MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Dance Marathon: 1923

Washington, D.C. "Marathon dancers. April 20, 1923." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.

Washington, D.C. "Marathon dancers. April 20, 1923." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Oh, Mr. Crotchety...

Of course you are right...a wood-chopping marathon would be SO much more efficient and would provide many orphanages and charities with wood for the winter, but do you really want strapping, sleep-deprived young men staggering around with axes?

Besides, young women need a legitimate excuse to be held--for hours on end--in the arms of, let's say, the exquisitely-built young man in the vest on the far left of the photo above!

They Shoot Horses...

I certainly remember that movie. I remember finding it on tv one rainy Saturday afternoon and I was completely enthralled with it. Such a good film.

High Heels

Ballroom dancing is done primarily on one's toes. The high heel provided something to lean back on without putting one's heel all the way down to the floor thus stretching the achilles tendon. Worked for me.

Ax to Grind

But where is the entertainment value in cleaning houses or chopping wood?
They would have invented reality shows decades earlier if they listened to that curmudgeon.

The plain truth

Of course I'm sure that our Washington letter writer did something just as frivolous as marathon dancing when he was a young man, just as I'm sure that when these people became parents of teenagers they decried the practice of wearing "bobby sox" and standing in line to scream for "Frankie." After all parents have always walked 10 miles to school through waist deep snow uphill - both ways - and the younger generation is always spoiled to the edge of criminality by the luxuries that their parents never had.

Why Not Chop Wood?

(A crotchety writer at the Washington Post chimes in on the foolishness of the day's young people - PER)

Washington Post, April 20, 1923

Not even Washington, a capital city that should set the nation an example in the resistance to inanity, is immune from the dance bug - marathon variety. No more can Washingtonians smile with tolerant pity over the outbreak of the dance-endurance mania that has been sweeping other communities - for the city now has two marathons of its own.

If young enthusiasts must try out their powers of endurance, why not stage a contest that would mean something? Instead of competition in dancing, why not in scrubbing or sweeping or laundering or sewing or chopping wood or any of a thousand really useful lines? Victory in such contests would really count. The victors would have something to boast of instead of being pointed out as the silliest of mortals.

And the winner is...

I'm willing to bet the couple in the middle won, they were able to keep their eyes open and don't look like they want to cry. Can't say the same for the other two couples, poor things.

Torture, not fun

Anyone besides me remember "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," set in 1935, with Jane Fonda, 1969. They danced for money and dropped from exhaustion and pain. Kinda sad.

Happy Faces

Wow! They don't look too happy - they must have been there quite awhile. Of course if I wore heels to a dance marathon, I would not be a happy camper! Great pic. Thanks for all the great photos.

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.