Dance Marathons: Performing American Culture of the 1920s and 1930s (Performance Studies)

This penetrating analysis of one of the most extraordinary fads ever to strike America details how dance marathons manifested a potent from of drama. Between the two world wars they were a phenomenon in which working-class people engaged in emblematic struggles for survival. Battling to outlast other contestants, the dancers hoped to become notable. There was crippling exhaustion and anguish among the contenders, but ultimately it was the coupling of authentic pain with staged displays that made dance marathons a national craze. Within the well-controlled space of theatre they revealed actual life's unpredictability and inconsistencies, and, indeed, the frightful aspects of social Darwinism. In this grotesque theatrical setting we see also a horrifying metaphor - the ailing nation grappling with difficult times. Frontmatter Illustrations (page ix) Foreword (page xi) Acknowledgments (page xiii) Introduction (page xv) 1. COMMON HEROES (page 3) 2. THE DANCE DERBY OF THE CENTURY (page 22) 3. FOR NO GOOD REASON (page 40) 4. PRIVATE FANTASY AND PUBLIC AMBIVALENCE (page 68) 5. HAL J. ROSS: Cunning, Smart, and Slick (page 87) 6. THE NATIONAL ENDURANCE AMUSEMENT ASSOCIATION (page 111) 7. UNNEGOTIABLE REALITIES (page 129) Appendix (page 147) Notes (page 161) Sources (page 171) Index (page 177) Suggests That Dance Marathons Were A Symptom Of America's Troubled Times Between World Wars, With A Look At The Evolution Of The Craze