Let's Dance
A Celebration of Ontario's Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions

Let's Dance: A Celebration of Ontario's Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions is a nostalgic musical journey, recapturing the unforgettable music of youth and lasting friendships, the days when the live mellow sounds of Big Bands wafted through the air — Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers, Bert Niosi, Art Hallman, Johnny Downs, Mart Kenney, Bobby Kinsman, Ronnie Hawkins.... Throughout the 1920s to the '60s, numerous legendary entertainers drew thousands of people to such memorable venues as the Brant Inn in Burlington, Dunn's Pavilion in Bala, the Stork Club at Port Stanley, to the Club Commodore in Belleville and the Top Hat Pavilion in North Bay — and the hundreds of other popular dance venues right across Ontario. From the days of jitney dancing through the introduction of jazz and the Big Bands era to the sounds of some of Ontario's best rock groups, people of all ages came to dance and some to find romance on soft summer nights.

AUTHOR

Peter Young is a freelance writer and runs his own communications company. For many years he played Hammond B-3 organ with a number of Toronto-based rock bands and travelled extensively throughout much of Southern Ontario, performing in many of the province's popular dance pavilions. His first book, published in May 1997 — The Kee to Bala Is Dunn's Pavilion — was received with great enthusiasm in Muskoka and beyond. Peter's second effort in 1998 — Lake Huron's Summer Dance Pavilions: Sand, Surf and Music — chronicled the places and people who brought song to this golden coastline from the 1920s to the present. Let's Dance is the third book in this series and covers many more of Ontario's popular dance venues.

DETAILS

Publisher: Dundurn Press, 2002
Category: Politics and social life
ISBN: 978-1-89621-902-8
Price: $26.95 CDN/USA paperback
Format: 232 pages 8 x 10 in