100 years ago this week, the 1920's marathon dance craze provided inspiration for several of our best cartoonists, and a break from this here blog's preoccupation of late with gun violence.
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| "Breaking the Endurance Dancing Record" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1923 |
On Sunday, April 15, 1923, Magdeline Williams of Houston, Texas, gained national fame by dancing for 65.5 hours in a dance marathon, blowing past the previous record of 52 hours and 17 minutes, in a contest won by Samuel Glasser and Myrtle Smith of Baltimore, Maryland, the night before. (There were seven dancers still on the dance floor when theater owner Charles Whitehurst abruptly shut the Baltimore event down at 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning.)
Pretty Miss Magdelina Williams, winner in a recent Valentino beauty contest, danced steadily through two days and three nights and the greater part of the third day, while couple after couple dropped out around her. To the very last, there was very little evidence of exhaustion about her, and for a swan song, she staged as lively a one-step as she did on the first night.
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| "She Used to Belong to Our Dancing Club" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, April 18, 1923 |
The last man on the dance floor, Louis Kessler, was ruled off the floor at 2:27 p.m. Sunday when judges declared that he was unable to keep time with the music. Magdalene Williams vowed to continue dancing with the goal of making it to 72 hours, but objections by the dance hall owners and a note from her parents convinced her to bow out at 3:08.
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| "Having an Endurance Test of His Own" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 23, 1923 |
Houston and Baltimore were only two of several cities where marathoners were testing the limits of the Lindy and the Charleston. That New York would be on the list is only to be expected; Cleveland, being the home base of Dorman Smith and the NEA, naturally rates a mention. Apparently the craze extended to England and Australia as well (although, judging from Sidney Strube's cartoon below, the marathon in London was mere kid stuff next to those in Baltimore and Houston).
When I first saw Dorman Smith's cartoon, I misunderstood it to be about some whirlwind honeymoon planned by the very-soon-to-wed Albert, Duke of York. It's not. Turns out, the future George VI never did get around to taking in the romantic sights of Cleveland, Ohio.
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| "Our Marathon Entry" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 1923 |
To some, the dance marathon fad was a source of befuddled amusement. Daniel Fitzpatrick's cartoon brings together two characters from the Post-Dispatch's comics page: Bud Fisher's Augustus Mutt and Fontaine Fox's "The Powerful Katrinka." (If you're wondering who they are, I refer you back to my post here on Tuesday.)
What would Mrs. Mutt say?
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| "Tripping the Light Fantastic" by John Cassel in New York Evening World by April 23, 1923 |
Needless to say, some older folks were not so amused by the kids' antics. Clergymen called on the authorities to use "lunacy laws" to curtail the dance craze, and they weren't the only ones to hit on that idea.
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| "Where the Next Marathon Should Be Held" by Dennis McCarthy in Fort Worth Record, April 25, 1923 |
Maryland Commissioner for State Hygiene warned of health risks, including that "mental strain, which would be almost severe as physical, might leave a permanent impairment, a condition of mental instability, with periods of depression or of excitement."
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| "Her Partner" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, April 21,1923 |
My, that got dark quickly!
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| "Speaking of Marathon Dances" by Sidney Strube in London Daily Express by April 20, 1923 |
Meanwhile, some cartoonists seized on the dance marathon craze to comment on other current events. British cartoonist Sidney Strube here refers to the massive wartime loans his country promised to repay the United States — eventually. In Strube's scenario, the British Taxpayer would be dancing "the I-O-U Fox Trot" long after the next World War had come and gone.
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| "Destructive Dancing" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, April 20, 1923 |
Clifford Berryman adapted the dance craze motif for the communist regime in Russia, showing no signs of leaving the stage after 65.5 months in power.
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| "Here's Hoping He Goes After a World's Record" by Dennis McCarthy in Fort Worth Record, April 19, 1923 |
And I'm sorry, Dennis, but this one's a swing and a miss. Considering that the kids right there in Fort Worth had also vied for that coveted world record only to have local law enforcement shut them down after only twelve hours, this pitch was well outside the zone.
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| "Jazzed Up to Date" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 24, 1923 |
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