monica e. hall
Member
I know nothing about early 20th Century dating, Alyson, contrary to what some people might imply (stop laughing, Bob). But I'm sure they mostly didn't 'date' as we'd understand it. Girls were chaperoned, often by maiden aunts or children, and young men had to ask permission of parents to marry their daughters - well, in the middle / upper classes at least. At balls, young ladies had dance cards, on which they wrote the names of the partners who'd requested a dance - it was all very formal. So, I doubt that 'pick-up' lines came into it much.
Men use pick-up lines in situations where they don't know the women, but in society they did usually know each other, or at least know a great deal about each other's circumstances (wealth, position etc.). And, even in the working classes, Edwardians usually courted people they knew. And, I suspect, this was the general rule until surprisingly late - maybe the 1950s. Of course, there were always exceptions.
I'm guessing here to some extent, but one of my grandmothers once made an interesting remark to me. She told me she'd married my grandfather 'to get rid of him'. She didn't mean it harshly, as she grew fond of him and respected him. But she was under such pressure to marry him from her brothers (his friends) and her own mother (his landlady), that it seemed the simplest solution to stop the pestering. That would have been in about 1907. They weren't 'society' people of course.
Men use pick-up lines in situations where they don't know the women, but in society they did usually know each other, or at least know a great deal about each other's circumstances (wealth, position etc.). And, even in the working classes, Edwardians usually courted people they knew. And, I suspect, this was the general rule until surprisingly late - maybe the 1950s. Of course, there were always exceptions.
I'm guessing here to some extent, but one of my grandmothers once made an interesting remark to me. She told me she'd married my grandfather 'to get rid of him'. She didn't mean it harshly, as she grew fond of him and respected him. But she was under such pressure to marry him from her brothers (his friends) and her own mother (his landlady), that it seemed the simplest solution to stop the pestering. That would have been in about 1907. They weren't 'society' people of course.
Now i'm getting the piture how people lived back in the early 1900.So that's how they dated.It seems to me that young women have it a bit easier than todays young women have it.
It seems to be way different from now, i would bperrfer to date how they dated,it sounds much better than now.These days people find there parnters on the internet,there's no courting or anything at all.
lol funnie about you're g/mother trying to get rid of you're g/father.
It seems to be way different from now, i would bperrfer to date how they dated,it sounds much better than now.These days people find there parnters on the internet,there's no courting or anything at all.
lol funnie about you're g/mother trying to get rid of you're g/father.
George L. Lorton
Member
I think couples went roller skating or to the Flickers (Early Silent Film) or to see a Vaudeville Show, Theater. A lot of it is the same stuff people do now. Dancing was probably popular.
Inger Sheil
Member
The word "date" as we use it today is, from memory, first recorded in the 1890s (I'll look up the reference later), but it may have come into use earlier.
Courtship rituals were changing by the Edwardian period. One of the most significant factors to impact on the practices was the widespread popularity of the bicycle. This allowed young people mobility - often without chaperones. Reading correspondence from the era you get a sense of the newfound liberties in romantic connections. With the introduction of cheap cars - and cheap enclosed cars at that - in the 1920s, dates became more private still.
While there were still, at least nominally, restrictions on at least middle class young couples spending time alone in each others' company, young people frequently seemed to get around these issues.
I don't think "pick up lines" as we know them today would have been all that popular with your average girl. In 1918, Zelda Sayre (considered a bit on the wild side by her contemporaries) rebuffed F Scott Fitzgerald's initial attempt to approach her with "I don't make late dates with fast workers". An introduction through a mutual acquaintance would be the usual way to go about approaching a girl, although there were other, less formal ways to go about striking up an acquaintance.
Courtship rituals were changing by the Edwardian period. One of the most significant factors to impact on the practices was the widespread popularity of the bicycle. This allowed young people mobility - often without chaperones. Reading correspondence from the era you get a sense of the newfound liberties in romantic connections. With the introduction of cheap cars - and cheap enclosed cars at that - in the 1920s, dates became more private still.
While there were still, at least nominally, restrictions on at least middle class young couples spending time alone in each others' company, young people frequently seemed to get around these issues.
I don't think "pick up lines" as we know them today would have been all that popular with your average girl. In 1918, Zelda Sayre (considered a bit on the wild side by her contemporaries) rebuffed F Scott Fitzgerald's initial attempt to approach her with "I don't make late dates with fast workers". An introduction through a mutual acquaintance would be the usual way to go about approaching a girl, although there were other, less formal ways to go about striking up an acquaintance.
George L. Lorton
Member
Howdy Inger and Alyson,
Of course folks like to cut a rug back in the day. Dancin' always been popular.
That sounds like the Zelda we know and love.
Of course folks like to cut a rug back in the day. Dancin' always been popular.
George L. Lorton
Member
Yeah there was a lot of that and some other types of dancing. Reels were popular in the here in the States and the Tango was starting to make a splash. A lot of Waltz's were popular which is basically Ballroom.
Marilyn Lena Penner
Member
Two very amusing memoirs by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey : "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on Their Toes". Among the various incidents of life with 10 - 11 siblings and 2 motion study expert parents are how Ernestine and her older sister Anne managed to smoke and date in the early 1920's, and their mother's recollection of how dating was in her day. (The early 1900's if Frank Jrs. birth in 1911 is any indication. He was a middle child: no. 5 or 6 in the family.) Probably exaggerated, but I bet not much.
Marilyn Lena Penner
Member
There were also the ragtime dances: foxtrot, turkey trot, Lambeth walk, Castle walk. I don't know about the bunny hug. Irene Castle and her husband Vernon were dancing stars before World War I. Probably during it too. Vernon died, or was killed in the war, in 1918.
George L. Lorton
Member
Thanks, Marilyn,
Shoot I forgot all about Ragtime. I remembered the Castles though but forgot what styles they danced. Irene made some movies back in the late teens and maybe into the early twenties.
Bob Godfrey
Member
