No Swing Hash

In the early 1950s, callers were delivering prearranged sequences. The pages of Sets in Order were filled with such routines, generally short with a distinctive gimmick in each. In this example, though, similar in many ways to Lloyd Shaw's earlier Docey-Do Hoedown, the routine takes dancers through a series of different figures each time through. This makes it a kind of sampler, or possibly a lively demonstration piece. The calls are often presented in rhyming couplets, suitable to be memorized and called verbatim. In later years, of course, callers would create their own hash calls but at this time, as this example shows, the various figures were planned and laid out in a script.

The music featured "Shirley and her Beeman Brothers" playing Chinese Breakdown.

Sets in Order (April 1953) introduces the recording this way:

"A pair of Southern California's top notch pleasure-giving callers now appear on Sets in Order label. ... This month's special release features Al Lockabey "Lefty Allemande" from the Cow Counties in California. Lefty calls a Singing Hash and a No-Swing Hash in a style that has endeared him to dancers at Sunny Hills and among the many clubs in the San Fernando Valley where he calls."

Sunny Hills: From 1948 to 1962, it was the largest square dance hall in America boasting a dance floor that would hold 150 squares.