Let’s remember when Bellingham outlawed dance marathons, on this day in 1931 (January 26)
It’s like Footloose came to Bellingham, during the Great Depression.
Per HistoryLink:
On January 26, 1931, Bellingham City Council passes Ordinance №5204 prohibiting “continuous performance,” i.e. dance marathons. A dance marathon being staged concurrently at the State Street Auditorium prompts the Council’s emergency measure. Dance marathons (often called Walkathons) are human endurance contests in which couples dance almost non-stop for hundreds of hours (as long as a month or two), competing for prize money.
Dance marathons were spectator events and performative endurance contests. Audiences paid 10 cents to 25 cents to watch contestants shuffle, sleep on their feet, dance, and entertain 24 hours a day. Contestants could rest 12 minutes out of every hour, and were fed 12 times each day. They were subjected to elimination events that grew increasingly sadistic as the marathon wore on.
In hindsight, it might sound silly: “City bans dancing for long stretches of time!” but they were often exploitative and would cruelly offer contestants food and shelter, during the Depression, for only as long as they continued dancing. Some contests ran for months.
This fascinating history of dance marathons tells how they were so exploitative:
Sports and entertainment promoters also realized that such events could be commercialized as a form of mass entertainment. Contests that could drag on for weeks, or up to six months, became widespread. Weaved into these affairs were performances, live band busic, and specialty numbers, all fuelled by promoters’ desires to make as much as money as possible. Dramatic situations such as races and elimination contests were staged just to force the marathons to continue for months.
Such marathons took a huge mental and physical toll on contestants, but participation continued because of the economic desperation during the Depression.
Dancers would participate in such marathons just for the meals provided and the chance to win cash. Once a partner’s knees hit the floor, the couple would be disqualified. Some hoped for film careers, but only a minority who had been veteran dancers before their competition days, such as June Havoc and Red Skelton, made it after the marathons ended.
Society generally disapproved of the cultural phenomenon, and was even banned in some areas. For example, Seattle banned the practice in 1928 after a woman attempted suicide for coming in fifth in a contest after 19 days of dancing. Washington state also banned the contests in 1937.
Fortunately, dance marathons became less and less popular over time and you really don’t see them too often (and not for weeks or months at a time). If there is one thing that’s been constant in American history, it’s the desire of capitalists to exploit the misfortune of others for profit and amusement.
For further reading:
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