Vintage Twirler Blog
The Vintage Twirler Blog is the comprehensive collection of all posts on this site. A team manages the site. Consequently, we publish posts quite frequently. These include photo essays and single, iconic images; original interviews; memoirs; testimonials; tributes; memorials; obituaries and more. In addition, all posts have an overarching category, the link for which appears in the dateline of each post. At the end of each post are tags. These are much more specific to the post. For example, “1940s” is a category while “World War II” is a tag. Basically, users can explore content by clicking on various categories and tags. Have fun exploring!
Paulette Braun: Circus Twirler, Wire Walker and Photographer
Omaha native Paulette Braun was a baton twirler, juggler and wire walker who performed with the circus and appeared as a halftime entertainer with the Harlem Globetrotters before beginning a second career as a professional animal photographer. Braun performed during...
Carolyn Brown Shrewsbury: Acrobat, Majorette and Gymnastics Pioneer
Long before Carolyn Brown Shrewsbury (circa 1942-) began teaching generations of young gymnasts, she was the youngster onstage doing the things that seemed nearly impossible. Brown, who grew up in Maryland, began performing as a child in the 1950s. Photographs from...
Billie Mahoney: From Baton Twirler to Dance Legend
Billie Mahoney once lost a baton in Korea. She was standing on a hill entertaining American troops during the Korean War when she tossed it high into the air. A strong wind caught the baton and carried it into a river about 50 feet behind her. Fortunately, she had...
Represent Your State as a Twirling Historian
The Baton Twirling Preservation Society is looking for volunteers from across the country to help preserve and document the history of baton twirling, one state at a time. Twirling Historians will help uncover the people, places, photographs and stories that shaped...
Ted and Flo Vallett
This photograph was recreated from a newspaper clipping using AI-assisted restoration. Care was taken to preserve the original details as accurately as possible; however, some features may be a close likeness rather than an exact representation of the couple.Ted and...
Heavenbound: The Girl in the Moon Dead at 96
Girl in the Moon was a Wisconsin Majorette For more than a century, Miller High Life’s “Girl in the Moon” has been one of America’s most recognizable advertising icons. First introduced in 1907, the image of a young woman seated on a crescent moon with a bottle of...
Lorna Nifong Twirled Her Way From the Barnyard to the Big Top
In the spring of 1949, 17-year-old Lorna Mae Nifong left her family’s 335-acre farm in Bourbon, Indiana, for a job most teenage twirlers could only dream about. She had never set foot on a train and was still working toward her high school diploma, but her destination...
A Snowy Day in 1961
Screenshot restored with AI software On a snowy day in January 1961, Sharon Ann Morris, head majorette, Deering High School Marching Band, Portland, Maine, climbed aboard one of three silver passenger buses and headed for Washington, D.C. She, along with her fellow...
August 2026 Vintage Twirler of the Month
Katherine “Kitty” Clark is the August 2026 Vintage Twirler of the Month. If you are a paid member of the Baton Twirling Preservation Society, you will receive your FREE sticker of Katherine by mid-August. This is the third sticker we’ve distributed since our launch...
This Week in Twirling (July 25, 2026)
Twirling news is featured every week on the Vintage Twirler's Substack, HoopLa. Click here to read this FREE issue. , which includes an update about a full-length in which twirling drives the narrative. FYI: It is a French film. HoopLa Plus HoopLa Plus is for paid...
Once upon a time, there was a chimpanzee named Candy who became a majorette.
Carol Green's School of Baton operated from 1966 to 1973 at 315 Baty Street in Elmira, New York. Owned and directed by Carol R. Green, the school offered instruction in baton twirling, drums, and color guard. Its performing unit, Carol's Coquettes Drum and Baton...
Twirling Photo of the Day: Phyllis Jean Vanderkerckhove and Roland Popp (c. 1956)
Phyllis Jean Vanderkerckhove (1943-2021) and Ron Popp (1941-2019) twirled together in Rock Island, Illinois in the 1950s. Records of Popp's involvement in twirling cannot be documented beyond 1951, however, Vanderkerckhove went on to appear in Who's Who in Baton...
Allez ma fille: Baton Twirling Is Coming to the Big Screen
Competitive baton twirling is headed back to the movies. French filmmaker Chloé Jouannet is expanding her 2024 award-winning short film Allez ma fille (My Little Girl) into a feature-length motion picture scheduled for release in 2027. The original 15-minute comedy...
World Jump Day (Today’s Vintage Twirler)
World Jump Day World Jump Day traces its roots to a whimsical 2006 art project that challenged millions of people to jump at the exact same moment to "move" the Earth and fight global warming. While physics says that wasn't going to happen, the idea of everyone...
Billie J. Pucciarello, International Coach, Entrepreneur and USTA Leader
The baton twirling community lost one of its most influential ambassadors today with the passing of Billie J. Pucciarello (1936-2026), known to generations of students simply as “Miss Billie.” A Galveston native and graduate of Ball High School, Pucciarello built an...
Harry Blake: 1962 National Baton Champion, Basketball Standout and Texas Hall of Fame Band Director
Harry Blake, NMHU Feature Twirler, 1958-1963, performs a flying straddle split with baton toss, 1958. This signature athletic move showcased the strength and showmanship of the era's top male baton twirlers. (Photo courtesy of NMHU; restored gently with AI software.)...
Sonie (Sandra) Rogers Sloan Fisher (Miss Majorette of America 1953)
SOURCE: North Berrien Historical Museum on Facebook Sonie Rogers is pictured far left. In addition to twirling, she was a football cheerleader at Watervliet HIgh School. Sandra "Sonie" Swaim (nee Rogers) of Watervliet, Michigan, emerged as one of the nation’s leading...
Photographer Ann Madden’s Whole Heart Belongs to Vintage Baton Twirlers
Madden's Majorettes and Drum Major Ann Dinwiddie Madden is a photographer and mixed media artist whose work gives new life to vintage photographs. Using collage, paint, and found materials, she creates one-of-a-kind pieces that honor the people and stories captured...