Remember that Ralph Page started calling in the 1930s, and became a full time caller in 1938.  If he called dances all the way through, it's because he was used to doing things that way from the days before sound reinforcement at dances (and remember that he probably called three squares between contra dances!)

Here are some quotes from Page's 1937 book:

A good caller's "voice ... must be clear and distinct (not necessarily deep in tone) and must penetrate the farthest corners of the hall."

"The best prompters baby their throats as if they were opera singers.  Their greatest horror is laryngitis.  They don't drink olive oil or wrap up in pink cotton batting, though; strange as it may seem, the oftener they call, the better their voice.  They claim that six nights a week are better than one or two, because their vocal cords are really exercised then and so become stronger."

So it sounds like Ralph Page, and the other callers of his generation, didn't believe in trying to "save" their voices.

Jacob Bloom


On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 11:26 PM, Lindsey Dono lynzimd@yahoo.com [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

I’m curious about calling before microphones became ubiquitous. Is there much information about callers prior to sound amplification? Did they drop out quickly to save their voices? Were the dances just known by enough dancers that they were danced without calling? Was there an emphasis on remembering the figures (as in Scottish)? If the answers to these questions are widely known, pardon my ignorance!

Lindsey
(Tacoma, WA)




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