Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers and dance teachers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films in the early 20th century.

Irene became a fashion icon through her appearances on stage and in early movies, and both Castles were in demand as teachers and writers on dance.

After serving with distinction as a pilot in the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I, Vernon died in a plane crash on a flight training base near Fort Worth, Texas, in 1918.

Initially training to become a civil engineer, he moved to New York in 1906 with his sister, Coralie Blythe, and her husband Lawrence Grossmith,[1] both established actors.

[2] As a dancer in comedic roles, his specialty was playing a gentleman drunk, who elegantly fell about the stage while trying to hide his condition.

The two were soon the rage of Parisian society; their success was widely reported in the United States, preparing their way for a triumphant return to New York in 1912.

At Castle House, they taught New York society the latest dance steps by day and greeted guests and performed at their club and cafe at night.

Despite their fame, they often found themselves treated as hired menials; if a rich client was too demanding, Vernon would quote a fee of a thousand dollars an hour for lessons and often get it.

Considered paragons of respectability and class, the Castles specifically helped remove the stigma of vulgarity from close dancing.

The pair's image as a harmoniously married couple further promoted the Progressive Era ideals of a wholesome domestic relationship that was achievable through social dance.

As the couple's celebrity increased in the mid-1910s, Irene Castle became a major fashion trendsetter, initiating the vogue for shorter, fuller skirts and loose, elasticized corsets.

[8] The elegant, yet simple, flowing gowns Irene wore on stage and screen were regularly featured in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and other fashion magazines.

[citation needed] In 1915, Vernon decided to fight in World War I and began flight school in the U.S., leaving the touring cast of Watch Your Step.

The Castles gave two farewell performances at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York in January 1916, accompanied by John Philip Sousa and his band.

[20] The grieving memorial figure kneeling on the grave was created by Irene's friend, the American sculptor Sally James Farnham.

Irene starred solo in about a dozen silent films between 1917 and 1924, including Patria (1917), and appeared in several more stage productions before retiring from show business.

[25] Around 1930, "the best-dressed woman in America" presented serialized, quarter-hour radio dramatizations of her European travels with her husband, bulldog Zowie, and Walter ("father's coloured servant") around the capitals of Europe in "The Life of Irene Castle".

[27] She objected to Rogers' inauthentic wardrobe demands, although a number of Castle's original Lucile gowns were copied for the movie.

[28] For the rest of her life, Castle was a staunch animal-rights activist,[29] ultimately founding the Riverwoods, Illinois, animal shelter "Orphans of the Storm" in 1928, which is still active as of 2023.