Scope and Content
The collection includes manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, and videotapes which document the activities from 1946 to 2002 of a traditional American square and contra dance group, the Fun Finders, from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Fun Finders was organized as an exhibition square dance group by W. Dean Edwards, who directed the group from the 1940s through the 1980s with his wife Peggy Edwards. Sound and video recordings of square dance calling and instructional videos for square and contra dancing are included.
First organized by W. Dean Edwards in the late 1940s as an exhibition square dance group, the Fun Finders, and its orchestra, the Hoedown-Aires, quickly grew and provided a venue for hundreds of recreational folk dancers in the Colorado Springs community. This collection documents Fun Finders callers and members, as well as recreational dances from the early 1940s and the expansion of the group’s activities beginning in the mid 1950s. Notable dances and activities are organized by event, including participation in choreographing and calling the square dance scenes for the 1978 film, Comes a Horseman (starring Jane Fonda, James Caan, and Jason Robards); dance programming at the Colorado Deaf and Blind School; exhibition dance programming; and a retrospective exhibit of the Fun Finders at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in 2001.
Audio recordings in the collection include eight programs from the Fun Finders Square Dance television show, which aired for three years on the local CBS and NBC affiliated television stations KKTV and KRDO respectively during the 1950s; five duplicate recordings used in the Fun Finders Instructional and Historical Videos; and thirteen commercial recordings of square dance and contra music.
Graphic images in the collection include photographic images from all of the recreational, instructional, and special programming events, including photo images of dance partners and callers. Events #34 and #44, which would have been found in folders 41 and 53, were not submitted with the collection.
Video recordings include one 6-video set, Fun Finders Instructional and Historical Videos, produced by Dean and his wife Peggy Edwards in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a collaboration between the Fun Finders and the Colorado Springs 11th School District. Also included are recordings of square dance events in Bancroft and Acacia Park in the late 1980s and 7-Up promotional commercials, from the 1960s in Colorado Springs, one of which features square dancing with W. Dean Edwards as the caller.