ABSTRACT
Until very recently the taxi-dance hall was not recognized as a distinct type of public dance establishment. It was a new and rather specialized type of dance hall and so did not touch directly the lives of most of the people of the city. To the passer-by or the casually interested citizen it no doubt appeared as merely “another dance hall.” For others more inquiring the almost universal and erroneous use of the term “dancing academy” in the names given these resorts served further to allay suspicion. There was at first no generic name to describe them, nor was there a clear understanding among patrons or taxi-dancers as to the factors differentiating this type of dance hall from others.
