WEIRD WEDNESDAY

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DANCE MARATHONS:

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Synopsis:

Dance marathons are events in which people dance or walk to music for an extended period of time. They started as dance contests in the 1920s and developed into human endurance contests, or exploitative entertainment events during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In the present day, dance marathons are commonly used as fundraisers. These modern marathons are usually 12–24 hours, a far cry from the 1,000-hour marathons of the 1930s.

The revival of the Olympic Games created a widespread interest in feats of strength, endurance contests, and world records that led to dance marathons.

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About:

As the prosperous 1920s faded into the struggling 1930s, dance marathons boomed and offered cash prizes equivalent to a year's salary. They provided contestants and spectators food, shelter and the opportunity to earn cash prizes at a time when many people needed a free meal. By the late 1930s, dance marathons had faded from the cultural landscape.

Participants had to remain upright and moving for 45 minutes out of every hour, around the clock.

A live band played at night, while a radio or record player often sufficed during the day. Contestants were expected to dance full-out during the heavily attended evening hours. Every few hours, a klaxon would sound and couples were allowed 15 minutes of rest in beds that were sometimes set up on the dance floor. These rest areas were segregated by sex.

Contestants trained themselves to drop instantly into deep sleep as soon as their bodies touched the cots. Women who did not get up were given smelling salts and sometimes slapped. Male contestants who were slow to wake were often dunked in a tub of ice water. In some cases, couples were linked together by dog chains, like prisoners. "Cot Nights," in which the beds from the rest areas were pulled out into public view so the audience could watch the contestants even during their brief private moments, were popular.

Contestants were required to continue the shuffling dance motion while they ate. Although the meals were simple foods like eggs, oatmeal or toast, in a time of great hunger food was a powerful inducement to contestants.

Dancers could often be seen dozing off while their partners held them up to keep their knees from hitting the ground (which would result in disqualification). To encourage lagging couples to continue moving, the floor judge sometimes used a ruler to flick the legs of contestants who were not shuffling with sufficient alacrity. Tasks such as eating, bathing, shaving, and reading the paper could be done while dancing.

Marathons took on an almost theatrical role for spectators, who gained a sadistic sense of pleasure from watching the participants physically suffer. Tickets were relatively affordable and the events provided cheap entertainment, although the public wasn't aware they were staged and dramatized. Marathons were usually somewhat rigged, or at least stacked, toward certain couples. Promoters' profits came from the spectators, returning night after night, cash in hand, to follow the action. Most promoters were known to have bad business practices, such as not paying for the event bills and ditching the contestants.

At the time of the dance marathon boom, many churches still considered dancing sinful. Social dancing was still scandalous enough for some promoters to call dance marathons by the more palatable name of "walkathons".

Movie theatre owners also objected to dance marathons, as dance marathons were a strong business competitor during the Great Depression.

As the dance marathon wore on and contestants became exhausted, contestants engaged in full-body contact rather than more distant social dance positions. This increased the feeling among some that dance marathons were licentious.

Some objected for humanitarian reasons. They believed it was wrong to charge money for the dubious privilege of watching people suffer. Extreme fatigue could compromise contestants' mental state and cause them to act out in disturbing ways.

Police also believed that marathons attracted an undesirable element to their towns.

On April 14, 1923, Homer Morehouse, aged 27, collapsed and died on the dance floor after dancing with his partner for 87 consecutive hours. Soon after, the City of Boston banned dance marathons. In 1928, Gladys Lenz danced for 19 straight hours at a Seattle marathon despite being punched in the face by a partner who appeared to be suffering from fatigue-induced psychosis. The couple received $50 for coming fifth while the winning couple won $1,000. Lenz attempted suicide soon after. Within the year, Seattle banned dance marathons.

Over time, the novelty of dance marathons wore off and by the late 1930s, many local authorities banned dance marathons.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a novel written by Horace McCoy and first published in 1935. The story mainly concerns a dance marathon during the Great Depression. It was adapted into Sydney Pollack's 1969 film of the same name.

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