Henry Ford and the revival of country dancing - includes related article on other country dancing pioneers

Dance Magazine, August, 1997 by Kate O'Neill

He is remembered as the wizard of the production line, the nemesis of organized labor, the history buff who spent millions of dollars creating Greenfield Village, Michigan (his tribute to America's past). Henry Ford changed the face of twentieth-century America with his development of the affordable automobile. But, even as his cars rolled off the line, transforming American society and making him one of the wealthiest men in the country, Ford yearned for the horse-and-buggy days. He was a passionate collector of antiques -- furniture, clocks, violins -- and old-time dances.

His antiques filled the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village, and his collection of old-time dances filled a small book, with a lengthy title: Good Morning -- After a Sleep of Twenty-five Years, Old-fashioned Dancing is Being Revived by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford. Published in 1926, it remains an important reference for leaders of country dancing today.

Good Morning was written to further Ford's mission of reviving the dances he remembered fondly from his youth. They included quadrilles (squares), contra dances (using many of the same figures as square dance, but danced by couples in two facing lines -- for example, the Virginia reel), and round dances like the varsovienne, the waltz, and the polka. Ford considered all of them highly preferable to the "new-fangled dances" that were sweeping the country in the twenties. He deplored jazz and dismissed the Charleston as a form of dancing "that enables the largest possible number of paying couples to dance together in the smallest possible space."

Ford, who grew up in a Michigan farming community in the years following the Civil War, met his wife, Clara, at a grange hall dance. Their courtship was carried on to the sound of fiddle tunes and the caller's instructions, "do-si-do" or "promenade home." But within a few years of their marriage in 1888, the Fords had put aside their interest in dancing as Henry became engrossed in building his automobile empire. By the early twenties, he was one of the richest and most powerful men in the country, but he had also suffered public humiliation as a result of his libel suit against the Chicago Tribune. Ford won but received negligible damages, and his testimony during this protracted trial revealed a woeful ignorance of American history.

He responded by amassing a huge collection of antiques and purchasing and refurbishing historic properties, such as the Wayside Inn in Massachusetts. After Clara reminded him that "we have danced very little since we were married," Henry renewed his acquaintance with old-time dancing. The couple's fumbling attempts at recalling their favorite dances sent Henry, never willing to be found less than perfect in any desired accomplishment, in search of an authoritative dancing master.

The man he was looking for was Benjamin B. Lovett. He and his wife, Charlotte, both natives of New Hampshire, had been teaching traditional New England social dancing in Worcester, Massachusetts, for some twenty years. Lovett believed that dancing lessons should produce a "growth in social training as well as in habitual graceful carriage ... We clung to the old American country dances because they were typically American and provided much greater opportunity for this social training than the modern dances." Ford met them on a trip to Massachusetts and was delighted to find another man with strong convictions about the role that old-fashioned dances could play in instilling manners in young people. The Lovetts were invited to Dearborn to help organize a series of dances for the Fords. They expected to visit for a month or two. They stayed twenty years.

As soon as he had secured the Lovetts' services, Ford sought out players familiar with the violin and the sousaphone and such rare instruments as the cybalum and dulcimer to serve as a house orchestra. They were given rehearsal space in the Dearborn engineering laboratory, where they were to be ready to play at a moment's notice when their patron felt like going over a sequence of dance steps. An area of the large laboratory building was curtained off to serve as a ballroom, and Ford called in company executives and their wives to share his enthusiasm. By the end of the first evening of dancing, confusion reigned. Ford's response was typical: "We'll have lessons every night until we get it right," he told the assembled group.

For the next two weeks, Lovett's instruction was compulsory and, after the Ford executives began to "get it right," so was attendance at Ford's Friday evening dances. If anyone occasionally demurred, saying for instance that a dozen guests were coming to dinner that evening, Ford would instantly respond, "Bring them out here. What time will you finish dinner? Nine o'clock? I'll send cars." And indeed, at 9:00 P.m. the couple and their guests would look out to see a line of Lincolns or station wagons parked in front of the house.

A massing a collection of dances came next. Agents were dispatched around the country to research the old steps and figures and collect the tunes that traditionally accompanied them. Assisted by Lovett, Ford published the results of his research in Good Morning. The book began with a series of introductory chapters that dealt with style and deportment (how to use a handkerchief "to protect ladies' dresses from the perspiring palms of their partners"). These were followed by step-by-step descriptions of specific dances, including several quadrilles and contra dances, the waltz and other round dances, and even a minuet. There was also a brief discussion on "Exercising the Knee Joints."