New-York tribune., 1920-06-13
''Shimmy'' and Its Allies
In Discard as Oldtime
Dance Steps Return

Farewell to the shimmy and it's step
sisters, the dizzy and entirely mean
ingless steps that have originated with
in the last two years to bring bushes
to the elders cheeks and protests from
the clergy. They are doomed at last.
1t is announced by F. Ziegfeld jr. that
in the staging of his future musical
productions he purposes to eliminate
altogether the "bunny-hugging," death
gripping" steps, and substitute the old
| time waltz and two step. He SAYS he
may even revive the old square dance,
and show the rising generation just
how our grandfathers and grandmothers
used to pass their time.
Mr.. ziegfeld tries to please the great
minority, and dislikes greatly to take
from it it's chief pastime of the last
score or more of months, but the ballot
has been cast, and the pee-pul do not
like the stranglehold dances a little.
He is positive Of that
And so in the near future one NAV
go to the Frolic or to the Follies and
see a fiddler fiddling away at one end
of the stage, while the beautiful lassies
perform their dance steps la the old
barn dance
"There is a tendency to get away
from the suggestive form of dances we
have been fol,.d to show" he SAYS.
IF you look up and down Broadway
at the different musical productions
you will find that the old customs,
with their conservative manners, are
making the biggest hits. What the
people, want is beauty and grace. but
they don't want to be afraid to take
their children to see it.
mo doubt the advent of prohibition
has caused the change. There was
time when nothing would please an
audience but bill packed full of bare
foot dancers and 'shimmying.' There
have been so many crude and vulgar
interpretations of this last dance that
whenever 1T appears now on the vaude-
VILE stage, or in a large production,
the people act as if they would like to
get up and walk out. And, after all,
you can't blame them. Too much of
anything is tiring and grows monoton-
ous.'
In many of the dancing resorts along
Broadway, the orchestras have sub
stltuted to some extent the old time.
slow dance music for the racy rag
time steps that have held sway for
months. 1t appears that almost stimuli
taneously the managers have felt the
WEAKNESS of their patrons toward
these dances, and they are doomed.
''Whenever a 'catch-as- cam number
is played in our grill and dance halls"
says Miss Hazen Allen, the pretty host
ess at the McAlpin Hotel, "part of the
crowd is content to take it's place at
the tables and refrain from the dance.
But when we play waltz they all
seem to rush to the floor at once. The
dances that have lent themselves so
readily to the vulgar and coarse are
going"
Harry F. Shaul, entertainment man
ager of the Plaza Hotel, an authority
on dancing, is Of the same opinion, and
he says that in most of the large dance
parties that are held in the Grand
Ball Room OF the Plaza, the orchestra
Is instructed to play anything but
tracy" numbers
1T is not at all unnatural" he says.
champagne and fine liquors always
urged people on to dance themselves
breathless. Now that the Eighteenth
Amendment seems to be fairly under
way, every one has settled back to take
things more comfortably The waltz
and the oldtime gliding steps are here
to stay"