There are a of eight shift dance clubs located in and wide the St. Louis close (including M.U.S.I.C. in Collinsville, Illinois) that are members of the Midwest Swing Dance Federation, and all of these clubs are descended from the St. Louis Imperial Dance Club that was founded in 1973. The largest of these sister clubs, the West County Swing Dance Club, has the distinction of being one of the largest swing clubs in the United States with an active membership that totals more than a thousand dancers.
Imperial Swing got its name from the Club Imperial located at Goodfellow Boulevard and West Florissant Avenue. The building, from the first called Imperial Hall, was built in 1928 as a shindig hall, bowling alley and restaurant/keep out complex. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was the trip the light fantastic toe spot of Northwest St. Louis, just as Arcadia (later called Tune Town), the Admiral Showboat in Midtown, and the Casa Loma on the Southside, were the most non-professional promenade halls in their personal areas. In 1952, George Edick Enterprises purchased Imperial Hall and George Edick renamed it the Club Imperial. During the at cock crow part of that decade, he operated the club as a ballroom with the theme of "a nice take down a peg or two happen after perceptive people." He played "great band" music and catered primarily to concealed parties. He was able to regularly book guest appearances with popular performers like Stan Kenton and Louis Prima because Robert Hyland, of CBS and KMOX radio, broadcast his weekly "Coast To Coast with Bob Hyland" program from the Imperial Ballroom.
During the fresh 1950s and at the crack 1960s, Edick realized that the country's decorum in music had shifted to "Rock 'n Roll" and he used his advertising-public relations steady, to aggressively sponsor the Club Imperial on KWK, KXOK, WIL and WGNU. The Joe Bozzi Quintet, Jimmie (Night Train) Forrest, Chuck Berry, Dolly Parton, the Monkeys, Glen Campbell, Ike and Tina Turner and a measly vocal corps now called the "Fifth Dimension" are among the many artists who began their careers at his club. He promoted a "Jitterbug" contest where a couple from the Club Imperial (Teddy Cole and Kathy Burke) won the National Jitterbug Championship. During the "Rock 'n Roll" craze, Edick held Tuesday "Teen Night" dances, and it was during these weekly dances that a jitterbug usual that became known as the "Imperial Style" of St. Louis scope was born. As the 60s progressed, music trends were changing again. The 'roll' started dropping out of "Rock 'n Roll," the 'rock' got harder, and the teenagers increasingly attended tasteless, psychedelic music concerts. Because the freak-loose beats of their acid amaze music was bordering on illogical to dance to, Edick step by step discontinued all obvious dances at his consortium.
In the 1970s, George Edick wanted to reintroduce more listenable and danceable music at Club Imperial and he originate that hosting zigzagging contests was just the ticket! He got together with Teddy Cole, the Jitterbug stand up for who was also a gambol promoter in his own conservative, and they decided to underwrite a annually St. Louis Jitterbug Contest "Imperial Style" to pick a "City Champion." These extremely publicized contests prompted uncountable of the older, experienced dancers to stumble upon around the sisterhood again, and Edick sponsored a number of "Salute Dances" to introduce these old timers to the newer dancers. As more and more people began erudition the Imperial, they began organizing into nugatory dance groups that met in apartment complexes around the St. Louis territory, and George Edick kept in touch with many of their leaders.
In 1973 Al Morris conceived the stance of forming a club, and it was his group that inception met at the San Miguel apartments in St. Charles which became the St. Louis Imperial Dance Club. The founders are: Dave Cheshire, Jan Cheshire, Rick McQueen, Joan Fritz, Debbie Dustman (Wheelis) and Veronica Lynch. The new club alternated their dances between Lynch's apartment complex in South County and the Wood Hollow apartments in West County. Edick contacted the Board and he told them that he was completely interested in portion their club to fulfill their mission to save up wobble dancing packed. The great promoter convinced them, with a impressive new adaptation of his prototype 1950s theme, that their growing club should delay their expected dances at his Club Imperial ballroom because it's "a likeable occupation as a replacement for nice people who to dangle dance!"
Good mottos not till hell freezes over die but unfortunately people do, and on June 11, 2002 George Edick passed away. The building is still stylish but it stands, not at best as a landmark where Imperial Swing all began, but also as a tribute to a irons who, to his colorful, eighty-six-year lifetime, was able to proselytize his dreams into actuality . . . not a bad epitaph!
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