ABSTRACT
For a large proportion of the taxi-dancers, and for not a few patrons, the experiences in the Chicago taxi-dance halls are demoralizing. The records of the Juvenile Protective Association, the Juvenile Court of Cook County, and the Morals Court of Chicago give ample testimony that all is not well with the taxi-dance hall. In the years 1926 and 1927, for instance, at least forty-six taxi-dancers are known to have come to the attention of these agencies. Their average age was nineteen, and their length of stay in the dance hall, at the time of the investigation, rarely exceeded three months. The following newspaper account is quite typical of these youthful delinquencies, except that the men involved are not always Orientals.
Assistant State's Attorney Marie C. Anderson today took in hand three young girls under 18 years of age, who were arrested just preceding the padlocking of the Madison Dancing School. The three were “teachers” at the “academy,” although 17-year-old Stella Stepanski said “you didn't have to know how to dance any.”
