Word: marathonic
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...dance marathon is a sporting event in which the contesting teams, of which there may be any number, are composed of one male and one female person. The purpose of each team is to dance longer than any other team. The rules of the contest are few: teams may rest 15 minutes after dancing for one hour; when not resting they must dance, though almost any form of activity more noticeable than a shiver will fulfill this condition. For contestants the excitements of the game are somewhat limited; like horse-racing, its primary purpose is to excite spectators...
...dancing until after the election when an untoward event occurred. Health officials, who had hitherto been unable to discover any evidence of physical injury to participants, heard rumors of an internal hemorrhage, suffered, in Wilkesbarre, Pa., by a onetime contestant, a week after he had resigned from the marathon. With this as evidence they commanded Promoter Crandall to stop his marathon. Half an hour before the time set for foreclosure, Promoter Crandall mounted the rostrum in Madison Square Garden, made an eloquent and graceful speech and announced his immediate intention of transferring the entire spectacle to another state. "In this...
Arriving in Manhattan a month ago, one Milton D. Crandall rented Madison Square Garden and proceeded to promote a dance marathon. He installed potted palms on he arena, built small brightly-colored tents along its edges in which dancers might rest, be massaged, shaved, washed, bandaged. He secured the services of Andrew Jackson ("Bossy") Gillis, famed Mayor of Newburyport, Mass., who, after making a speech, fired his pistol three times into the air thus causing 132 teams to begin their exertions. A crowd of scornful reporters and a handful of spectators were present at the start...
...first week, practically no notice was taken of the proceedings. It was regarded as uninteresting, futile, vulgar. On the tenth day the New York Evening Graphic published "doctored" photographs of contestants, showing faces that were thinned and blackened with exhaustion, suggesting that the dance marathon was not only silly but cruel. At this, a vast throng of persons rushed to Madison Square Garden and bought their way in. The marathon which had hitherto been a financial failure bloomed into success. The dancers, whose ranks were by this time greatly reduced, became famous and excited; they whirled and shuffled happily, receiving...
...angry knot of persons gathered on the dance floor, a call for police reserves was issued, while Mr. Crandall, dodging away from the enraged dancer, was booed, hissed and subjected to fruit-throwing. Five minutes later, it was announced that an injunction had been secured which would permit the marathon to continue 22 hours longer. Couple No. 7, despite their unruly and ill-bred behaviour, were permitted to remain upon the floor...