{"id":781,"date":"2020-04-27T07:13:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/?p=781"},"modified":"2020-04-27T09:37:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T13:37:31","slug":"twisting-the-night-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/?p=781","title":{"rendered":"Twisting the Night Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beginning in the summer of 2019, Special Collections worked with the Department of Theatre and Dance to plan an outreach program for this semester that included an exhibit, a lecture, a panel discussion, and a student performance. This is the blog post we planned in conjunction with the April events, now canceled.<\/p>\n

In 1962, the dance craze the twist was sweeping the nation. Chubby Checker\u2019s song \u201cThe Twist\u201d is credited with starting the trend. It enjoyed two waves of popularity, reaching number one on the Billboard weekly chart in September 1960 and January 1962, when it was re-released. On the annual chart, it peaked at number nine. Other twist classics that enjoyed popular and commercial success that year included Sam Cooke\u2019s \u201cTwistin\u2019 the Night Away\u201d at number 23, \u201cThe Peppermint Twist\u201d by Joey Dee and the Starlighters at number 25, and The Isley Brothers classic \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d at number 38.<\/p>\n

At UVM, students were twisting at the height of the craze. The Student Association\u2019s Pep Committee sponsored a dance on Saturday, February 17, 1962. Scheduled for 9:30 to midnight, after a men\u2019s basketball game against the University of Massachusetts, it\u2019s not surprising that a handful of star athletes attended. With live music provided by the Craters, a twist-a-thon took place, documented in a set of photographs taken by Andrew Bush. The dance was one of the last events held in the gymnasium (now Royall Tyler Theatre) before Patrick Gym opened in 1963. It must have taken a lot of quick work to transform the gym after the game with crepe paper streamers and dance wax on the floor.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

Benny Becton \u201963 (center), star basketball player and future UVM Athletic Hall of Fame<\/a> member, and his dance partner twist in the men\u2019s gym.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

Football star Frank Bolden \u201863 (left) at the 1962 dance. Bolden was inducted into the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame<\/a>, chaired UVM’s Board of Trustees<\/a> and received an honorary degree<\/a> from the university in 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n

In some ways, the loosened up movements and close contact that characterize the twist mirrored changes in society. Not everyone was a fan.<\/p>\n

Famed dancer Ginger Rogers objected to the twist, calling it \u201cungraceful,\u201d \u201cvulgar,\u201d and \u201cobscene\u201d in this AP story printed in the Burlington Free Press<\/em> on January 3, 1962.<\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a> There was a clear generational divide, with youngsters in favor of this newest fad and their parents full of concern<\/span> (Rutland Daily Herald<\/em>, January 25, 1962).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Still, a few schools in Vermont banned the dance for moral or religious reasons and in quite strong terms. The first was imposed by Marian High School (Brattleboro Reformer<\/em>, January 23, 1962). St. Anne\u2019s Academy of Swanton took action soon after (Brattleboro Reformer<\/em>, January 30, 1962).<\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Twisting brought out warnings for potential back and foot injuries among adults (Brattleboro Reformer<\/em>, January 24, 1962). But other sources promoted twisting for exercise (Bennington Banner<\/em>, January 13, 1962).<\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With these widely varying viewpoints, it\u2019s no wonder the subject of twisting popped up in advice columns (Burlington Free Press<\/em>, May 19, 1962).<\/p>\n

\"NewspaperThe twist was such a cultural phenomenon that it didn\u2019t take long for twisting to be referenced in the funny papers, like this \u201cArchie\u201d comic that also seems to predict iPods (Burlington Free Press<\/em>, August 27, 1962).<\/p>\n

\"Comic<\/a><\/p>\n

Contributed by Erin Doyle, <\/em>Manuscripts and University Archives Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beginning in the summer of 2019, Special Collections worked with the Department of Theatre and Dance to plan an outreach program for this semester that included an exhibit, a lecture, a panel discussion, and a student performance. This is the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":971,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54871,54873],"tags":[17848,630348],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-university-archives","category-vermontiana","tag-dance","tag-twist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/uvmsc-specialcollections\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}