Dance venues flooding Adelaide city (including Rundle Street big stores' dining rooms), suburbs during the 1920s, 1930s
The many early 20th Century delaide city dancing venues included places such as the Register newspaper building in Pirie Street that hosted the CWA (Country Women's Association) Outback Relief Ball in 1936.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
John Martin’s store dining room, the Myer Apollo and Birks store in Rundle Street were among the many Adelaide city dance venues during the 1920s and 1930s, with nearly every suburb having own dance hall.
The most popular Adelaide venues were Floating Palais on River Torrens and the Palais de Danse, next to Ayers House on North Terrace, city. Several other large and popular ballrooms in Adelaide city included the Queen’s Hall in Grenfell Street (later known as the Embassy Ballroom), the King’s Ballroom at the corner of Carrington and King William Streets, the Australia Hall (later Royalty Theatre) from 1929 in Angas Street, the Rendevouz Ballroom in Currie Street and the Caledonian Hall in King William Street. The Astoria ballroom, corner of Waymouth and Young streets, opened in 1941, built specifically as a dance hall with a sprung floor.
Osborne Hall, built in Gouger Street, originally to service the catering business of confectioner and baker Edwin Ellis, soon became a dance venue, possibly started and operated by the Carmichaels, a famous family of dance hall operators in Adelaide. A 1924 advertisement in The Advertiser highlighted its “Popular Dances, Moonlight Dances. Music by Clarrie Young’s Orchestra, 7 Performers, Banjo and Xylophone selections.” It became very popular for Saturday night dances.
Dancing on Saturday nights and outings to films were the most popular forms of entertainment for young people but several venues operated most nights of the week, with many dancing classes advertised. Dance halls were at their most popular in Adelaide during the 1920s and 1930s and most young people learnt to dance.
Quadrille classes were still being taught in the 1920s at the Woodville and Goodwood institutes while the Maison de Danse in Colley Terrace, Glenelg, and the Semaphore Palais were two of the largest suburban venues. Burnside Town Hall had a long dance history and one of the last to operate was the Wonderland on Belair Road, Unley. In the 1920s the dances included the Charleston, the Big Apple, the Black Bottom and the Military Two Step.
The Palais Pepper Pot in 1920 mentioned the waltz, foxtrot, one step. In the 1930s, everyone was doing the tango, the aaxina, the varsity drag and stamp, jazz waltz and drag tap. Advertisements in March 1930 mentioned the rhumba, quickstep waltz, slow foxtrot or old-style dances. Dance teachers Aubrey Hall and Nell Teesdale were demonstrating the rhumba and tango.The royalty waltz, gem waltz, Floradora, empress tango, western star waltz and waltz Palmer were among regular additions.
The popularity of dancing declined with the advent of television in the 1950s. In 1960, the Osborne Hall building i Gouger Street. city, was sold and became the Embassy Ballroom before closing as a dance venue in the 1970s. The Mars Bar nightclub became one the building’s tenants and the Australian Dance Theatre acquired the lease of the first floor hall and s used the building as a dance studio and theatre from the mid 1970s