), the venue sponsoring the second annual Les Gotcher Square Dance Institute. The 1950s saw a dramatic increase in the number of square… View item
Sound

Sally Goodin variations

Sally Goodin is a square dance based on picturesque names for the other dancers in your set. (See Carl Herzog diagram). The active dance turns other dancers in a particular sequence, occasionally… View item
Document

Catalogs

This collection of seven catalogs from the 1950s and early 1960s illustrates the range of materials offered to participants in the early square dance boom years, from recordings to clothing to badges… View item
Document

Square Dance camp brochures

Lloyd Shaw's summer school in Colorado Springs started in 1941, then resumed in the years after World War II. This item includes a small collection of brochures illustrating various dance camps… View item
Still Image

Les Gotcher - record albums

Record album covers; click to listen to I'll Swing Yours from this recording or Forward Eight and Chain Across. View item
Still Image

Les Gotcher recordings

A selection of record labels and a record jacket, samples of Les Gotcher's prolific output View item
Still Image

Les Gotcher - photo

Gotcher was a recipient of the Milestone award from CALLERLAB, with this biographical information. View item
Document

Chaney scrapbook & photo album

Duane and Shirley Chaney (Council Bluffs, Iowa) were enthusiastic square dancers in the early 1950s. They attended Square Dance Institutes with Les Gotcher at Kirkwood Lodge (Osage Beach, Missouri) in… View item
Sound

Choo Choo Square Dance - Les Gotcher

Les Gotcher is often remember today as the Hashmaster, known for his flamboyant outfits, his energetic calls, and his often challenging choreographic sequences. However, like other performers, he was… View item
Sound

Les Gotcher - caller talk, 1962

Talk given by Les Gotcher to Tri-State Callers Association (New England) in March of 1962. Les emphasizes the importance of callers understanding the action of each call and describes early forms of… View item