By Annette Hinkle
What would you do for a million dollars?
That is the question TV viewers around the world look to have answered when they tune into their favorite reality show of the week. Though programs like The Amazing Race, Survivor and Fear Factor seem to speak to a modern day trend where people will do anything to make a buck, in fact, it’s not really an original idea at all.
Back in the 1920s and ‘30s at the height of the Depression, another form of endurance was all the craze — dance marathons. Though it’s a phenomenon not well known by most people today, in many ways, dance marathons were truly the nation’s first reality shows. Couples (who often didn’t even know each other) would spend weeks and in some cases months dancing in local community halls on the slim chance that they might take home $1,500 in prize money.
The rules required that couples dance 24 hours a day — with a 10 minute break each hour. During prime time evening hours when halls were packed with audience members, couples were required to dance full out to a live band. The rest of the time, they danced to Victrola music and could simply sway in each others arms (often while one partner was sleeping). But they had to keep moving and because they were so sleep deprived, the 10 minute breaks were used solely for that, which meant couples did virtually everything else — including eating — on their feet.
But there were complications — including a cast of “fellow dancers” (in many cases thugs) hired by the company sponsoring the spectacle. Sabotage, poisoning and stress inducing elimination rounds were employed to move the competition along when management was ready to pull up stakes and head on to the next town.
Eric Jacobson has been fascinated by dance marathons since seeing the film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” as a child, and this weekend, his Springs based theater company, The Jacobson Center for the Performing Arts, presents his original play “For No Good Reason: True Stories of the Dance Marathons of the 1930s.” The show runs November 11 to 13 at Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater and features a cast of two dozen local actors.
Jacobson, who has a BFA in musical theatre, moved to the East End 10 years ago and founded his theater company in 2006 along with Joan Lyons (the group’s business and administrative director) and Joanne O'Brien (the musical director). While performances like “For No Good Reason” represent the most visible manifestation of the center’s work, it is far more than that.
The primary goal of the Jacobson Center is education, and through a nine-month program that in the past has run from September to May, the center has created a junior company for actors ages 8 to 12 and a pre-professional preparatory company made up of teens and adults. During the course of the program, company members learn all aspects of musical theatre — from vocals to acting and dancing.
And those dancing skills will certainly be put to the test with this production, which will offer real insight into the largely unknown world of dance marathons.
“I’ve been writing this show for 10 years, but there are only two books in existence on dance marathons,” says Jacobson. “So I sought out people across the country who participated or whose family members did. One character in the play could be a composite of five different interviews. I’m trying to pay homage to these people.”
The age of the cast ranges from 16 to 51, and Jacobson admits that the concept was initially a foreign one to the actors.
“We really had to educate them on marathons,” he says. “We showed them clips of one partner completely asleep in the arms of another.”
“The cast members have to form a relationship with each other,” Lyons says. “It’s very physical and close. You have to put yourself in these people’s situation.”
“We try to keep it as historically accurate as we can,” she adds. “The actors need to do their homework and learn the vernacular, fashion, sayings, the financial situation and the political climate which influences what they do on stage and to each other.”
Jacobson explains that dance marathons became popular largely because they exploited the most vulnerable members of society at the height of the Depression — the unemployed, homeless and hungry. As long as a marathon lasted, he says, dancers had a roof over their head and regular meals. And if they outlasted the competition, they could sometimes walk away with a sizable payday for their efforts.
But there were always the paid villains to look out for.
“They would entertain the audience and do things like put glass in dancers shoes,” says Jacobson. “The audience hated them, but loved the antics — they had security standing over them so audience members wouldn’t attack them.”
Jacobson recalls that one former marathon dancer interviewed for the play told the story of how he experienced a bad toothache in the midst of a dance competition he was taking part in.
“They dragged him to the floor, poured whiskey down his throat and took pliers and yanked out his tooth,” recalls Jacobson. “The blood exploded and the crowd loved it … and it was the wrong tooth.”
Lyons adds that on top of those sorts of antics, there were elimination features designed to speed up the competition. One such event involved female partners taking part in lap races around the perimeter of the dance floor — fighting often broke out between contestants, and the competition gave rise to roller derby as we know it today.
Jacobson says that the longest dance marathon on record lasted four months. While they were participating, contestants never saw daylight and they knew nothing of what was going on in the outside world other than what the emcee chose to tell them — which was often lies.
“You have to think of people’s desperation,” says Lyons. “What would make you so desperate to do that and how do you portray that on stage?”
Lyons, who is one of the dancers in the show, is beginning to understand. She explains that even a four hour rehearsal for this show in heels truly feels like a marathon.
“Imagine doing it 24/7 with only 240 minutes to lay down each day,” she adds.
“It’s fear factor times 1,000,” adds Jacobson. “Nightclub entertainers met by gladiators.”
“For No Good Reason: True Stories of the Dance Marathons of the 1930s” will be presented at the John Drew Theater (158 Main Street, East Hampton) November 11 to 13, 2011. Shows are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling (516) 236-6970 or by visiting www.jacobsoncenter.org.
Top: The cast of “For No Good Reason” in a dance marathon session.
