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“Let’s Dance” Vintage Dance Halls in Ontario-A New Blog Post Series

This Christmas I purchased an amazing book called “Lets’ Dance-A Celebration of Ontario’s Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions by Peter Young” which gives a brief history of each of the amazing venues that you could have danced at between the 1920s to 1960’s in Ontario, Canada. Some places still exist and some are long gone 🙁

"Lets Dance-by Peter Young"

As a Lindy Hopper and a lover of Big Band Music and 1950’s Rock and Roll I know so much about the history of Harlem dance halls (like the Savoy, Cotton Club), that it was nice to be able to find a book written about the dance scene in my own backyard and so I was excited to learn all that I could from this little gem over my Christmas Holidays.

The book….is AWESOME! and as I was reading it, I started to get an urge to:

A) Want to visit these places, existing or non existing;

B) Share some of the history with my readers and with the Ontario Lindy Hop dance scene as well.

So I thought I would do a blog series in the New Year where I would visit locations and then do a little write-up about the venue I just visited (with help from Peters book).

Here is a taste of where I plan to visit first:

Palace Pier-Toronto, Ontario (March 18th, 2022 Update…HERE IS THE POST)

Palace Pier dance hall

SERIOUSLY???? WOW!!!!!! Sigh…Yikes!!! Man oh Man I would have given anything to have been able to have danced a swing out or two on this famous dance floor but it sadly would never be as it burnt down in the 1960’s. However there is a plaque I can visit so this is where I will start the first of the series. In the mean time if you can’t wait for my blog posts, you can purchase Peters book on Amazon right now.

Other ‘Lets Dance Posts’: Kenwick on the Lake, CNE Tent, Port Dover Summer Gardens

Liz

Bomb Girls Season 2 Starts Tonight!

Here in Canada we have a show called “Bomb Girls”. Set in 1940s Toronto, Bomb Girls explores the lives of five different women who find themselves thrust into new worlds building bombs on the assembly line in a munitions factory (Source: Global). It went from being a 6 episode show to quickly becoming a crowd favourite with a second season now starting Jan 2nd…tonight! Yippee!!

bomb girls TV Show

Even the UK has fallen in Love with the show. The below picture is the popular magazine “Vintage Life” and “Bomb Girls” is on the cover!

Vintage Life magzine-bomb girls

I love this show (and my friends and even my husband) for so many glorious reasons, here a few:

1. It’s a well written Canadian show about Canadian women (something you don’t see very often).

2. The show is set during WWII, which means the clothing and hair and makeup are right up my alley.

3. It is filmed in my hometown of Toronto, so it has also been fun to figure out what venues they have filmed at (Several of the sets I have been too) and then see if I was right when doing my weekly bomb girl chats with friends.

But really, the real reason I keep coming back each week is for reason # 2…the 1940s fashions! The costume department is amazing and I know first hand that some of the pieces are real vintage or they use the vintage as clothing references as I was shopping in my fav vintage store that had a rack laid out with some outfits for season 2 (can’t wait to see what made it in). Here are some examples of the clothes on the show:

1940s Fashion for Women as seen on the TV Bomb Girls. Also 1940s Hairstyles.
1940s Fashion as seen on the TV Bomb Girls. 1940s Dresses.

1940s Factory Uniforms as worn by the characters on the TV Show Bomb Girls.

BombGirls TV Show-WW2 Factory Outfits worn by the cast on the show. 1940s Fashion.

ALSO, as a Lindy hopper I was also excited when I saw that the girls were venturing out for a night of Swing dancing (filmed at The Great Hall, where I have danced at many times myself). Yay Toronto Lindy Hop on my TV!

Bomb Girls TV Show image of Swing Dancing at the Great Hall in Toronto Canada.
Bomb Girls TV Show image of Swing Dancing at the Great Hall in Toronto Canada.

Not quite…after watching the scene I realized that it was not so much Lindy and more “this is what we think swing dancing looks like”. How disappointing! I really wished the producers of the show had reached out to the Lindy hop scene here in Toronto to get some REAL dancers in the background for the dance scenes.  Maybe if there is season 3, I can found out who to contact and we can make this happen (or maybe dance lessons happened for season 2, I will keep you posted).

That aside I still love love love the show and I can’t wait to see what Season 2 will offer up to the viewers.

If you would like to learn about some Real Canadian bomb Girls then check out the website “Ajax Bomb Girls Legacy” or check out this real bomb girls story- Helen Rapp.

Further Reading from the Vintage Inn Blog: World War 2 Women’s Contributions & Homefront Posts

Further Bomb Girls Blog Posts Reading:

Liz