Musicraft 405-408, "Arthur Murray Teaches the Foxtrot" -

[VanEpsFan1914]

New project.
Digging in a thrift-shop the other day, a friend & I found a boxed set of "Arthur Murray Teaches the Foxtrot" on Musicraft. According to the discography these were pressed around 1946. https://www.78discography.com/Musicraft200.htm

The instructional booklet's missing but the records were in usable condition. They opened with a snatch of the Jimmy Dorsey song "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in A Hurry" and then to the explanation of the steps, unfortunately with someone talking over the band solos at the end. It's a bit difficult to make out what band is playing.

My roommate is also fond of antique phonographs and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the music to play on them. We are both considering learning to dance using these records to see how people did that back in the day.

I do not know if my apartment is big enough to dance in so we might end up having to take a small phonograph to the woods and dance there. I have a 202 portable and an ancient Victor III; probably best to take the 202.

If anyone on here likes ballroom dancing, good for you; if anyone on here's tried teaching yourself that with records from the era, I hope it worked well for you. This is probably going to end up an awkward and sweaty mess closer to slapstick comedy than gracefully learning the fox-trot but it'll be an experience to give it a try the way folks might've learned to years ago.