A
Chat and Visit with Pat Hope and Elizabeth Romain
This
article follows on from 'Alex
Moore and the Revised Technique', the first part
of this article, originally written for a US magazine,
by Lori Woods-Gay, a Fellow Ballroom and Latin teacher
and an examiner for the USISTD. Here she describes hearing
more about Alex Moore's life from those who knew him
best. This article is made especially poignant by the
very recent passing of Elizabeth Romain.
Over
the last twenty years plus I have had the privilege
and honour to train with Elizabeth Romain. One could
not train with Elizabeth for any length of time without
hearing stories about Alex Moore and his complete dedication
to Ballroom Dancing. So many of us have spent many hours
studying Alex's Revised Technique in preparation for
our Professional Exams and feel we know him just a little
bit, vicariously. On 8th March 2006 I was very pleased
to have the opportunity and pleasure to speak with someone
who knew Alex from a very different perspective than
ours, his daughter Pat Hope.
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| Alex
Moore in Stockholm 1967 |
Liz
Romain, Pat Moore & Lori Woods-Gay |
We
had a relaxed informal meeting at the home of Elizabeth
Romain in Ewell. Cher Rutherford was there along with
Pat, Elizabeth and myself. Our first task at hand was
to go through some boxes of memorabilia that Pat had
brought with her to this meeting.
Pat said "I've taken everything from my Mother's
flat, and put it in my house, because I think people's
lives deserve that". She went on to talk about
how one day she opened one of the boxes and in that
box were old staples, staplers and stencil correction
fluid1. She said "I picked it up and I opened it,
and that smell, you know how smells can bring back memories?
It was such a strong smell and I remembered how the
whole flat used to smell of it." This smell of
correction fluid was from the days when Alex produced
the Monthly Letter Service (MLS).
Elizabeth remembered "We had a thing called Black
Sunday. Alex used to do it all from the flat. We had
all these pages, about 10 pages all laid out. Somebody
would be picking them up with a rubber thumb and somebody
else would be clipping them together while somebody
else would be putting them in the envelopes. Then he
had these big arm chairs and all the envelopes would
be squeezed into the crevices of these chairs around
the room to be sure they were all nice and flat and
folded nicely" . As this task was repeated once
a month it became known as Black Sunday. Pat said "When
I was old enough I used to help... when I was five he
used to give me a quid for doing it and when I was eighteen
he still gave me a quid".
I asked: How long did the MLS last?
Pat:
"It may have started in the 30's". Elizabeth:
"It was a wonderful service and it went all over
the world. I think it started before I knew Alex".
Pat jokingly recalls: "One of the things my Mother
said was he married her because she was good with the
rubber thumb".
Alex was going to work in South Africa and they were
interviewing people over here (England). "Mother
was having her interview with Alex and halfway through
the interview he said "Have you got a car? Mother
said yes and he said mine's broken down and I have a
very important appointment, can I borrow yours? She
said yes". And so began their relationship. "When
Mother later found out that the very important appointment
was not really important, Alex took her out to a nice
dinner at the Savoy and all was well."
Elizabeth recalled: "people would write and ask
questions, so there would be letters everyday that had
to be answered" (in addition to the MLS mail- out).
Because the MLS was such a big order the postman used
to come to the flat to pick up the mail. Of course this
was long before Federal Express and UPS.
I asked: "Was he affiliated with the ISTD all along?"
Liz. "He was when I first knew him, but before
I knew him he had been President of the National, the
NATD. Originally the ISTD went by the Ballroom Dancing
book. That was the technique book. When I took my Associate
I had to study from that book, it wasn't The Revised
Technique as it was in later years".
Pat: "Here's a typical thing; Alex used to be sitting
away typing and suddenly he'd get up, and my Mother
would be there, and he'd get up, no words were ever
spoken, he'd lift her off the chair, he'd do a couple
of turns and just leave her. He used to go back and
keep typing". Seeing this through the eyes of a
child, as Pat did, it must have seemed quite odd. In
1948 Alex Moore's Revised Technique of Ballroom Dancing
came into being, with the figures in chart form as they
are today. Not an easy task for Alex as he didn't type
properly, he typed with two fingers on each hand."
Our attention is once again drawn to the task at hand,
going through these boxes. Pat and Elizabeth explain
how Alex went all over the world to various competitions.
He was captain of the British Team when the team danced
in various team matches around the world. When they
had team matches the teams used to exchange gifts. It
seems that most of the memorabilia in these boxes are
trophies and gifts from the various team matches that
Alex attended over the years as Captain of the British
Team.
Elizabeth was working with Alex at the studio before
Pat was born. Pat jokes, "He had no idea of what
to do with children or how to treat them. He'd just
never thought about it until I came along." I asked:
"Did you spend time at the studio?" Pat: "I
didn't spend any time with my Father. I knew a lot of
people vaguely. My Mother was still working with Alex
and I had a cousin in Ireland and I remember being told
I was going on holiday, but I discovered in later years
that every time they couldn't find anyone to look after
me they used to ship me over to Ireland. My Mother was
Irish and she had family over there."
Alex spent a lot of time travelling. "I do remember
he spent most of his time in America as well as Germany,
Denmark, South Africa and the list goes on. His passport,
when they used to stamp passports in those days for
every trip, had four passports together. I used to watch
a TV show called 'Come Dancing' to get a glimpse of
him. In particular I remember him being away for the
whole month of June because that was Father's Day. Alex
travelled a great deal and in those days people didn't
travel as they do now. For example during the war they
were travelling in planes that were stripped down for
war. He was away a tremendous amount of time. But he
always had to come back in time to do the Monthly Letter
Service"
"I was sent off to boarding school at a very young
age. Boarding school is a great leveller because you
think that everybody leads the same life as you do.
That everybody's father, at three o'clock in the afternoon
puts on his evening jacket and goes off to work. You
think that that's perfectly normal".
"My Mother's Mother had a flat in Surbiton. After
he met my mother, obviously he was invited home. When
Alex saw the flat he said "What a lovely view,
I love this flat". Years later, after they were
married, his Mother-in-Law took a flat around the back
so he and his wife Pat could have her flat with the
beautiful view of the Thames. Pat still has the flat
to this day.
Elizabeth: "The Zeeta café over the bridge.
That was when I first went to the Alex Moore Studio.
It was Zeeta Dance Studios, Kingston-on-Thames. The
Zeeta Café was a big café by the Kingston
Bridge and they were on the corner". Pat: "That's
the original studio that must have been around 1936,
that's before they were married". Elizabeth: "and
then they decided that they were going to pull down
the building and Alex had to find somewhere else and
he found the one that you (Lori) came to, still Kingston-on-Thames.
This was called Zeeta Studio because people would write
to Zeeta Studio with no address and it would still get
there because it was so well known".
Lori: "did you dance Pat?" Pat: "If I
hadn't been any good I would have been an embarrassment.
If I had been good then I would have got to the finals
and because he was too honest he wouldn't have been
able to judge me." Lori: "But would you have
liked to dance?" Pat: "I loved dancing and
did Ballet. It was something to do and I enjoyed it."
Elizabeth: "I was thinking about you and remembered
that every time you came for a lesson or a class each
week, you always brought me something. I've still got
the mug upstairs which you gave me and I use it nearly
every day. But I love this mug and I was thinking gosh,
that's really old now because you were about seven when
you gave it to me".
Pat junior is a lovely grown lady now and her passion
is caring for abandoned and abused dogs at her home
in the country. I thank her for taking the time to meet
with me and sharing some of these personal memories
of her parents.
Lori Woods-Gay
Books
by Alex Moore:
Ballroom Dancing
first edition November 1936
The Revised Technique of Ballroom Dancing
first edition October 1948
Popular Variations
first edition June 1954
For more dance history read:
100 Years of Dance: a History of the ISTD Dance Examinations
Board’, Available through the ISTD.
1
The stencil was a type of paper that you would put in
the typewriter and as you would strike a key it would
make a hole in the paper the shape of the letter. This
paper in turn would be used in making multiple copies
of your document by using another specialized machine
and ink. When you made a mistake, a typo, you used this
fluid to fill the hole, let it dry and then redo the
correct letter.
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