Let’s Dance Like Lombard!

As many of you know, in her early pre-fame years Carole Lombard was a frequent contestant in the popular Charleston contests held at the Cocanut Grove. Some of her competitors included Joan Crawford, Bessie Love, and Polly Ann Young. For the girls in America who didn’t know how to do the Charleston Photoplay soon solved their problem with its October 1925 issue. In an article entitled Everybody’s Doing It Now – Bessie Loves Shows You How, readers got a step-by-step guide on how to dance the Charleston. And you can too! Behold:

In case you are unable to read the steps in my scans I will retype them below. But be sure to refer to the pictures because they do help.

STEPS Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
No.1. Place arms on hips, bend forward and step forward with the knees stiff. Then give a double dip on each knee before taking the next step and then on to number two.

No.2. Swinging arms in opposite directions, body bent forward, point right foot forward. Then heel-toe to side and back. Next heel-toe to front, changing to left foot and repeat.

No.3. Bend body forward, knees slightly bent, and place hands on knees while moving knees inward and outward, alternate crossing arms with hands on knees in scissors fashion.

STEPS Nos. 4, 5 and 6. With arms swung to opposite side, skip to right, pointing the toe. Swing slightly back, raising the hands upward. Point right foot forward and point heel, bending the body far back with the hands extended, palms outward, above the head.

STEP No.7. Start by repeating Step No.2 and duplicate, with the exception of kicking forward from the knee only, instead of pointing forward with the toe.

STEPS Nos. 8 and 9. This is a twist from front to back by placing the right foot point forward over the left and swinging the body in complete half circle. Repeat with the left foot over the right and swing back to front position again for finish of the Charleston. A good finish to the dance is to point the right foot forward, extending the right arm to the side and raising the left hand over the head with the palm outward.

While we are on the subject here is a photo of Lombard showing off some dance moves herself:

The Photo has five panels of Carole Lombard and George Raft, depicting dance steps in 1935. Cartoon drawings show the steps below. The original 8×10 photo above is up for auction on Ebay until March 18th. Click here to bid now >>

So now you know the Charleston . . .