“B” is for Big Apple. This dance was born in the mid-1930s in a Black nightclub operated by a man named Fat Sam on Park Street in downtown Columbia, in what was once the House of Peace Synagogue. The Big Apple was popularized nationally when it was taken to Manhattan by University of South Carolina students. A combination of the square dance and various 1920s-jazz routines, the Big Apple caught the attention of White college students who—encouraged by Fat Sam—paid 10¢ to watch dancers from the nightclub balcony. Soon the students were repeating the steps at fraternity parties. In August 1937 several student couples performed the dance at New York’s Roxy Theatre and then toured cities throughout the northeast. The Big Apple received such an enthusiastic reception that it became a brief national craze.
“B” is for Big Apple
