The marathon dancing craze lasted from about 1925-1935 and was a way to win prizes but also to win by betting on yourself. Dancers would dance continually, with only a five minute break each hour, until they dropped out, leaving one couple to collect fabulous prizes.
A 1928 Business Directory included an entry for the Wigwam Dance Hall at Highway 12 and Turner’s Crossroads.
Minnesota-born Callum L. deVillier set the world’s record for marathon dancing. Incredibly, he danced for five months, from December 28, 1932 to June 3, 1933: 3,780 hours or 157 days. When the movie “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” came out, the record was attributed to others, but Callum set the record straight and won the respect of the folks at Guiness Book of World Records.
Such a marathon, called a “walkathon,” came to St. Louis Park in 1934, when a company set up a tent on Wayzata Blvd., close to McCarthy’s restaurant. There may have been a similar event in 1938 where the Doubletree is now. We have two pictures of the 1934 event, one showing five seriously fatigued couples, and one of a large wedding party posing in the tent. The latter shows that there were 18 couples left, and that they had completed 598 hours.
And we have a newspaper article that should be quoted in full:
WALKATHON HIT BY GRAND JURY
Retiring Body Says “Cheap, Contemptible Spectacle” Should Be Stopped
Denouncing the walkathon now in the last stages in a huge ten on Wayzata boulevard as a “cheap, contemptible spectacle,” the retiring grand jury Saturday called for a legislative act prohibiting similar contests.
Laws now on the statute books governing itinerant carnivals should be invoked to stop the walkathon on the grounds that it is injurious to the health of participants and detrimental to public morals, the report held.
The next legislature should pass an act specifically prohibiting “any such ridiculous endurance contexts being established anywhere in the state.”
In addition to the walkathon now nearing its close in St. Louis Park, another similar contest is being held near Shakopee, while several others are attracting crowds at other points in the state.
Photo from Earl Ames