#dance marathons

Competitors in a dance marathon at Madison Square Garden, June 11, 1928. Victor Tomie carries his partner, Della Keenes's shoes while she dances shoeless.

The formal idea of a dance marathon emerged in the early 1920s, after a New York dance instructor named Alma Cummings decided to see if she could achieve the world record for longest continuous dance. According to a report in the News-Journal of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Cummings started just before seven o’clock in the evening on March 31, 1923, and danced the waltz, foxtrot, and one-step for twenty-seven hours straight, fueled by snacks of fruit, nuts, and near-beer, and exhausting six male partners in the process. Her achievement inspired copycats and competitors, and before long, promoters started offering group dance marathons that hybridized sports, social dancing, vaudeville, and nightlife as a form of rivalry and entertainment.

1997

“Steel Pier” is a musical with music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by David Thompson.  It was originally produced on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theatre from April 24 to June 28, 1997 (33 previews, 76 performances).  

Unlike most musicals of previous generations, the show received no out-of-town tryouts or regional theatre premiere before heading to Broadway. The UK premiere ran at the Union Theater, London, from October 31 to November 24, 2012.

The show is set in Atlantic City in 1933 on the famous Steel Pier (and briefly in Trenton NJ) and deals with the world of dance marathons, one of the many things the actual Pier was famous for.  

Despite its brief run, the show earned 11 1997 Tony Award nominations, but lost in every category. It starred Gregory Harrison, Karen Ziemba, Daniel McDonald, Debra Monk, and in her Broadway debut, Kristin Chenoweth.  It was directed by Scott Ellis with choreography by Susan Stroman.

The subject matter (dance marathons) was previously covered in the 1969 film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”.  However, this film was set on a pier in California, not New Jersey. 

During the play, one of the characters is dressed as the embodiment of Fralinger's salt water taffy, a real-life brand that is still associated with Atlantic City. 

Today, there is also a confectioner named Steel Fudge, that uses the Steel pier font in its name, but is otherwise not connected to the pier or the musical.  

“When I was six years old, I even went to the Steel Pier a number of times, at the exact period that the show takes place. You know how when you’re a little kid, certain things happen that you never stop being able to visualize? The ambience of that place stayed with me.” ~ John Kander, composer

The actual Steel Pier circa 1933.  The pier was once billed as “The Show Place of the Nation” and featured a wide range of diverse entertainments and amusements.  The high diving horse was probably one of the most famous attractions of the pier.  The pier was advertised as a “Vacation Unto Itself”.  

Today’s Steel Pier is mainly a location for amusement park rides. 

The musical “Steel Pier” has gone on to a life in community and school theatres, with some post-Broadway tinkering from the original creators to clarify the story.

Dance marathons began to gain popularity in 1923 as a fun endurance event. By the Depression era 1930s, these competitions were often made into exhausting and exploitative spectacles that abused the financial desperation of the contestants.

Promoters encouraged drama and created conflict between couples with different personas, the wholesome "sweetheart couple" the majority rooted for, or the "trouble maker" baddies. The trick was to get audience members to identify with a favourite and get invested in their fortunes.

To mix things up and bring the competition to a conclusion before audiences lost interest and stopped coming, putting them out of pocket, promoters could also change the rules as they went along, for instance reducing rest times, or imposing dance numbers to tire competitors out.

However, "the main attraction of the show continued to be the surviving contestants struggling to keep each other in an upright position after walking forty miles a day[...] They slapped faces, punched jaws and kicked in the shins. Such acts were greeted with cheers from the 'sporting element', spectators who wagered which team would hold up longest under such abuse."