Jazz Steps Rule

1919

They'd Rather Dance Than Eat, Parisians Decide.

PARIS, France — Paris has definitely decided she would rather dance than eat.

What's more, she has forced the prefect of police to recognize her preference, and as a consequence, an order closing thirty dance halls, recently issued, has been modified.

The dance halls now may remain open until 11 o'clock and, in recognition of the demands of the dancers, no favorites are being played; cafes, bars, restaurants, theaters and the "movie" houses must close at the same time. These latter establishments had been permitted to remain open until 1 a.m.

Jazz Music Not a Nuisance

Feb. 1920

Los Angeles County Judge Refuses to Give Relief to Disturbed Nerves

Los Angeles, Cal. — Jazz music is not a nuisance, according to a decision by Judge Lewis R. Works, in the Los Angeles county superior court. The city of Pasadena had brought suit against a social club, whose neighbors complained its jazz music "jarred on their nerves."

"Once jazz music might have been construed as a nuisance," Judge Works said. "It is no longer so construed. If the music disturbed the residents of the neighborhood, I am sorry, but this court cannot give them relief."


Wealthy Pauper

In a cheap lodging house in William street, New York, an aged man died, leaving a will showing that he was wealthy enough to live in a brownstone mansion in Fifth avenue. He was Edward Campion, aged sixty-five. Why he chose the habitat of the "down-and-outer" may remain a mystery. The house is one of those where the unfortunate can get "bath and bed" for 15 or 25 cents.

In his will, Campion disposes of several valuable parcels of Manhattan property, as well as real estate in other sections, in addition to considerable cash, to two daughters and three sons.

Couple, 109 and 104, Join "Shimmy" Class

1920

Both Are Still Able to "Shake a Lively Foot"

BARLEY MILLS, N.Y., Feb. 26. — It may or it may not have been a coincidence that the first piece struck up by the jazz band when Lon Tiller, 109, and his wife, 104, joined the dancing class at the town hall here was, "He may be old, but he's got young ideas!"

Tiller and his wife have taken several lessons and are now as proficient at the new steps as the younger couples. Mrs. Tiller was especially interested in learning the "shimmy" and danced it with youths of this village, among whom was her great grandson, Franklyn K. Tiller.

"It would be hard to find a girl in her teens who can shake a livelier foot than my grandmother," declares young Tiller.

The elder Tiller asserts that he owes his longevity to keeping abreast of the times as far as the modern dances are concerned. He declares that he has been dancing since he was a youth of 16 and expects to live at least another decade.

Burlesque Queen Dances to Disprove Charge of Indecency

1916

Burlesque "Queen" Edifies Chicago Court as She's "Walkin' the Dog"

Chicago, Oct. 18. — Judge Samuel A. Trude's court in the city hall had all the aspects of a burlesque show for five or ten minutes yesterday afternoon.

A petite brunette stepped to the judge's bench, tossed her head, flashed a smile to the jury, then threw off her heavy outer cloak, and in a trice was "Walkin' the Dog" and doing other syncopated steps about the small enclosure in a dance to a ragtime accompaniment sung by herself.

It was Miss May Mills, leading lady of the "Follies of Pleasure," dressed in her spangled costume of gold and silver, demonstrating the exhibition for which J. H. Herk is on trial on charges of keeping a disorderly house, alleged to have permitted immoral dancing and acting in the Gaiety theater, 531 South State street, of which he is manager.

"Just Walked Like This"

Miss Mills was the star witness for the defense. It is upon her interpretation that the attorneys for Herk hope to prove the charges against him groundless.

"I simply walked like this," said Miss Mills between snatches of the song, as she deftly paced the small enclosure.

"I swayed like this and I waved my arms like that," demonstrating.

She pirouetted in front of the jury box, skirting the fenced enclosure, and brought up with a stamp of her foot, an appealing gesture and a toss of her head.

"Whoopee!"

"Whoopee!" cried some one in the rear of the courtroom, carried away momentarily. A stern bailiff quickly restored him to order. Then the spectators in the courtroom broke into applause, but this, too, was quickly silenced. There were some, however, who did not applaud. They were the members of the Women's Church federation, complainants to the charge, and others allied with the prosecution.

Judge Trude at the beginning of the song and dance was seated viewing the exhibition with becoming austerity. Before it was half over however, he was pacing back and forth behind his chair, his hands folded behind his back, his face beaming in a broad smile.

His opinion of the dance, however, he refused to communicate.

No Jass Band Around

"I'm afraid I won't do very well," said Miss Mills when called to perform. "You see, I have no music."

"Attorneys for the defense will probably whistle for the young lady," suggested Assistant City Attorney Bippus. But this they declined to do.

The name of Chief of Police Healey was drawn into the hearing yesterday. Witnesses for the prosecution testified to making repeated complaints of alleged immorality and lewdness permitted at the theater. No action so far as they knew, they testified, had ever been taken on the complaint.

Tights Shock Copper

Herk, the manager, when called to the stand, told of one complaint which had been brought to his attention. A policeman, he testified, had notified him that he would have to prohibit the wearing of tights by actresses. He saw the chief personally, he said, and complained that such action was discrimination and was told to "go ahead and run the theater as usual."

It is expected the case will be given to the jury this morning.

Mrs. George W. Hall, of 416 West Forty-sixth place; Mrs. J. G. Boor, of 832 Buckingham place, members of the Women's Church federation, and F. A Beale, of 4806 Forrestville avenue, testified to the immorality of the dance of Miss Mills. In their testimony they described the dance in detail, asserted that the costume worn by her was transparent, and that she deported herself offensively. It was to disprove this that Miss Mills gave her "skit." The costume worn by her yesterday, which she asserted was the one used by her in the dance, was not transparent.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Oct. 19, 1916, p. 7.

Jazz By Wireless Heard 1,500 Miles

1920

Low Power Generators Used in Experiment

Expect to Talk to England by Telephone If Present Trials Are Successful

England and the United States soon will be talking to each other by telephone if experiments which now are being conducted in both countries are successful. Already nightly efforts are being made by the British to make American operators hear their voices over the wireless telephone. So far the attempt has been fruitless.

However, just the other day Americans set a new record for talking by wireless, when operators in Chicago, Topeka, Kan., and half a dozen points not more than 1,500 miles from New York distinctly heard the New York operator talking and then listened to a jazz record on his talking machine.

Low Power Generators Used

The record was made because generators of only one-third of a kilowatt of power were used. When last year, for the benefit of President Wilson, navy operators sent his voice ringing around the world by wireless, they used a 300-kilowatt generator. There is no limit to the distance which can be covered the wireless telephone provided sufficient power is used, but to come within a reasonable expense present devices must be made more perfect.

New York and Chicago now have a little talk every night and all over the country the members of the American Radio Relay League, which has half a million members, strain their ears in an effort to overhear what is being said. The New Yorker is Robert F. Gowen of the DeForest Radio company, and the Chicago operator is R. G. Mathews, who worked with the navy wireless during the war. They now are trying to get an operator at Roswell, n. M., to hear Gowen talking. If he succeeds then the wireless talk will be directed at a San Francisco operator.

Span Country Without Wires

"When we can span the country with the human voice without the aid of wires we will have solved the question of how to take care of the ever increasing long-distance telephone business," says Mathews. "Now, if a fellow wants to make a long distance call he has to wait an hour or two because all the trunk lines are busy. When the wireless telephone is an assured thing central will plug the patron in on an aerial trunk line and he can get to talk right away. The chances are he won't know the difference, either, except that he can hear more distinctly and there won't be any of the tinny sound that now interferes with telephoning.

"The great problem is to make it possible to use the telephone without making it so expensive the average person can't afford it. The low power and short wave lengths we are experimenting with now are within the reach of almost every amateur wireless fan."

Post Office Workers Listen to Music for Morale, No Jazz

1921

Music for P.O. Night Workers Improves Morals[*]

Minneapolis Postmaster Informs Postmaster General Hays that Psychological Test Proved a Success but No "Jazz" was Allowed

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17. — Music to improve the morale of workers whose duties take them well into the wee small hours has been tried out in the Minneapolis postoffice and proved a success, E. A. Purdy, postmaster, today informed Postmaster General Hays. The idea was tried, Mr. Purdy said, after he had made a psychological study of conditions under which his night force worked. He found men working away from the general noises of the day as a rule showed a low morale, inclined to be morose and generally worried at being away from their families, which resulted in an absence of enthusiasm in their work.

As an experiment a phonograph was installed and records, which it was thought would rest the nerves and enliven the spirits of the employes were tried nightly with gratifying results, Mr. Purdy said, although he was careful to explain that no "jazz" was played, until the fag end of the night as he "did not want the men juggling and tossing about letters and parcels." Everybody was more alert, he said, and at quitting time went home less tired, less worried and with more efficient night's work done. The postmaster general approved the idea and said he would watch further experiments with interest. Mr. Purdy who was characterized by Mr. Hays as a "bird of a postmaster with a batting average of 1,000, although a Democrat," is in Washington to give the department some of the ideas which has made the Minneapolis office one of the most successful in the country, Mr. Hays said.

—Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT, Aug. 18, 1921, p. 1

[*] "Improves Morals" is the original erroneous headline, kind of funny. And, hey, it's not that jazz was entirely disallowed, but allowed at the "fag end of the night." That's kind of funny, too.

Note: Back then "post office" was one word, which looks weird, and "employes" generally ended with one "e" like that, also odd.

He Wouldn't Eat Wife's Mouldy Pie

1920

Boston, Mass. — George D. Zwicker of East Boston testified in the East Cambridge Divorce Court that his wife, Mrs. Mary Zwicker of Cambridge, slapped his face when he refused to eat a mouldy apple pie which she placed in front of him. He told the court that his wife locked him out of the house, and when he tried to get in by forcing the door of the basement, she struck him on the hand with a hatchet and inflicted three cuts. He showed the scars to the judge. He is bringing the suit for divorce on the grounds of cruel and abusive treatment.


Urge Medics Study the "Lounge Lizard"

The idiosyncrasies of tickle toes, shimmy shakers and the hearts of jazz band masters will be delved into by future medics, according to plans outlined by Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, dean of medicine of the University of Wisconsin.

Lounge lizards and other living oddities of wider fields offer greater scope for scientific study than human cadavers, Dr. Bardeen told the congress on medical education in Chicago.

Dr. Bardeen suggested that all clinics be equipped with an assortment of live models and that these be used in study as comparisons with dead bodies.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.

Wineroom 'Rags' Source of Evil

Indianapolis, 1913

Scientist Dissects Festive Syncopations and Finds They Spur Lower Emotions

EFFECTS ON MORALS LURING

Beware of "Portamento" and Chromatic Slides if You Want to Be Good

A few months ago, when Superintendent Hyland of the police started war on winerooms, he found most of his efforts futile until he struck at what appeared to him to be the heart of the evil — the wineroom music.

Raids had been made repeatedly upon places of doubtful moral character. Persons caught there were arrested wholesale. Some convictions were obtained against proprietors for violation of the Nicholson law. But such fines were promptly paid and offenses repeated. Persons arrested in the places, it appeared, had a right under the state and city laws to go there as much as they liked. If nothing further than being there was proved against them, City Court ignored the charge.

They went back. Then the ukase against music was issued. It caused consternation in the places aimed at, as well as in the first-class cafes and hotel dining rooms, but it necessarily had to include all to reach the ones desired. And it proved effective.

Now comes the question, "Where is the psychological point to the superintendent's order?"

WHAT IS THE LURE?

And again, "What is the mystic lure of music that, in the verbiage of the legal lights, aids and abets the evils that thrive in winerooms?"

Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast, but does it have some of the quality of an affinity, to attract those of evil intent?

More to the point, is music bad?

Or is there merely bad music that is bad?

Or do bad persons like music?

Or what?

And if so, what is bad about music — the melody, the rhythm, the words of the song, or all of them, or none?

There are different views. Not long since a minister was quoted as saying that if composers would only disassociate suggestive words from some of their more lively compositions of ragtime, or, at the least, nonsensical words, and set religious rhymes to their music, their names would go down in history.

There are two attitudes of the day toward the rag from different angles.

HERE'S HOW SCIENCE SEES IT.

A scientific study of the effect of music has been made by Henry W. Stratton, a writer in the Arena, who discusses his observations under the title of "Music and Crime."

He has found by experiment in one of the state prisons that many criminals are exceptionally good musicians. They are of two classes.

First, those whose knowledge of music extends no farther than the popular songs of the day and whose associations with such songs have always been of questionable character. They absorb the sensuous quality of music and can not be morally improved by it because the quality does not contain the necessary musical ingredients to lift them to a higher plane of emotion.

In such songs, this writer says, it frequently happens that where the melody is good and would of itself awaken refining impulses the words produce the opposite effect.

"Again, popular song rhythms are calculated to spur only the lower emotions," he says.

"If a tune is catchy the charm lies largely in its rhythm; the unusual syncopations act upon the listener at unexpected and unnatural parts of the measure and excite unhealthy, unmoral tendencies."

The second class of criminal musicians are scheduled as "darlings of society" who have learned to be musically voluptuous. They yield easily without question to all kinds of music and are unable to resist its enervating influences, They are mastered by their musical sensation.

Mr. Stratton has analyzed ragtime — picked it to pieces — to determine what about it is bad. He finds that a deleterious effect upon the moral nature of a listener is produced by voluptuous slides from one tone to another, called portamento.

"It induces languor and suggests to the mind a relapse from moral discipline," he says. Chromatic passages also tend to promote immorality, he thinks.

RAGTIME GETS THE HOOK.

All this is rather a condemnation of music which is abnormally syncopated, Which contains too frequent repetitions of the portamento and which brings chromatics into frequent play. No class of music quite answers the description so well, perhaps, as the rag.

But one might want to know what makes syncopations, chromatics and slides act so upon the human organisms.

Under the head of "Emotion," an encyclopedia says:

"Unconsciously the spectator, after hearing a musical concert sings and acts cerebrally, and a tenseness of the vocal cords and the whole muscular apparatus of the body results from the imitative effort to make the necessary sounds and to reproduce the necessary movements."

Music, itself, one might deduce, may entice the hearer to attempt an action of the emotion it contains.

But there probably are other conditions to be noted in a consideration of the effect of music in winerooms. Some kinds of music, per se, it is agreed, have bad effects.

A combination of this kind of music and of intoxicating liquors may have a worse effect; then, again, in an open room, it adds privacy to conversations over tables usually located too near one another to otherwise afford privacy. Again, it seems to be a lure for patrons, and, if patronized alone in winerooms and heard there frequently, would tend each time to recall other similar associations.

Altogether one might draw the conclusion that bad music in bad places is bad for good and bad people; bad music in good places is little better for either; good music in bad places has all odds against it; and good music in good places is better for both.

—The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, November 23, 1913, page 14.

Looks Like Maybe the Bitter End for Jazz

1922

It looks like jazz (or "the jazz" as it was often called) is losing some of its standing in "public favor."

Click the cartoon to see larger.

—Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, New York, April 3, 1922, page 4.

Eel Glide Dance Threatens Jazz; Oldest Teacher Begins 71st School Year

1919

Eel Glide Winning Many Followers of the Jazz

New York, Sept. 12 -- The Eel Glide is the latest fantastic step to appear in dancing circles here, and it is beginning to threaten the popular jazz which hitherto has had the largest following. The name of the newest dance is about the best description of it. The dancers glide along the floor with sliding steps in which the feet are never raised, either at the heel or toe. The dancers gyrate in sinuous turns and twists in time with the music, which is a combination of jazz and minor chords.

--Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, September 12, 1919, page 5.


AGED TEACHER BEGINS 71ST YEAR IN SCHOOL

Attleboro, Mass., Sept. 12. -- Miss Elizabeth Carpenter Blanding, the oldest school teacher in Massachusetts, started on her seventy-first consecutive year as a school teacher yesterday.

She observed her 87th birthday on July 18th. Despite her age, she is hale and hearty. She lives alone, doing her own housework, cooking, etc. She also finds time to participate in the activities of the Congregational church, the W.C.T.U., the Ladies Auxiliary of the Y.M.C.A. and many other societies. Her eyesight and hearing are unimpaired. She expects to die in harness.

--Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, September 12, 1919, page 15.

We're Doin' The Shimmy!

1919--

BANDIT TAKES ROLL, AND ORDERS SHIMMY

POLICE FIND VICTIM AFTER HE'S EXHAUSTED

Philadelphia, Nov. 26. -- The "shimmy highwayman" is the latest arrival in Philadelphia.

Joseph Gottschalk was standing at Fourth and Pine streets when a man approached him.

"Can you jazz?" asked the stranger. Gottschalk replied that he could.

"Let's see you do a few steps," said the stranger, drawing a revolver. Gottschalk hesitated, but catching a glimpse of the weapon, decided to comply.

"Now," said the footpad, "let's see you do the shimmy. And be sure not to stop jiggling your arms."

Gotschalk proceeded to shake like a bowl of jelly, while the robber went through his clothes and took his watch and chain and wallet containing $27.

"Keep on doing that," said the bandit, as he backed away, still covering Gottschalk with his revolver. "If I see you stop before I get out of sight I'm going to take a shot at you."

It was five minutes later when Gottschalk fell exhausted to the sidewalk. A policeman picked him up and took him to a hospital, where he was revived.

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 26, 1919, page 2.


SEE WHAT SHIMMYING DID TO NEWLYWEDS

ROMANCE STARTS WITH DANCE, AND DANCE NEARLY ENDS IN COURT

Milwaukee, Nov. 24. -- The shimmy as a home destroyer made its appearance in district court Friday.

Daniel Monte, 24, was arraigned on complaint of his bride of a month, Winifred, 20.

She said he beat her in their apartment, 711 Sycamore st. one morning after they had returned from a dance.

"I may have struck her," said Monte. "I don't know. I was mad. Every night for two weeks she made me go with her to a dance. 'If you don't go, I'll go alone,' she told me.

Forgets Wedding Ring

"Most of the time she forgot to wear my wedding ring. I didn't want her going alone. I was dead tired of shimmying every night. I told her it had to stop. We quarrelled. The next day she left me. I haven't seen her since."

It was a dance that ushered in their romance. They met in a dance hall Oct. 8. Two days later they were married in Waukegan. The next day the young wife went to her home in Ludington, Mich. Her husband, against his wishes, remained at home.

Then Begins the Shimmy

After a two-week visit, she came back. Then began the period of nightly dancing, which culminated in the home fight on Armistice day. Since then she has made her home with a sister in Cudahy.

Judge Page lectured them about the undesirable points of a dance hall romance. The young benedict was dismissed without fees.

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 25, 1919, page 8.

Americans Want Opera, Not Jazz or Tin Pan Alley

1920--

OPERA IN SIOUX FALLS

From 43 towns special trains brought cattlemen and their and families to Sioux Falls, S.D., one November night, to hear Grand Opera. Sheep herders, farmers, Indians joined the procession moving toward the hall where the music was to be given. Flivvers and big cars added their occupants to the happy crowd.

And they were happy, and they enjoy their feast of song. For months intensive preparation had been going on for the great day. Lectures were given. Boys and in school studied the stories of operas. Phonographs were bought or rented, records were purchased and listened to with attention. Do Americans like good music? They do. Would they rather have it than cheap, vulgar stuff, jazzy, tinpanny, and ear-wearing? They would.

There are people who are bored by heavy music. That is but natural. But much music which has been foisted upon audiences as "classical" in years past has not been very good music. It has not been human. Just as instinctively will people steer clear of ponderous books and problem plays, which may have their merits for the intellectual few, but are not food for the uncultured many.

When was Shakespeare, well presented, given to an empty house, an unappreciative one? The untutored man may not get so much out of his Shakespeare as the cultured one, but his mind goes straight as a homing bird to the great humanity of the greatest poet.

As the music-managers learn this vital truth about all art, and begin to apply it to music, they find that the composers and opera-builders who understand humanity, its emotions, its springs of action, reach human heart in the same way. Give people tuneful, human music, and they will come, as in this case, 450 miles to hear it.

--Olean Evening Herald, Olean, New York, December 1, 1920, page 2, editorial.