When being banned in Boston really meant something

By adamg on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 9:20am

Not Whitey Bulger reposts a 1913 Globe story:

By orders of Mayor Fitzgerald yesterday, improper dances of all kinds are excluded from the public dance halls of Boston. The prohibition includes all the so-called animal dances, such as the turkey trot, bunnie hug, bear dance, etc, also the kitchen sink, tango and other extravagances. ...

However, one restriction would seem like a loosening of the moral code to us sophisticated 21st-century types:

No dance shall continue after 3 o'clock a.m. unless by written permission of the Mayor,and not later than 11:45 Saturdays.

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Comments

you guys missed it!

By bostnkid
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:11am

i had a note from the mayor so me and my boys (and our young lady friends) were doing the bunnie hug all night!

oh that immoral kitchen sink

By Spatch
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:24am

I'm curious as to how one danced the Kitchen Sink. Must've been a dance that had everything in it, eh?

Pretty placid

By Gareth
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:29am

Until they flipped that switch.
Then they could grind chicken bones.

Suggestive Plumbing?

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:32am

Or was it all that junk underneath that made it so nasty?

Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:35am

All you need for an wickedly illegal good time in 1913!

whisky, tango, foxtrot

By bostnkid
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:42am

wtf?

3 am restriction

By Ron Newman
Mon, 06/09/2008 - 1:20pm

Could this provision have been an attempt to regulate or prohibit dance marathons?

Dance marathons didn't come into vogue until the early 1920s and really hit their stride during the Depression ("They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" paints a pretty bleak picture of the event.) I think it's pretty clear this late-night dance ban was just another example of the long-standing Boston tradition to roll the sidewalks up before the T closes and shame anyone who wants to think otherwise.

(Now did Boston ever have a six-day bicycle race? Hmm...)