Events (editors, publishers, format):
Charley Crabbe Thomas - Sept. 1945 - 1952 Publisher Charley Thomas from New Jersey
Rickey Holden - 1952 - Jul. 1956 Publisher Rickey Holden
Rickey Holden - Jul. 1956 - Aug. 1957 Publisher Frank Kaltman
June 1957 change in paper became heavier and thicker
Note: the September 1959 Issue says September 1958 on the cover
Rod LaFarge (managing editor) Sept. 1957 - September 1959
October 1959 Arvid Olson becomes Editor and Publisher
October 1968 Stan and Cathie Burdick become Editors and Publishers
January 1986 Sets In Order subscriptions are transferred to ASD increasing the no. of subscribers substantially.
January 1992 Jon and Susan Sanborn became editors and publishers. The magazine dimensions changed. It was published in California
December 1997 Ed and Pat Juiare became editors and publishers. The magazine again changed shape to a "TV Guide" size (5" X 7.5"). It was published in Rhode Island.
June 2003 William (Bill) and Randy Boyd became editors and publishers. The magazine changed to a 5.5x8.5 inch format with heavier paper. It was publsihed in Florida.
In 2020 Susanelaine Packer became publisher and it continued to be published in Florida.
In January 2022 Buddy Weaver became publisher. The magazine was then published both on-line and in paper copy.
The archive for these magazines is at the University of New Hampshire Digital Collections at URL https://scholars.unh.edu/american_squares/index.7.html .
This material is Copyright (C).
Originally the magazine was called American Squares
From June to September the magazine was not published as Ownership changed from Arvid Olson to Stan and Cathie Burdick. The name of the magazine was changed to Square Dance.
| Year\Month | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Magazine not published | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||||||||
| 1969 | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | Jun. | Jul. | Aug. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |
| 1970 | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | Jun. | Jul. | Aug. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |
| 1971 | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | Jun. | Jul. | Aug. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |
Between December 1971 and January 1972 the name of the magazine was changed from Square Dance to American Square Dance.
About Color -
There was unique use of color throughout the magazines. The cover and back page were generally done in color which meant that there could be color on other pages. Sometimes in the '50s the magazine was printed with colored ink usually purple, blue, or brown. However, by and large, the magazine was black and white. While scanning the pages to make the digital version, most of the pages which had some color were scanned in color. The rest of the pages were scanned as black and white to save scanning time and to give better resolution for the optical character recognition software which created the shadow text files which facilitate the search function.
Note: July 1956 issues was a smaller size on heavier non glossy paper. August 1956 issue was bigger than July but smaller than June on glossy paper. September 1956 issues was similar size and paper as June 1956.
About the magazine's names. Over its life time the magazine has changed names several times. These changes can be seen on the front pages and on the inside publishers information. If one looks at the document properties of the PDF files one will see that all issues contain the name American Square Dance, the month and year, and the publisher name. The name American Square Dance was used to be consistent and show that although the magazines had different names they were really a single series. In January 1972, Stan Burdick, editor at the time included the following paragraph describing the name:
* * * * * * * * * Will the Real * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SQUARE DANCE
Please Stand Up?No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you as you look on the cover of this issue. AMERICAN is back. And SQUAREDANCE is one word. The word NEW is gone forever.
After all, it has been over three years since we began to publish the magazine in Sandusky, Ohio. The "bantam" has come into full feather.
There are two reasons (good ones, we think) for the change. Old timers still say AMERICAN SQUARES in reference to our magazine. That was its first name, and it lasted for many years. It was a good name to begin with.
There are two great national magazines that chronicle our hobby . Since the names were similar, and that similarity has led to confusion in the minds of some, the renaming will help clarify the situation.
There is nothing exclusive intended in using the word AMERICAN. We hope our many Canadian subscribers will assume that AMERICAN means NORTH AMERICAN. And we're sure our subscribers in Turkey, Japan, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England, Spain, Germany and Belgium will recognize that TODAY's square dancing is essentially an American product (just as this magazine is an American product) but there are no international limitations. The saying goes that if a person speaks "square dance ," he's already bilingual.
So, we're ringing out the NEW for the New Year. And we're ringing IN the OLD and distinctive AMERICAN name for a good old American magazine.
However, when you see the word "SQUARE DANCE" in the title it does not seem to be one word as Stan says but there is a little extra space between E and D. Also in the mast head square is on one line and dance is on the next line. However in the publisher information square dance is all one word. Thus, in the property information we went with the first two instances feeling that there should be a space.
Last modified: February, 2022