1887-1918; 1893-1969
Dancers

A Whirlwind Career.

In just three years, 1912 to 1915, Vernon and Irene Castle rose from a nightclub act to the most famous ballroom dancers in the world. Three years after that their partnership ended in tragedy. Yet by 1918 this husband and wife's choreography—together with the high-class aura they lent the new and controversial phenomenon of public dancing — had transformed popular entertainment and brought millions of Americans onto the dance floor.

The Beginning of a Team.

Though Vernon Castle preceded his partner into show business, it was Irene Castle's ambition that steered the couple toward stardom. Born Irene Foote on 7 April 1893 in New Rochelle, New York, she spent much of her comfortable, upper-middleclass childhood appearing in local amateur productions and dreaming of acting on Broadway. In contrast Vernon Castle — born Vernon Blyth in Norwich, England, on 2 May 1887 — studied engineering in college and...