Romance online exhibition

Ladies night dance programme, 1970s

Archive reference D/MIL/10/5

It can be difficult to find that special someone, especially if you are a shy person in an unfamiliar place like a cruise liner. In the 1970s the British India Steam Navigation Company (P&O), encouraged passengers to mingle with each other, and maybe even find romance, at Ladies nights and other similar themed events.

You might think that the female passengers on a Ladies night would be pampered and spoilt by attentive men all evening. However, the rules listed on the back of the dance programme from the Maritime Archives and Library would suggest quite the opposite:

'Rules.

1. The evening shall be known as Ladies night .
2. The Ladies shall at all times seek out the gentlemen for partners.
3. The Ladies shall make sure the gentlemen are always comfortably seated.
4. The Ladies shall ascertain that the gentlemen's cigars are always alight and that a glass of their favourite beverage is always at hand.
5. The Ladies shall behave with decorum at all times.'

List of rules from the back of the programme

It is hard to imagine ladies on a night out in the 21st century adhering to a set of rules like this, esecially the last one!

Inside the programme is a list of dances with space for the ladies to write the name of their dance partner for each one:

1. Opening Quick Step
2. Waltz
3. Modern Mixture
4. Old Tyme Selection - Veleta, St Bernard's Gay Gordons
5. Fox Trot
6. Interval Waltz
   Interval for 15 minutes
7. Quick Step
8. Latin American Mixture
9. Modern Mixture
10. Old Tyme Waltz
11. Foxtrot
12. The Last Waltz