“Castle House Rag”

Vernon Castle and Jim Europe help to revolutionize American attitudes toward social dancing. Following his first role, where he adopted the name “Castle” (for Windsor Castle) in order to distinguish himself from his sister, he continued to work with Lew Fields in a series of comic plays over the next four years. He had his most successful comic role in The Henpecks. The sensational success of the Castle's nightly appearances at the Café de Paris quickly led to invitations to dance at private gatherings of the fashionable and well-to-do in Paris, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The inspiration and major force behind the organization of a school of dance, Castle House, was Elisabeth Marbury. By the time Europe resigned his position in the Clef Club, he and the Society Orchestra had already accomplished one breakthrough for black musicians as a result of his association with the Castles. The Castle House Rag was one of the four tunes recorded by the Society Orchestra. The form of the piece follows that of Scott Joplin's classic because it consists of four melodic strains played in an AABBACCDD pattern.