by Ken Denney
Get your glad rags on and don’t be a killjoy – the University of West Georgia is going back in time. On October 17, music from the Swing Era will flow from the Campus Center Ballroom as men in fedoras and women in knee-length dresses will be jumping and jiving for all they’re worth.
The effervescent Dr. Fred Richards will be emcee.
For one night only, UWG will be transported back to the 1940s as part of a special program to launch the traveling panel exhibit, “Over Here and Over There: Georgia and Georgians in World War II.” The exhibit will look at what life was like for servicemen in Europe and the Pacific, and all the folks they were fighting for back home.
It promises to be a truly unique event for UWG: a meticulously recreated night from 70 years ago, when Carrollton and the campus were both caught up in events on the other side of the world. Men and women in period dress will be dancing to a full, 20-piece jazz ensemble playing all the hit songs from the era, providing a virtual window into a time when dancing and music were a key part of raising morale and inspiring patriotism.
Like the exhibit itself, this event – “Swing Time: An Extravaganza of Big Band Music from the World War II Era” – is sponsored by the Ingram Library’s Penelope Melson Society. It begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 17, at the UWG Campus Center Ballroom. Dr. Fred Richards will be emcee and Dr. Daniel Bakos will lead his tuxedo-wearing band (the UWG Jazz Ensemble). If you don’t happen to own a zoot suit, that’s fine; period dress is encouraged, but not required and admission is free.
WOLF Internet Radio will do a live remote from the ballroom, where artifacts of the era will also be on display. And it is hoped that some of the veterans of the war will be on hand as special guests. Special parking has been arranged for the public.
“Swing Time” is just one of three programs centered on the Library’s exhibit. On Oct. 28, Charles Chamberlain, a specialist in Southern history and World War II will speak at the Library at 11 a.m. on how the war transformed Southern life. And at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, Dr. Jennifer Jensen Wallach of the University of North Texas, will discuss food rationing and price controls which were required of civilians so that more of the nation’s resources could be devoted to the war effort.
For more information on the event, visit uwglibrary.wordpress.com.
Ken Denney serves as the community representative of the Ingram Library's Penelope Melson Society.
