Taxi Dance Hall - Patrons

Patrons

Perhaps the most insightful document concerning the taxi dance halls of the 1920s is a sociology study written by sociologist Paul G. Cressy. His study, entitled The Taxi-Dance Hall, was first started in 1925 and published in 1932. The 300-page study gives a full history of the taxi dance hall, descriptions inside the taxi dance halls of the 1920s, and contains interviews with taxi dancers and patrons alike. Cressey attempts to analyze the phenomena of taxi dance halls as they pertained to the human needs of American city dwellers during early 20th century.

Cressy created nine categories to describe the types of patrons:

• Racial or ethnic groups denied acceptance elsewhere.
• Caucasian immigrants, frequently from a European country. Italians, Poles, Greeks, and Jews predominated.
• Older men, approaching fifty, who want to rival younger men in courting young women. They were sometimes divorced, widowers, or deserters.
• Married men whose marriages are suffering, seeking the clandestine adventures of the taxi dance hall.
• Lonely, isolated strangers who might be from a rural area or smaller city, and are new to the ways of the city.
• The footloose globe trotter who has a very mobile lifestyle.
• The slummer, men of higher incomes who wish to see how the other half lives.
• Men who suffer from physical abnormalities or disabilities.
• The fugitive, someone who might have a criminal background or suffers from local condemnation.

Cressy goes on to describes the male patrons of taxi dance halls as being a varied and occasionally motley crew:

"Young men and boisterous youths... gray-haired men in their sixties... brown skinned Filipinos... Chinese waiters... pudgy men of forty or fifty who dance awkwardly... rough and ready fellows who seem unable to assimilate completely some of the modes of city life... a few spectacled well groomed middle-aged men who move quietly, politely... and finally, there are a few men, handicapped by physical disabilities, for whom the taxi dancer's obligation to accept all-comers makes the establishment a haven of refuge. The dwarfed, maimed, and pock-marked all find social acceptance here; and together with the other variegated types they make of the institution a picturesque and rather pathetic revelation of human nature and city life.

In general, the patrons of the early 20th century taxi dance halls were rarely businessmen or professional people, but were typically skilled or semi-skilled workers of the lower middle class. Frequently the patrons experienced social obstacles that prevented them from seeking feminine company through more traditional means. For the socially ostracized, the taxi dance hall became oasis where they could temporarily experience a sense of equality, recognition, and sometimes a fantasy of romance.

For others of a more individualized nature, the taxi dance hall became an interesting diversion that allowed dancing and feminine company without the restrictions of more traditional customs. Cressy interviews a patron who describes:

"I'm in and out of the city quite a good deal. I usually spend about two weeks a month in Chicago, and when I'm in the city I often come here. This hall has the finest girls of any in the city. Many of them are very nice girls and some are positively beautiful. I don't believe I'd enjoy the Lonesome Club. There aren't any attractive girls over there. Much of my enjoyment in dancing comes from being near a beautiful young girl who is graceful in her movements and is a good dancer. I only really enjoy being among young people and these are the only ones I have a chance to meet and know. Associating with them helps keep me young. Just to associate with these hopeful and enthusiastic people young people a few hours a week is better than any tonic... No, I don't attempt to secure dates with these girls. They aren't interested in a man of my age. However, that doesn't keep me from enjoying them here... I don't feel out of place here. As a matter of fact, I really enjoy my dancing here more than I would at some important social gathering. When I was operating my clothing factory in New York City, and my wife was living, I used to go out in society quite a little. But there were always some restraints. At a social function I had to dance with certain women, not because they were good dancers or were attractive women, but because they were the wives of some friends of mine or of someone else who was influential. But at this establishment I don't have to dance with a girl unless she is attractive to me, and I can stop dancing whenever I want -- and there are no further obligations. A man is absolutely free here... But even if I could arrange it, I'm not certain I would want to. It would involve some social responsibilities I might not want to assume."