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Leap Year Balls and Leap
Year Dances |
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Leap Year Ball
January 1, 1896 |
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There was
a time when you could attend a Leap Year Ball
throughout the whole Leap Year. In some cases, the event
gave women the opportunity to ask a man, of her choice,
for his hand in marriage.
Leap Year Dances were common
as well. Here, a woman
may do the asking for a dance. The women attending either
a Leap Year Ball or a Leap Year Dance may ask her man
to marry her. It is "OK" for a woman to ask in a Leap Year.
If a man declines a marriage
proposal, in a Leap Year, he
must provide her with a silk dress and a kiss on the cheek.
Often referred to as Sadie
Hawkins Day, February 29 is
Leap Day. Sadie Hawkins Day is November 15th. The only
similarities they share are that the girl does the asking.
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Awareness Groups
and organizations,
needing to raise money, could throw
a Leap Year Ball or Leap Year Dance,
to benefit their cause.
The whole year is a Leap Year.
From
January 1, to December 31. The event
could be in any season. What a fun
way to raise money.
If your organization is
planning to throw
a Leap Year Ball, please let us know.
We'd like to keep track of how many
Leap Year Balls will be taking place in
Leap Year 2008.
Just email
Raenell |
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The Muncie Sunday Star - December 11, 1904
Transcribed by DJ Faust
DUNKIRK SOCIETY EVENT (By Star Special Services)
Dunkirk, Ind., Dec. 10- A pleasant social event of the season will be
the
leap year dance given by
Misses Ivy Breffler, Olive White and Bertha Miller,
of this place, Monday evening. Over 200 invitations have been issued
and
elaborate preparations are being made for the event. |
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Carroll County Times article for 2 January 1994
The next dance of the Assembly will be held on the
evening of January 27, and will be a leap-year dance.
Democratic Advocate, January 5,
1912 |
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Bulletin - Page 14
by Surveyor's Customs Welfare Association
A BILL To provide for an event to be known as "A
Leap Year Dance"
to be given by the Federal Employees' Union, Local No. 7, in the
WOW Hall |
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Harper's Magazine - Page 501
by Making of America Project, Harper's Magazine Foundation (New
York, N.Y.), Henry
Mills Alden, Thomas Bucklin Wells, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick
Lewis Allen - 1930
At this Leap Year dance
several of us women, by way of revenge, would play
billiards, then saunter to the ballroom door and look over the
partnerless men ... |
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Dance Magazine - Page 26
1948
LI Li A-Ste (continued from page II) 4) In a-
leap year dance,
however,
the girls -should be good sports and •execute their new prerogatives
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West Herr Community Involvement |
Last year our
individual dealerships supported over 400
organizations from Little League baseball to senior
citizens
to school bands, in some pretty creative ways. The
Saturn stores hosted dozens of scout troops to teach
them about
vehicle safety and maintenance, our Dansville people
helped deliver toys to kids during the December
holidays, the
Jaguar showroom was transformed by the artwork of a
local youth organization, the East Aurora store
rolled up the
rugs and turned their showroom over to the
Boys and
Girls Club for a special Leap Year Dance,
Toyota took a
leadership role in the annual gala for the
Alzheimer’s Association and the team over at
Chevy-Olds of Orchard Park
organized a team of volunteers to help at a
fundraising walk for cancer. And that’s just the tip
of the iceberg. |
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Camden Courier - Post -
February 26, 1936
REPUBLICAN CLUB DANCE ARRANGED FOR FRIDAY
Eagles Hall, 415 Broadway, will be the
scene of a leap year dance to be held by the Tenth Ward
Republican Club, Friday evening. The committee is headed by George
Dolan.
The Penn Troubadours will supply the
music. |
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USO United Service Organization
1941
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Leap Year Party
Success at USO |
With
the junior hostesses
exercising their
traditional
once-in-four year
prerogative of
taking the
initiative in asking
for
dances, and
Leap Year formal
dance at the
US0 last weekend is
reported as a huge
success. The girls
not only
asked the servicemen
for each dance but
formed a stag line
and cut in on other
girls, in the manner
usually reserved
for the "stronger''
sex.
Highlight of the
evening was the
winning of a long
distance call home
by A/S Exra Milliken
of Portland, Maine
who,
by happy
coincidence, was
celebrating his
twenty-first
birthday.
Decorations for the
party were carried
out in patriotic
color scheme of red,
white, and blue and
were planned with
other arrangements
for the event, by
the lieutenants for
the week, Mary
Sonderegeer and
Julie Anne Kohlman.
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Leap Year Dance
Next Saturday at USO
Club |
A
long distance call
home for one lucky
soldier and the
showing of special
movies proved high
spots of the week's
program at the USO.
Samuel Jones of
Centerville,
Tennessee was the
lucky winner of the
long distance phone
call,
which will be a
feature of every
Saturday night's
entertainment from
now on. The movies
were also shown
Saturday
evening by C. E.
Guthrie and included
a comic cartoon,
pictures of the
Battle of Russia,
and a Western.
Sunday's
program included
supper and dancing
from six to nine
o'clock.
This week end was
sponsored by the
local chapter of War
Dads, whose check
for $15 purchased
supplies for the
regular Sunday
evening buffet
supper. |
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THE YEARS REVIEWED
A history of the RMDS as compiled by Margaret Newton
in 1974
... The Society first came into
being in the year of 1911, with a small group of
enthusiasts meeting in the old Lecture Hall in
Ringwood. The first production was 'The Mandarin', described in the
programme as 'A Celestial Comic Opera', given at the
Manor House Theatre on February 27th and 28th,
1912. Quoting from the personal diary of one of the lady
members of the
company:
Feb. 26th'Dress
rehearsal for ‘Mandarin’ - all went well.'
Feb. 27th'First night! Had to turn people away - charged 1/-
each to stand.'
Feb. 28th'Just as successful - finished up with a
Leap Year Dance - Great
fun !!' |
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Town and Country Newspaper - Pennsburg, Montgomery
County, PA Saturday - March 26, 1904
LEAP YEAR DANCE
A leap year dance at the
Sorrel Horse Hotel near Sumneytown, last Thursday evening was one of the
most novel
social events of the season in that vicinity. The affair was entirely
under the management of the young ladies of the
vicinity. Miss FREDERICKS the director of ceremonies, assisted by other
members of the fair sex deserves much
credit for the manner in which the plans were carried out.
A leap
year dance differs from a dance given in any other than leap
years, only that the conventionalities of ceremonies
being reversed, the young ladies being in duty bound to call for
their male friends, escort them to and from the dance,
to make the dance engagements, and the ladies are not allowed to dance
with one another but gentlemen are, providing
they are not invited to dance with one of the fair participants and at
the close of the ceremonies the ladies escort the
gentlemen to their homes. The affair was pronounced the most successful
event of its kind ever held in that hall. |
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| 1884 London News
Leap Year Ball |
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Lifestyle magazine dated February 29, 2004
with additional comments by Raenell |
"For English folks, the leap
day was also the day that women could propose marriage to a man.
In the English law,
February 29 was ignored and had no legal status..." -
This was pretty common
in the United States of America as well.
..."Later it became just a day to
celebrate..." - Which is what I want it to become again!
..."Leap
year balls were lavish parties where women could ask men
for a dance and propose to them." |
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She-Rae
March 2004 |
On
Leap Year's Eve we had
our first annual UN Ball and it was a HUGE success! We
had over 200 guests from
various schools and the venue, Kathleen's 5, was wonderful. The
theme was "An Evening at the Races" and we
also tied in the Leap Year factor, and had a toast at midnight
to bring in the 29th (I actually met someone who's
birthday is Leap Year,
and she is now 7 years old!). It was great working with the
other UN heads to put this Ball
together, and it was really rewarding to see it turn out so
well. |
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Carnamah Girls Club's Mad Hatter's
Leap Year Ball at the
Carnamah Hall on Saturday 29 February 1936 |
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The Louisburg
Brass Band 1913-1924 ... Even
with all this activity the Band did not forget other civic duties in
1916.
It was present at the Leap Year Ball held in the Masonic Hall on
February 1, ... |
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HAMILTON HALL
Salem, Massachusetts 1805 In its
early decades Hamilton Hall was also the setting for auctions, plays,
concerts, and charity fairs.
Special events included a Charles Dickens Tea Party and a
Leap Year Party. The
latter was a 19th
century version of the Sadie Hawkins dances of recent decades. Men were
invited to attend by a
woman, and once the dancing began the women took the lead in choosing
partners. |
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The
Washington Post - January 26, 1896
CALENDAR OF SOCIETY
Interesting Events Scheduled for the Next Six Days in High Circles.
WILL BE A BRILLIANT WEEK
...A pleasant leap year party
was tendered Miss Ida Brahler on Friday evening, in honor of her
fifteenth birthday,
at her residence, 655 Maryland avenue northeast. Miss H. Ball performed
several fancy dances; Miss West,
the accompanist, and Miss E. Miller gave selections on the piano...
...About twenty-five couples met in the
Baltimore and Ohio depot on Friday evening, to take the 8:15 train
for Langdon, where the young ladies gave a
leap year dance and supper.
The young ladies entertained the
gentlemen in a delightful manner, which they seemed to thoroughly
enjoy.
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FULL BLOOM The Art and Life of
Georgia
O'Keeffe
Hunter Drohojowsk-Philp
We read about
Georgia O'Keeffe attending
one of the Leap Year Dances of that
time.
Click on the image at right to read an
excerpt from page 48. |
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COLEGROVE
News
McKean County Miner January 31, 1896
Politics
- Change of Polling Place - Birth Announcement - Personal Notes
The
Republican caucus Saturday night was largely attended and the
usual strong ticket nominated.
The only fault with it is that the second precinct (Gardeau) was
out voted and shut out on everything.
This is not right, they should be recognized.
The unterrified Democracy held a caucus Monday night and with the
assistance of some Republican
friends, put a ticket in the field which they didn't do last year.
The petition to have the polling place changed has been granted by
the court and election will be
held at Bartlett's hall Colegrove.
R.B.Ford and W.F. Andrews, two of Gardeau's prominent business
men, were over here on a hunting
trip last Friday.
Several of our young people attended
the leap year ball at Clermont last Friday night.
C.A. Pierce, of Gardeau, was shaking hands with his friends here
on Monday.
G.M. Brougham has a
brand new leap year girl;
weight 10 pounds.
(Editors note: The date of this publication being January 31, 1896 proves that
she is just a
Leap YEAR baby, not
a Leap DAY Baby. - Raenell) |
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University of California History |
Labor
Day
Labor Day, another Davis
tradition adopted from the Berkeley
campus, dated from at least 1924.
Each Leap Year, on February 29th, Davis
faculty and students joined their
efforts in various
campus improvement projects. The day was
organized and sponsored by the
Associated Students
for such projects as clearing brush away
from buildings and painting bleachers.
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A.A.'s Country-wide News
Circuit |
The latest issue of the
Newark, N. J., Alanon News (which incidentally was the
first anniversary issue)
listed for February a card party on the 7th; a Valentine
party and dance with a Sweetheart contest on
the 14th; a night of games the 21st, and a Leap Year
dance with a male popularity contest on the 28th.
A dance and chowder party on January 31 was the last of
that month's many events. The Alanon Club's
television programs draw good attendance, for the boxing
bouts on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays,
and other programs on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The
latest addition to the extensive entertainment
facilities is a grand piano, a gift to the club.
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1912 Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas |
In his letter Dr.
Lightfoot says, the custom of having a ball in the
evening originated the next year with
D. N. Heizer. D. N. was undoubtedly instrumental in
promoting the matter, but that same night of which
the doctor writes,
a big Leap Year
ball was given at which the gentlemen were the
guests of the ladies.
Many of the couples noted in the write-up of the affair
were afterwards married to each other, but we
expect the ladies will deny that Leap Year had anything
to do with the matter. The write-up of the ball
from the Tribune of January 3, 1880, is as follows:
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CAPPERINES TO HOLD LEAP YEAR DANCE
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Arthur Hardy - The World's Foremost Authority on Mardi
Gras |
The popular Krewe of
Proteus debuted in 1882 with a
glittering parade that saluted Egyptian Mythology. The
Jefferson City Buzzards, the grandfather of all
marching clubs, was formed in 1890. The first black
Mardi
Gras organization, the Original Illinois Club,
was launched in 1894. Two years later, Les
Mysterieuses,
Carnival’s first female group, was founded and
presented a
spectacular Leap Year ball. |
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The University of
British Columbia
The UBYSSEY February
28, 1928
If the
co-eds wear their
High Jinks costumes
to the Leap Year Ball, will the men to in their
"Smoker" creations?
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The University of
British Columbia
The UBYSSEY February
23, 1940
The Leap Year Dance |
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Committee on Entertainment 1912 Nine
wives of firemen were appointed to the
Committee on Entertainment on March 5, 1912. Their first
duty was to hold
a Leap Year Dance on March 22nd. (By 1917 they were
referred to as the Ladies of the Fire Company, which appears to
be the beginning of the Women’s Auxiliary.) |
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Nevada's Forgotten Movie Star
by David W. Toll
Her name
shows up here and there in the paper, hosting visiting
relatives from Winnemucca (the Browns
and the Hills), attending parties and performing at the
piano at the En Hiver
leap year dance
in 1912 and
at the high school art exhibit in March of the next
year.
This article was originally published
in the December, 1994 edition of Nevada Magazine.
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Bethel
No. 5 Kirkwood, Missouri, Kirkwood Masonic Temple
Bethel History:
Fund raisers held by the Bethel included a Gypsy Festival, and
presentations of plays. social events included a
Leap Year dance, card
parties, and swimming parties. |
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IBEW Local 125 - 1940
History
... The Waitress Union coordinated a
Leap Year Dance at
the Labor Temple. There were picnics with softball
competitions in the summer at Viking Park. |
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6. A Leap Year ball ran
at the Miners Union Hall
under the auspices of the elite of Neihart, who
danced merrily all night.
7. A Leap Year ball also
was held at the Park Hotel,
including a fine dance and a champagne supper
given by the ladies of Neihart. |
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The Washington Post, Monday February 3,
1896, pg. 7
ON WITH THE DANCES
Society Will Trip the Light Fantastic This Week
FOUR LARGE BALLS SCHEDULED
The leap year
dance
given by the young ladies of the Washington
Barracks
Saturday evening was quite the crowning event in
military and naval circles
of the week, and in the details of which the fair
managers scored a great
success. With the list of guests, which has
already been published in The
Post, were all the officers and ladies of the barracks,
and a number of other
well-known personages.
The young of the
smart set of New York have taken up the leap year idea,
and in order to pay off some old scores to the exclusive
bachelors, will give
a fine “Spinsters” ball, February 12. The
cotillion will be led by maidens
only, and will be as picturesque as it will be unique. |
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIONEER ENTERTAINMENT IN BEAUMONT,
TEXAS
Three months later, Hicks' band led the Pearl Street
parade when the Beaumont Fire Company
and the Wiess Hook and Ladder Company laid the
cornerstone of the city's first fire engine house
in September, 1884. A third group of Beaumont musicians,
the Lumbermen's Silver Cornet Band,
directed by Mr. A. Ashold, was entertaining periodically
at the opera house in 1892. During the
1880s-1890s, two neighboring bands also performed at
many Beaumont social events. The First
Regimental Band of Orange played for many dances here.
The Kountze Brass Band furnished
the music for
Beaumont's Leap Year Ball of January, 1892. This
group, comprised of the employees
of the Sunset Sawmill at Olive, two miles north of
Kountze, was organized by Sam Barnett and G. A.
Sternenberg in 1890, and played frequently in Beaumont
during the succeeding decade. |
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Plattsmouth
Public Library
Began as the Young Ladies Reading Room Association (YLRRA) in
a private home in 1885.
The present site was constructed in 1916
and is located at Fourth Street and Avenue A. In
the years of 1885-1886,
the ingenious women of the YLRRA sponsored a splendid assort-
ment
of social activities to generate income for the reading room. Fund-raisers included
Buttermilk Socials, Milkmaid Carnivals, Card Parties, Leap
Year Balls, home talent plays,
and a host of other entertainment. |
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Krewe
of Excaliber
The popular Krewe of Proteus debuted in 1882 with a
glittering parade that saluted Egyptian
Mythology. The Jefferson
City Buzzards, the grandfather of all marching clubs, was formed
in 1890. The first black Mardi
Gras organization, the Original Illinois Bluc, was launched in
1894. Two years later, Les Mysterieuses, Carnival’s first female group, was founded and
presented in a spectacular
Leap Year ball. |
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DANCING
IN THE SETTLEMENTS
After the first St. George Social Hall was completed in 1865,
dances became quite elegant,
as printed invitations and tickets of
the period, still preserved, indicate. There were calico
balls, baseball benefit
dances, leap year balls,
ward socials, Christmas benefit balls, ward
dinner-dances and banquet dances listed on invitations. |
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Olive, Hardin County, Texas
An Extinct Sawmill
Town and the Olive-Sternenberg
Partnership That Built It
Olive itself is quite a little burg, and is
supplied with school and church buildings, a hall of
the Knights of Honor (a
fraternal order), also one
for public entertainments. Moreover, it has a
newly-organized brass band, consisting of
twelve young men of culture and refinement. The members are
Sam Barnett, the band leader; V. A. Petty, who plays
the B-flat cornet; U. A. Sternenberg, C. F. Sanders,
W. Brooks, Arthur Furby, J. Melancon, A. Miller, and
J. Miller.
The boys, rigged out in their dress suits
and beaver hats, look charming, and when they go out
to play . . . they
become the heroes of the hour and
the admiration of the ladies. [For years,
the Sunset
band played for Beaumont’s
annual firemen’s
masquerade and leap year balls.]… One always
finds here Colonel J. A. Sternenberg, who in his
vine-clad home, always extends to his guests that
generous hospitality that makes a visit to Olive an
unforgotten
pleasure.
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LEAP YEAR PARTY OF THE GAY NINETIES
Source: Osceola Centennial Issue...1851 to 1951,
Osceola Sentinel, August 2, 1951, Section 5, p. 7. |
Social Note: It was a gay party that gathered at the home of Miss Ethel Dague at the corner of
Cass
and Temple streets on the evening of September 30, 1896. It was an occasion long to be
remembered,
for Milt Gregg brought his camera and newfangled flash pan and took a picture of
the crowd at the height of its merry-making! When the smoke from the magnesium powder
cleared away and the room was aired out to get the sting of the acrid fumes out of their eyes, the
daring game of whist was resumed! Mrs. Archie Wade says
it was a Halloween Leap-year party.
Those appearing in the photo are, from left to right in the outside semi-circle: Maude Forney;
Fanny Dague (Mrs. O.M. Slaymaker); these two served the refreshments; Will Trent, Blanche
Painter, Archie Wade, Bernice Thurston (Mrs. A. F. Wade), A. A. Nowers, Nora Sonner (Mrs.
Frank Edwards);
Second row: Eva Mcintire (Galloway), Lou Emery (Mrs. Johnson Richards), Johnson Richards,
Jean Bashor, Will Temple, Grace Thompson, Roy Armstrong.
Seated in front: George White and Ethel Dague (Mrs. Roy Armstrong).
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Sacramento Bee
Sacramento, Sacramento County, California
Thursday Evening 22 January 1920 page 12
DEL PASO
At a meeting of the Del Paso Amusement Club, held last night at the
home of S. N. ROBINSON,
final arrangements were made for the Leap Year dance to be
given at the school, January 24th.
Earl EBERLEIN and Conley SMITH were named as floor managers for the
affair. The committee
in charge announces that every fourth dance on the program will be a
"Leap Year" dance. |
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The Atlantic Medical Weekly 1896
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The Life of Mary Margaret Barlow
... While they were teaching, Margaret asked
Newell to a leap year's
dance on a dare and he accepted.
This was their first date. |
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Helmsdale Hogmanay - February 11,
1932
A fancy dress leap year dance
(February 11, 1932)A
fancy dress leap year dance
was held in Kildonan on the evening of 29th ult. There was a crowded
house,
and the gay costumes and air of mystery gave a piquancy to the
evening. |
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One hundred years ago:
February 17, 1904
Leap
Year Dance
A
Leap Year Dance
was given in Vignolo’s hotel at Berenda last
Saturday. The affair was gotten up by the
ladies of
Berenda, who conducted it in a pleasing
manner.
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Tales from the Reading Room
... I’ve relished competing with fellow
Betsy-Tacy fans in trivia contests. In that context, I actually know
the answer to questions like
“What dress did Betsy Ray wear to the
leap year dance to
which she was escorted by Philip Brandish?” |
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Leap Year Dance Marathon
Dance Complex, 536 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.
617-547-9363. 2/26: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.,
workshops for all, from yoga to ballroom. Individual
events $5, seniors and under 12 free.
2/26-2/27: 7 p.m.-7 a.m., dance-a-thon with live
bands. $10 at the door or $50 in pledges.
Proceeds benefit making building
handicapped-accessible. |
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Ticket to Leap Year dance, January 26, 1912 |
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Invitation to
Delta Sigma Upsilon Fraternity
"Leap Year" Dance."
The dance took place on February
29, 1924
at the Lochmoor Golf Club in
Detroit.
The music was provided by
"Mertz-Dorsey."
Click on picture to the right to
read the invitation. |
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Browning Newspaper Notes March 28, 1924
Last Saturday evening Mrs. TE Scriver was hostess to a few friends
at her home, the occasion being a farewell party for her mother,
Mrs. Macfie who departed Thursday for Montreal, Canada. Cards were
played at 7 tables until 11 o’clock, after which a delicious
lunch was served. The floor being waxed and in fine shape, the rest
of the evening was turned over to the ladies as a
leap-year dance.
Everyone had a delightful time, as they always have with Mrs.
Scriver as hostess. |
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DANAS VIKEAND
"Leap Year Dance". Klub je
imao svoju sekciju učenika bridža, popularne igre kartama u
Engleskoj. |
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CASS CITY CHRONICLE April 6, 1956
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Pythian Sisters
- Edgewood Temple #45
A leap year dance was held in January 1928. |
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B-13 Norman Andrew Journal
Now it’s February, 1880, and the little
town of Taylor is ablaze with preparations for the
leap-year
dance.
Agnes joined a group of young girls who were ...
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