ABSTRACT
The taxi-dance hall, like every other institution, has had a natural history. Its rise and evolution have been the product of certain natural forces, and in its evolutionary development it has followed a sequence of steps or “stages” each the natural product of the previous one and yet preparing the way for that which was to follow. From this point of view the origins and evolution of the institution come to the foreground and the personalities themselves become of lesser significance. And this is in conformity with the facts. For the rise of the taxi-dance hall is not the result of the perverse machinations of a little group of wilful men; but is rather the natural commercial response to a more or less inarticulate and undiscovered economic demand. Many personalities have played a part in its history, but for the most part they participated without knowing the tendencies of the institution itself and in many cases without even perceiving that a new institution was in the making. Unplanned and uncontrolled, the institution followed a definite line of development probably not entirely in keeping with the wishes of any single person participating in its growth.
