As predators at the top of the food chain, humans do not have the explosive power of cheetahs, the camouflage ability of chameleons, the mobility of raptors, and the patience of venomous snakes coiled motionless on branches...
Endurance alone In this regard, humans almost top the animal kingdom - our bodies even have a built-in reward mechanism for long-endurance exercise: long-distance running that is almost masochistic for other mammals can make the body secrete endorphins and make people feel more relaxed. It feels good...
So when the Olympic Games were revived in the 1920s, endurance naturally became the focus of the competition.
However, it was still difficult to satisfy people's appetites with just a few Olympic events, so people began to broaden their horizons. , attempts to develop a "durable version" of all sports and non-sports:
Sitting on the flagpole for a long time, endurance kissing, eating eggs, chewing gum...
(1929, 14-year-old William Rupert Breaking the 23-day "flagpole sitting" record)
danced, and then they set their sights on dancing.
On February 18, 1923, two dancers, Olie Finnerty and Edgar Van Ollefin, danced continuously for 7 hours in Sunderland, England, setting a new world record.
It is not difficult to imagine how humiliating it was to record "only" 7 hours in an era when people could roll each other while sitting on a flagpole.
What people thought at that time was not "really awesome" or "really idle", but "really idle". It's "I can do it too" .
Just 12 days later, dance instructor Alma Cummings set a new record at the Audubon Ballroom in New York.
She danced continuously with 6 partners for 27 hours, officially taking dancing to the outrageous direction.
("The Instigator" Alma Cummings)
What is even more outrageous is that in less than three weeks, Cummings' record has been broken at least 9 times in the United States.
From Baltimore to Cleveland and then to Houston, the "marathon era" of dance has fully begun.
In the next few months, new records continued to emerge in the United States, 56 hours, 69 hours, 82 hours...
(1924, pairs of dancers participating in dance marathons)
Rolling and rolling, The first death appeared: a man named Homer Morehouse died of heart failure, or in today's terms, sudden death after dancing for 87 hours.
Soon after, Boston banned dance marathons entirely.
But in other American cities, the new sport continued to flourish, especially after the Great Depression broke out in 1929.
During the Great Depression, the "Dance Marathon" became a strange national entertainment event.
Contestants signed up to participate, and the audience bought tickets to enter. It was like a special Broadway play, except that the actors were all amateurs and the plot was not repeatedly.
It sounds boring, but dance marathons were incredibly popular in the 1930s. According to the book "Dance Marathon" written by Carol Martin:
"In its heyday, dance marathons had become the most popular event in the United States with the largest number of participants. Controversial live entertainment. The entire industry employed 20,000 people, including promoters, dancers, judges, trainers, nurses..."
"At that time, almost every American with a population of more than 50,000 Every city has held a dance marathon, at least one "
(1928, a dance marathon in Culver City, California)
As for why it has such great appeal, there are probably several reasons:
No. First, the entrance fee for dance marathons is usually only 25 cents, and there is no time limit. You can watch as long as you want.
For people who were unemployed at home during the Great Depression, this is a good place to kill time;
Secondly, for the contestants, although long-term dancing is very torture, at least the organizer takes care of food and housing!
In that hungry era, what else could you choose if you had something to eat?
In fact, in most competitions, players are fed as many as 12 times a day. Although every meal is a simple meal such as eggs and toast, many players said they gained a few pounds after finishing the game, which is already too much. Worth it.
In addition, if you are particularly perseverant and win the championship, you can also get thousands of dollars in bonus - which at the time was almost equivalent to a farmer's annual income , and the price was only a few weeks of self-torture. .
I believe that even today, some people would be happy with this condition, otherwise Mr.beast would not become the best YouTuber...
(Mr.beast really did a similar topic, "Be imprisoned for 100 days, Win $500,000”)
Thirdly, in fact, the dance marathon had already broken away from the monotonous framework of “long dance” at this time.
In order not to make the audience bored, the organizers must continue to make troublesome choices.
For example, from time to time, there is a knockout competition, where pairs of dancing partners are asked to run in circles around the dance floor. Sometimes they are blindfolded, sometimes they are tied together with chains, and sometimes they are asked to run backwards...
At that time, people also invented "Freeze alive": Bury the contestants with ice cubes and give them one dollar for every minute they last. At the same time, the audience will reward them. There are many people who risk their lives for money.
Of course, there are medical personnel on site. On the one hand, it is really for safety; on the other hand, there is some performance: "We have even prepared medical personnel, look how dangerous we are."
(In the 1930s, Danced to a partner for 1473 hours continuously)
In addition, there was a band, singer performances, sketches, raffles, and even mud wrestling. There were not only amateurs on the
dance floor, but also actors specially signed by the organizer. They performed soap operas, rivalry scenes, and love stories in front of the audience.
Some dance partners will move from one city to another, pretend to meet on the dance floor, fall in love, get engaged, and even hold a fake wedding on the dance floor, and then ask the audience for wedding gifts...
(schematic diagram)
Of course The audience is not stupid, they know that many plots are fake, but the contestants have been tortured but they can't fake it. at least the sweat, blisters, yawns... are all real.
This brings us to the basic rules of the dance marathon: contestants must stay in motion to avoid being eliminated . Once they are so tired that their knees fall to the ground, their qualifications will be immediately disqualified.
As for what "dance" is, the definition is very loose, just lift one foot to the rhythm of the music, and then lift the other.
So a man can "dance" while shaving with a mirror hanging around his partner's neck. Later, people even developed folding tables that could be hung around the neck, allowing people to read newspapers and write letters.
(the runners were so tired that they fell asleep)
The organizers are also very "humane" and will give the runners a 15-minute break every hour. During this period, nurses will rub their feet and provide medical care for the marathon. Can last longer.
In such an environment, players have generally developed the special ability to fall asleep as soon as they touch the pillow, but obviously 15 minutes of rest every hour is not enough to relieve fatigue.
Sometimes they fall asleep while standing , and then The dance partner dragged me and took a short nap.
The organizers occasionally build beds on the spot in the middle of the dance floor, and contestants fall asleep among the audience without any privacy. This is probably some kind of entertainment project that satisfies voyeuristic desires...
(audience Watching the contestants sleep)
The strongest person in the "Dance Marathon" is undoubtedly a man named Callum Devillier.
In 1928, he set a record of dancing 443 hours at a competition in Minnesota, before the Great Depression even happened.
By 1932, Devillier went a step further and turned the sport into a long-term meal ticket.
He was already unemployed at the time. In order to make money, he recruited vonnie kuchinski, the daughter of his landlord, to be his dance partner. The two went to the suburbs of Boston (as mentioned above, the city of Boston has banned it) to participate in a dance marathon.
In a theater converted into a ballroom, Devillier and Kuchinski danced from the end of December to the beginning of June of the following year - day and night, in the cold and heat, for more than five months and 3780 hours. In the last two weeks of the
competition, because the time was too long, the organizers simply reduced the rest time from 15 minutes to 3 minutes. Unexpectedly, the two of them were still persisting. How did it end in the end?
There were so many people coming to watch every night, some even came from out of town just to see these two gods, which caused traffic jams. The local government had no choice but to forcibly ban the game.
On June 3, 1933, Devillier and Kuchinski walked away with a thousand dollar prize.
(devillier and kuchinski)
This bonus, coupled with the unprecedented glory, seemed to satisfy devilier, because he seemed to have never participated in any dance marathon again until his death.
During this period, Devillier even married Kuchinski, but the marriage lasted very short.
But having said that, after six months of being together almost non-stop, the level of intimacy may have exceeded that of many marriages... .
In short, these two people have caught up with the good times,
because after 1933, Americans' enthusiasm for dance marathons quickly faded.
At this time, the economic situation became increasingly severe, and many people could not even pay the 25 cent admission fee. It is no longer affordable,
This has also made the atmosphere of the entire country gradually become more conservative. Men and women getting together to dance are often considered "indecent", so more and more cities have begun to ban dance marathons.
(A certain dance marathon, the specific year is unknown)
By the late 1930s, this activity had basically lost its popularity. Coupled with the outbreak of World War II and the Pearl Harbor incident within two years, people no longer had the time to play these things. .
In this way, Dance Marathon came into being with a strong imprint of the times, became popular quickly, and then quickly declined and died under the tide of the times, becoming a strange meteor in American history, bright and short-lived.
As for Devillier, he returned to his ordinary life and worked as a dance instructor, construction worker, bartender, and finally opened a hair salon in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Not many people remember his unprecedented initiative.
Because until 1969, when Sidney Pollack directed the dance marathon-themed film "They shoot horses, don't they?", many Americans didn't even know that there was such a ridiculous period during the Great Depression. history. Naturally, I won’t remember deviller.
(By the way, Jane Fonda received her first Oscar nomination for this film, and her stardom has been bright since then)
However, after this film, the dance marathon was resurrected in another form.
In 1973, students at Pennsylvania State University held a "clean version" of the dance marathon, setting the competition time to 30 hours, and ultimately raised $2,000 for disabled children.
By the 1990s, dance marathons had become a common form of fundraising that continues to this day.
For example, Indiana University has held a charity marathon every year since 1991, and donations have exceeded US$53 million so far.
(Official website of Indiana University Charity Marathon)
Unfortunately, Devillier did not live to see the revival of dance marathon, and he rarely saw his achievements recognized.
After the movie "All or Nothing" was released, he wrote to Guinness World Records, which finally recognized his record in 1973, but Devillier died not long after.
And after the 1970s, Guinness revised the definition of dance marathon, requiring that it must be completely uninterrupted and without rest time, so devilier's record did not count. Fortunately, he could not see it at this time... ..
So the only thing in the world today that can prove that Devillier has completed the feat of dancing for 3780 hours is his own tombstone, which reads:
"Devillier, world dance marathon champion, 3780 hours in a row."”
As for his dance partner Kuchinski, his burial place is not far away, but there is no mention of it on the tombstone, probably because he doesn’t want to be remembered in this way.
