Ebook311 pages5 hours
The Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation and City Life
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this ebook
First published in 1932, The Taxi-Dance Hall is Paul Goalby Cressey’s fascinating study of Chicago’s urban nightlife—as seen through the eyes of the patrons, owners, and dancers-for-hire who frequented the city’s notoriously seedy “taxi-dance” halls.
Taxi-dance halls, as the introduction notes, were social centers where men could come and pay to dance with “a bevy of pretty, vivacious, and often mercenary” women. Ten cents per dance was the usual fee, with half the proceeds going to the dancer and the other half to the owner of the taxi-hall. Cressey’s study includes detailed maps of the taxi-dance districts, illuminating interviews with dancers, patrons, and owners, and vivid analyses of local attempts to reform the taxi-dance hall and its attendees.
Cressey’s study reveals these halls to be the distinctive urban consequence of tensions between a young, diverse, and economically independent population at odds with the restrictive regulations of Prohibition America. Thick with sexual vice, ethnic clashes, and powerful undercurrents of class, The Taxi-Dance Hall is a landmark example of Chicago sociology, perfect for scholars and history buffs alike.
Taxi-dance halls, as the introduction notes, were social centers where men could come and pay to dance with “a bevy of pretty, vivacious, and often mercenary” women. Ten cents per dance was the usual fee, with half the proceeds going to the dancer and the other half to the owner of the taxi-hall. Cressey’s study includes detailed maps of the taxi-dance districts, illuminating interviews with dancers, patrons, and owners, and vivid analyses of local attempts to reform the taxi-dance hall and its attendees.
Cressey’s study reveals these halls to be the distinctive urban consequence of tensions between a young, diverse, and economically independent population at odds with the restrictive regulations of Prohibition America. Thick with sexual vice, ethnic clashes, and powerful undercurrents of class, The Taxi-Dance Hall is a landmark example of Chicago sociology, perfect for scholars and history buffs alike.
Related to The Taxi-Dance Hall
Related ebooks
Ten Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Plays Of Roswitha Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGale Researcher Guide for: Karen Finley and Performance Art Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew York's Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Robbers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMixed Faith and Shared Feeling: Theater in Post-Reformation London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue-Collar Broadway: The Craft and Industry of American Theater Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEre Roosevelt Came: The Adventures of the Man in the Cloak - A Pan-African Novel of the Global 1930s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMisfits: Written by Anne Odeke, Guleraana Mir, Kenny Emson, Sadie Hasler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollywood's Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHysterical!: Women in American Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpring Awakening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadical Black Theatre in the New Deal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSketch Comedy: Identity, Reflexivity, and American Television Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Melancholy Baby: The First Ballads of the Great American Songbook, 1902-1913 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of Irving Berlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQueer Theory and the Jewish Question Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBAM... and Then It Hit Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Saint Joan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So You Want to be a Theatre Producer? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHamlet's Mirror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Career of Porgy and Bess: Race, Culture, and America’s Most Famous Opera Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5King John Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Richard III Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Porgy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Henry VI, Part 3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Milkcrate Monologues Vol.1: Hiphop Monologues for Theatre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men Explain Things to Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slaves in the Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Close Encounters with Addiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Taxi-Dance Hall
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Taxi-Dance Hall - Paul Goalby Cressey
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1