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

Pearl Beer square dance commercial

Creator: Pearl Beer

This mid-1950s advertisement for Pearl Beer features San Antonio television personality Thomas Reynolds. The square dancers are dancing in the style popularized in the 1930s by caller Bob Sumrall. Known as the "Abilene lift," the dance style has dancers doing a 1-2-3 shuffle step with a slight lift during the brief pause after the third step.

Footage from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Collection: Traditional western
Subjects: General - Dance and Culture, Transitional/Western 1950s
Tags: , , ,

Item Relations

This Item is related to Item: Square Dance in advertisements
This Item is related to Item: Schlitz beer ad, 1950
This Item is related to Item: Hires Throws a Square Dance
This Item is related to Item: Viceroy cigarettes - television commercial
This Item is related to Item: Lucky Strike cigarettes - commercial
Item: "Abilene lift" - Rickey Holden is related to This Item
Item: Abilene Lift - Rickey Holden is related to This Item
Item: Pam McKeever - Cheyenne Mountain Dancers demo, 1990 is related to This Item

Citation

Pearl Beer, “Pearl Beer square dance commercial,” Square Dance History Project, accessed February 23, 2025, https://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/1259.
Additional Information