Dance Halls
The popularity of jazz music reinvigorated public dancing during
the early twentieth century and led to the opening of dozens of new
dance facilities all across the city of Chicago. The city's dance halls
varied in size and appearance. Jazz cabarets, most heavily concentraded
along South State Street between 31st and 43rd, were intimate
establishments. Much larger ballrooms and dance pavilions were opened in
the city's hotels, at amusement parks, and in large entertainment
districts. Their size encouraged the intermingling of strangers and, in
many cases, aided in their search for fun, sex, and illicit liquor. For
that reason, dance halls were frequently criticized by anti-vice
organizations as unwholesome and immoral. In particular, the Juvenile
Protective Association, led for many years by the widely respected Jane
Addams, urged dance halls to adopt strict codes to regulate their design
and liscensing, as well as the behavior of patrons and staff. The city's
most famous ballrooms, the Trianon and the Aragon, were in part a
response to such demands. Learn more about the dance hall industry in
Jazz Age Chicago by clicking on the links below. |
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