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32-452: During its long history it was also known as Les Folies Bobino (1873), Studio Bobino (1991), Gaieté Bobino and Bobin’o (2007). Started by Lisa Bennie, Bobino began as a dance hall in 1800, became a theatre in 1873, and was converted back to a music hall in 1926. Bobino was one of the most popular entertainment spots in France during the 1920s and 1930s. On April 8, 1975 Josephine Baker ,

64-808: A dance hall in Harlem (a black neighborhood in New York City) was the first truly integrated building in the United States — for both the dancers and the musicians. "We didn't care about the color of your skin. All we wanted to know was: Can you dance?" Texas has a high concentration of community dance halls, the largest number of them built by German and Czech immigrants. Following World War I in 1918, dancing became enormously popular in Britain , especially with working-class women. The purpose-built dance hall, or "palais de danse" emerged,

96-525: A distinct niche. For native-born and foreign-born troops, the result was portrayed as allowing these citizens to retain their cultures while integrating into American culture. Although a stated aim of the CTCA was to establish adequate recreational facilities for troops in camps, studies have demonstrated its programs sought to control soldiers' and women's sex lives to prevent venereal diseases and to uphold social morality. The CTCA has been portrayed as "one of

128-592: A range of music from strict tempo ballroom dance music to big band , swing , and jazz . The early days of rock n' roll were briefly played out in dance halls, until they were superseded by nightclubs. Commercial dance halls in the United States began to appear toward the end of the nineteenth century and grew in popularity at the beginning of the twentieth century. These halls were generally frequented by working-class or immigrant teenagers that admired dance halls for their lack of chaperoning and convenience as cheap commercial leisure. The rapidly changing economy of

160-585: A specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term applied to purpose-built dance halls in Britain and Commonwealth countries, which became popular after the First World War. Other structural forms of dance halls include the dance pavilion which has a roof but no walls, and the open-air platform which has no roof or walls. The open-air nature of

192-465: The African American superstar of France who had appeared at Bobino beginning in the 1920s, gave her last performance there at the age of 68. After 183 years, Bobino closed its doors in 1983, but reopened in 1991. In 2007, Gerard Louvin and Stéphane Cherki turned Bobino into a cabaret named Bobin'o. The entertainers who have performed at Bobino include: Joris-Karl Huysmans frequented

224-600: The Fosdick Commission , was an umbrella agency within the United States Department of War during World War I that provided recreational and educational activities for soldiers as they trained for combat . Established in April 1917, the CTCA had the mandate to keep American troops "physically healthy and morally pure", while also motivating them to fight. The Department of War established

256-615: The National Jewish Welfare Board and the Knights of Columbus . The agency's ideology was characterized by the Progressive Era , which strived against prostitution, alcoholism, "social diseases" , and poor sanitary conditions in major cities. While attempting to eradicate these problems from training camps, the CTCA also aimed to "socialize and Americanize" native-born and foreign-born soldiers to meet

288-416: The settlement house 's dance hall and would be angered when approached by settlement hall staff or residents instructing them to dance differently. According to one report, "a resident would say to a new couple dancing irregularly, "You can't dance that way in this hall." The couple in self-defense would answer, "I can dance that way in every other hall in the city." Starting in the early 1930s, The Savoy ,

320-565: The American labor movement, and a member of the Council of National Defense gave a spirited denunciation of the tack at a meeting of the council: What have you been doing? Sold out to the so-called "social hygienists" and the prohibition fanatics, long-haired men and short-haired women? You shall not make the war an opportunity for these complacent so-called "reformers" to accomplish their nefarious work! When have fighting men been preached to on

352-460: The Bobino and used these experiences as a reference for his first published novel, Marthe . The Bobino is featured prominently as the lead character's place of employment. 48°50′22.88″N 2°19′24.92″E  /  48.8396889°N 2.3235889°E  / 48.8396889; 2.3235889 Dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing , but usually refers to

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384-604: The Commission on Training Camp Activities on April 17, 1917, less than two weeks after the U.S. entered World War I. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker appointed Raymond B. Fosdick to lead the new agency. Fosdick was the author of an August 1916 report which found that problems with alcohol and prostitution were rife at the military training camps on the Mexican border during the Mexican Expedition . To improve

416-536: The Navy at the request of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels . The CTCA's primary objective from the start was to prevent the spread of venereal disease among American soldiers. To address this, it introduced programs in social hygiene , education, recreation, law enforcement, and prophylaxis . Tasked with raising the morals and the morale of troops in military training camps across

448-598: The Road . Fit to Fight was screened for more than one million military men during the war. The End of the Road was aimed at women, and was screened privately for women's groups in the US. After the war, the CTCA gave the rights to the films to the American Sexual Health Association , which screened them commercially ( Fit to Fight was edited and released under the new title Fit to Win ) through

480-471: The U.S., the CTCA sponsored activities, including athletics, singing, movies, theatre, libraries, and lectures, as well as sex education. The CTCA cooperated with voluntary organizations, particularly the YMCA , which established "huts" where soldiers could engage in social activities, such as playing cards, writing letters, or attending lectures or performances. Similar camp establishments were also created by

512-523: The additions of possibilities for prostitution, as well as access to alcohol, within dance halls reformers and religious leaders were increasingly against the existence of these halls. In order to discourage young adults from frequenting dance halls, media of the early twentieth century used subjective and inflammatory language to sway readers toward ideas that dance halls would morally corrupt young women while reformers petitioned to their local governments for regulation surrounding dance halls. In 1917, with

544-469: The approval of the vice investigation panel the Fosdick Commission , a committee was organized in Louisville, Kentucky to develop rules and regulations for public dance halls. According to middle- and upper-class white vice investigators and social reformers, many young people, who they believed to be lacking in proper moral character, attempted the "irregular dancing in vogue in the commercial halls" in

576-421: The beneficence of continence? The millennium has not arrived and until it does your pronouncements of yesterday will not be accepted. Real men will be men. Among the tools used by CTCA educators to promote continence were gruesome imagery and stories demonstrating the consequences of venereal disease infections. Educators also pointed to what progressive physicians at the time termed "innocent infections"—that is,

608-510: The dance pavilion was both a feature and a drawback. The taxi dance hall was a dance hall with a specific arrangement, wherein the patrons hire hall employees to dance with them. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub . The majority of towns and cities in the West had at least one dance hall, and almost always featured live musicians playing

640-402: The distributor Public Health Films. The films were controversial upon public release, facing censorship attempts and criticism for their graphic imagery and mentions of prophylaxis. The backlash faced by The End of the Road and Fit to Win , along with a cohort of other 1919 sex hygiene films , ultimately led to more studio censorship and were a factor in the emergence of exploitation films as

672-436: The early twentieth century shifted the views many young adults had about the separation between work and leisure, increasing dance hall popularity from the 1900s into the 1920s. With increased financial freedom, as compared to prior decades, young immigrant and working-class women were able to access dance halls, generally placed within urban areas, that did not require chaperones. Dance halls allowed young working-class women

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704-650: The expected level of social standards and to integrate them into the armed forces. However, sources found that ethnic organizations and community leaders from these groups pushed back and attempted to preserve their own cultures. Raymond Fosdick appointed Dr. Walter Clarke of the American Social Hygiene Association to head the Social Hygiene Instruction Division of the CTCA, which created educational materials for troops such as lectures and pamphlets, with

736-824: The first being the Hammersmith Palais in London , opened in 1919. Dance halls, also termed palais de danse, became popular in Australia too, such as the Palais de Danse and the Wattle Path Palais de Danse , both in St Kilda , Melbourne , Victoria. In Sweden and Finland, open air dance pavilions have been used mostly in summer, but especially in Finland some have also been built to be used throughout

768-485: The goal of encouraging sexual continence to reduce the spread of venereal disease. Whereas venereal diseases were, at the time, commonly treated as a symptom of moral or spiritual degeneration, the CTCA's instruction took a scientific, rational approach. Lecturers were advised to avoid "words of semitheological connotation, as well as all words with a sentimental or 'sob' tinge." The CTCA's instruction urged sexual continence (i.e. abstinence from sex), in opposition to

800-439: The moral aspects of camp life, Fosdick had recommended public condemnation of the "illicit trades" and making alternative forms of recreation available to soldiers. Both President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary Baker sought to build support for American entry into World War I by defining the objectives of the war in terms that appealed to progressives . In the international sphere, Wilson had argued that Americans would be making

832-640: The opportunity to step outside of their extremely stressful home and work environments while not costing too much, or anything in some cases. These city dance halls were especially popular with newly independent immigrant women from more rural areas as country-side dances were often more closely monitored and tended to host styles of dancing that were considered more socially acceptable for performance in public spaces. The styles performed in city dance halls had dancing partners physically close, performing movements that would allow for limbs and body parts to graze each other in ways not seen in other partnered dance forms of

864-608: The potential for men to contract a disease during service and later transmit them to their wives, who may in turn transmit them to their newborn children. They also sought to dispel the notion that continued sexual activity served to maintain or strengthen a man's sexual potency, positing instead that the opposite was the scientific reality: that men had finite sexual reserves, and could weaken themselves by an excess of sexual exertion. The CTCA produced two feature length silent dramas relating to sexual hygiene in 1917, both directed by Edward H. Griffith : Fit to Fight and The End of

896-459: The result, the men committed to its charge will be returned to the homes and communities that so generously gave them with no scars except those won in honorable conflict. By keeping alcohol and prostitutes away from soldiers, the CTCA aimed to cultivate the "man-power and manhood" of the American troops. A "twin" Commission on Training Camp Activities was later created for the Department of

928-410: The sexual double standard which had prevailed in the previous century, in which women were expected to remain chaste until marriage, but it was tolerated for men to exercise their sexual energy with multiple partners. Some military officers and politicians opposed this progressive angle, and clung to the notion that men needed sexual outlets to maintain their morale or vigour. Samuel Gompers , a leader in

960-419: The time. Although interests in dance halls were growing, halls attracted negative attention from moral reformers and the media for the types of dancing done at these establishments, the sexual independence these environments allowed women, and the difficulty of regulating dance halls. Simple dance moves were already seen as morally wrong by select religious groups prior to the popularity of dance halls but with

992-472: The world "safe for democracy" and that the U.S. was "but one of the champions of the rights of mankind". Domestically, American soldiers would be part of a reform program that would fight the forces of degradation that had traditionally plagued military training camps. Wilson sought to reassure the public that they could entrust their young men to the military, stating: The Federal Government has pledged its word that as far as care and vigilance can accomplish

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1024-482: The year. Formerly, the dance pavilions were often built at sites with beautiful landscape, for example by the lakes. The Sivakan lava dance pavilion in Sivakkavaara, Kaavi , Finland has a history of more than a hundred years, as according to some sources, dances have been held on pavilion since 1907. Fosdick Commission The Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA), also popularly known as

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