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JerseyArticlesJazzPeabody: A Jazz Dance WhodunitBy Chad FascaEverybody loves a good mystery. Andwhile clever crimes and heinousmurders grab the headlines and topbestseller lists, ballroom dancing is notwithout its own form of whodunit.Foremost among the ballroom case files, inthis writer’s humble opinion, is the mysteryof the Peabody.In a nutshell, the dance existed, still exists,but unlike the Castlewalk — a probableprecursor whose creators, Vernon and IreneCastle, are well-known, well-referencedfigures in dance history — Mr., Mrs., Dr.,Capt., Messr. Peabody might as well notexist, if not for a legend.The LegendAccording to this legend, Peabody was aNew York police captain named William,Frank or John. A popular, colorful characterin Jazz Age dance circles, he supposedlycreated this eponymous dance in the lateteens (as early as 1915) or early twenties. Asthe story goes, Capt. Peabody was a portlyman who accommodated his bulbous waistby shifting his partner to his side. It’s alovely legend. There’s only one problemwith it. In several years of researching thePeabody, admittedly in my spare time, I’vecome across no artifacts describing this manbeyond this legend.Searches of dance manuals from the teensand twenties — those available at theLibrary of Congress’s vast AmericanMemory Collections and those that I’veacquired — have produced exactly onemanual that mentions the Peabody: a smallbook published in 1925 by Moore’sAcrobatic & Dancing School (Smyrna, NewYork). The book, which is a museum pieceof graphic design, devotes a page to thedance, not the man. It’s my earliestreference. I have a few ads from danceschools in the later 1920s and 1930s sellinglessons in the Peabody, as well as some1930s dance manuals that teach the dance.None speak of the Captain.The ObsessionMy wife Midori and I first becameinterested in the Peabody in the late 1990s,after seeing a videotape of our dancementors Sandra Cameron and Paul Greckiperforming the dance. It innocently beganas casual curiosity to learn a few steps in anovel though almost forgotten dance butquickly grew into a dangerous obsession(OK, maybe not dangerous, but I’ve got awhodunit theme to maintain here). We’vesince studied with a number of wonderfulOldest Reference: Buck & Wing & Social Dances &Ground Acrobatics & Tap Charleston & All theWorld Loves a Dancer by James Moore, 1926(or Ahead of His Time: Apparently Mooreanticipated Google and Amazon by 80 yearswith his extensive cover-all-the-bases title.)Peabody dancers from the 1930s and 1940s,John & Rose Lucchese, Peter DiFalco,Frankie Manning, Vinnie Zambardi, andothers. None of them knew Capt. Peabody,but they knew and loved the dance andcould confirm its popularity.A Story EmergesThrough their stories and our own digging,I have begun to piece together some of thePeabody’s past, tracking down disparateresources and anecdotes. Here are somehighlights from what I learned. Harlem’sworld famous Savoy Ballroom had a popularPeabody race around its block-long dancefloor. It’s possible the Savoy got its nickname“The Track” from this very race. The Savoycontest was one of many held at famed hallslike Roseland and Club Fordham throughoutthe region. In New Jersey, the Casa Del ReyNightclub, said to have been in Newark,supposedly hosted a big Peabody contest onApril 21, 1934, but I haven’t been able toconfirm this (any help is appreciated).In 1931, the Peabody made, as far as I cantell, its feature film debut in a James Cagneypicture called Taxi! In the film, Cagney andLoretta Young compete against George Raftand his partner in a Peabody contest. Aplacard outside the contest labels it a“Foxtrot contest,” but the dancing is purePeabody as they dance to a swift renditionof “Darktown Strutter’s Ball.”Perhaps the best testaments to the Peabody’spopularity come from two pictures made inthe 1970s. In Queen of the Stardust Ballroom(1975), the story culminates in a Peabodycontest. Two years later, well-knownfilmmakers Merchant and Ivory directedRoseland*(1977), a feature film broken upinto three vignettes, one of which is titled“The Peabody.” Though there’s not much inthe way of Peabody dancing in this vignette,it does point to the popularity of the dance.Why else would these pictures incorporate adance into their subject, if it didn’t strike achord with the featured generation?What the GoodCaptain WantedIn his authoritative Encyclopedia of SocialDance (1975), Albert Butler describes thePeabody as a “dancer’s dance.” Havingdanced regularly with live, hot ’20s and ’30sjazz (care of Michael Arenella’s Dreamland* The connection between Roseland and the Peabody runs deep.The famed dance hall lent its name to a Peabody step…the Roseland Hop.continued on page 4820April 2007 JerseyJazz