Pop Sweet
This item recounts a chance encounter between Margot Mayo, the leader of the American Square Dance Group, and Pop Sweet, a traditional fiddler/caller from western Massachusetts. Her excitement at meeting him, unheralded, is palpable.
In the Related Item, Sweet is mentioned as one of just a handful of traditional callers.
Below is biographical information about him from a published obituary.
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Berkshire Eagle
May 3, 1965
George K. (Pop) Sweet BECKET [MA] -- George R. (Pop) Sweet, 81, well-known fiddler and square dance caller, died Saturday at Hillcrest Hospital following a long illness. He was born in Peru, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Sweet, and moved at an early age to Lee.
He played for his first dance at the age of 14 and, during his career, played engagements in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and New York, where he lived for many years in Austerlitz. He led a group known as Pop Sweet and his Huckleberry Pickers. He once gave a performance for President Roosevelt, and advised dancer Ted Shawn on the proper way to do the Virginia Reel. He is said to have taught the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, how to square dance. In 1942 he won the National Folk Festival calling contest at Philadelphia, in competition with 130 entrants over a three- day period. [SDHP editor's note: The 1942 National Folk Festival was in Washington, DC; the National moved to Philadelphia in 1943 and 1944.]
In recent years, he expressed regret about what he described as a loss of the gracefullness of the old-time square dances, as performed in the style in the so-called western square dancing, currently popular. "Yesterday's dancing had plenty of speed and action, together with rhythm and grace," he wrote in 1961, "but today's frenzied hopping is more like hog-rassling. . ."
Subjects: Person
Tags: Margot Mayo, Pop Sweet
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In the Related Item, Sweet is mentioned as one of just a handful of traditional callers.
Below is biographical information about him from a published obituary.
===
Berkshire Eagle
May 3, 1965
George K. (Pop) Sweet BECKET [MA] -- George R. (Pop) Sweet, 81, well-known fiddler and square dance caller, died Saturday at Hillcrest Hospital following a long illness. He was born in Peru, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Sweet, and moved at an early age to Lee.
He played for his first dance at the age of 14 and, during his career, played engagements in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and New York, where he lived for many years in Austerlitz. He led a group known as Pop Sweet and his Huckleberry Pickers. He once gave a performance for President Roosevelt, and advised dancer Ted Shawn on the proper way to do the Virginia Reel. He is said to have taught the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, how to square dance. In 1942 he won the National Folk Festival calling contest at Philadelphia, in competition with 130 entrants over a three- day period. [SDHP editor's note: The 1942 National Folk Festival was in Washington, DC; the National moved to Philadelphia in 1943 and 1944.]
In recent years, he expressed regret about what he described as a loss of the gracefullness of the old-time square dances, as performed in the style in the so-called western square dancing, currently popular. "Yesterday's dancing had plenty of speed and action, together with rhythm and grace," he wrote in 1961, "but today's frenzied hopping is more like hog-rassling. . ."