Popular Culture

South Carolina’s oldest official song is “Carolina,” with words by Henry Timrod (1828–1867) set to music by Anne (Annie) Custis Burgess (1874–1910).

State song. “South Carolina on My Mind” became an official state song in legislation approved by Governor Richard Riley on…

The Aiken Standard traces its origins to the short lived Aiken Press, which ran from 1867 to 1868, with the noted botanist Henry William Ravenel serving as its first editor.

Allison received mainstream recognition with her first novel, Bastard Out of Carolina (1992), which in 1996 was adapted to a film directed by Anjelica Huston.

The newspaper became the first in the state to publish daily on the Internet in 1995.

Anderson’s eclectic repertoire and engaging personality brought him national attention during the folk music revival of the early 1960s.

One of several southern journalists whose “liberal” views on desegregation and civil rights attracted national attention and local scorn, Ashmore won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials opposing Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus’s attempt to stop the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.

The dish is typical of the traditional lowcountry kitchen, and it accompanies the area’s unique, elaborate rice dishes.

The original edition of The Birds of America established Audubon’s reputation as America’s leading nature artist.

South Carolina barbecue is slowly cooked, hand-pulled or shredded pork that is flavored with a tangy sauce and usually served with side dishes such as rice, hash, coleslaw, sweet pickles, white bread, and iced tea.

Barrett wrote the scripts for some of Hollywood’s most successful film and television productions. Among his most popular films were The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Green Berets, and Smoky and the Bandit. His screenplay for the comedy The Cheyenne Social Club won a Writers Guild of America award in 1970. One of his most enduring works has been the film Shenandoah, whose star, James Stewart, became a good friend.

Perhaps the greatest triumph for any mill town came in 1936, when the Spartanburg American Legion team won the state’s first national championship in any sport by defeating a Los Angeles team in a five-game series (some twenty thousand fans attended the fifth and deciding game).

Bates had a desire to dance that persisted despite the loss of his leg. So, fitted with an artificial wooden limb—or “peg”—he adapted tap dancing steps to his own specifications.

Although separated by only a narrow strip of land, the two towns nevertheless developed distinct identities.

In later years a tamer version of the music grew in popularity as it became associated with the popular shag, now the state’s official dance.

White, who had begun working at a local drive-in at the age of eleven, was an astute businessman, a showman of sorts.

A morning newspaper, daily and Sunday, published in the city of Beaufort.

South Carolina has beauty pageants to celebrate almost every possible age, special interest, location, and agricultural product. The most famous of these is the Miss South Carolina pageant. Among the more well known of local contests are the Miss Sun Fun and Miss Bikini Wahine pageants, held during Myrtle Beach’s Sun Fun Festival.

Benton will be remembered for some of the songs he wrote and for his stylish delivery. Opinions differ about the lush strings that often accompanied him—roughly the R&B equivalent of the “Nashville Sound”—but his rich, gospel-inflected baritone recalled predecessors such as Billy Eckstine and set the stage for the explosion of “soul music” in the 1960s.

The Big Apple dance was popularized nationally when it was taken to Manhattan by University of South Carolina students. A combination of the square dance and various jazz routines of the 1920s, the Big Apple caught the attention of white college students who, encouraged by nightclub owner Fat Sam, paid 10¢ to watch dancers from the nightclub balcony.