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I have music books of Marches, books of Waltzes and books of Polkas but nowhere could I find a book of Foxtrots. I have lots of individual sheets of course and I chose this one below for no other reason, than I just liked it.
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A Novelty Fox-trot.
The Foxtrot originated in the summer of 1914 by Vaudeville actor Harry Fox. Born Arthur Carringford in Pomona, California, in 1882, he adopted the stage name of "Fox" after his grandfather.
In early 1914, Fox was appearing in various vaudeville shows in the New York area.
This was the time when the New York Theatre decided to try vaudeville acts between the shows, and they selected Harry Fox and his company of "American Beauties" to put on a dancing act.
At the same time the ‘Jardin de Danse’ was built on the Theatre roof and this was where the Fox-trot dance originated. As part of his act downstairs, Harry Fox was doing trotting steps to ragtime music and it wasn’t long before this was referred to as "Fox's Trot".
I can’t ever remember trying to dance a foxtrot to ragtime! Today, the dance is customarily accompanied by the same big band music to which swing is also danced.
From the late teens through the 1940s, the Foxtrot was certainly the most popular fast dance and the vast majority of records issued during these years were foxtrots. The waltz and tango, while popular, never overtook the Foxtrot.
Now what prompted this post, was that last week, I was in the kitchen with Hazel sitting on the windowsill looking out at the garden through the open back door.
All of a sudden she turned her head to the door - I did the same - just in time to see a fox stroll past. I went to get my camera and looked all around, but nothing, until about ten minutes later I saw him trotting off down the road. This was about eight o’clock in the morning.
We have green wheely-bins here for kitchen and garden waste. They are put out every two weeks and of course the foxes have a ’field day’. They have learnt that all they need to do, is knock the bin over onto its side to get at that old chicken carcass.
This morning I noticed four bins on their side with food scraps all over the pavement.
And this time I did manage to get a picture of Mr (or Mrs) Fox trotting home, not with a bit of roast chicken but a poor dead wood-pigeon.
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Late breakfast.
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No idea how to do the foxtrot, but love the picture of the fox :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't like foxes at all. Their cry sounds like a wounded animal and they wreak havok on our native animals here. They almost wiped out the Bilby and it took a big conservation effort where a huge amount of fencing was put in place to keep them out of an area repopulated with Bilbies to save the animals from extinction. They are one of the introduced species that have caused enormous damage to Australian wildlife.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Helen
He probably already ate the chicken, and was taking the wood-pidgeon home to his mate. As far as the fox-trot goes; we love to dance, and Howard and I do a "mean" fox trot.
ReplyDeleteObviously that fox likes fresh meat. I have never seen a fox strolling down the street like that.
ReplyDeleteI wish there were places where food could be deposited for wildlife so they didn't have to steal it. There are problems with bears all through our foothills and mountains, they break into houses, rifle through garbage cans, cause havoc. If there were feeding stations far away from people, it seems like that would help everyone. I don't have bears or foxes, only raccoons. Thank you, God.
ReplyDeleteEliza:
ReplyDeleteI’m sure you’re not alone, like many things, these dances went out of fashion years ago.
Helsie:
What’s a Bilby? New to me. I can see I shall have to have a quick Google!
I guess this sort of thing happens a lot when people interfere with ‘nature’.
The big pain here at the moment are grey squirrels, which were ‘introduced’ years ago by some ‘well-meaning’ soul no doubt.
Myrna:
He/she came passed again on Friday. He was carrying something - I couldn’t see what.
I understand there are different versions of the Fox-trot on different sides of the Atlantic, but I must admit, I’m no expert.
CherryPie:
They are quite common now, I believe. It’s due to our bins only being emptied once every fortnight. My problem is having the camera to hand at the time. They don’t hang about.
Hi Jan:
That sounds like a good idea as long as the food was eaten PDQ and not left around to go off. The ’Health’ brigade would soon be round.
I must admit, I’d rather have a fox in the back yard than a bear!
Cheers all. Thanks for your comments…..Bernard.