The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-13
Sayngs Bring Fresh Censue New Dime Dance Halls Police By Crowley And Dugr

sit down at a table and pay for con- versatiOn and mpariOnship at the dance rate, which comes to about $3 an hour. For the turnover in tunes is frequently about one dance to each two minutes
 High pressure bands go ceaselcgs- ly on, blaring out tune after tune. Sometimes the musicians stop in the midst of a chorus, picking 1t UP again so rapidly that the customer barely has time to reach for a new ticket.
 In several places visited in upper New York, not far from the Bronx and Harlem, the scenario went some- thing like this:
 For $1.25 a book of tickets could be purchased. That allowed a p cent admission fee and ten dances, All about sit the "hostesses, wait ing for new arrivals. Tn the better places-and the rough-and-tumble spots are said to comprise but 20 per cent of the total-the dime-a-dance partners sit as primly as at an old fashioned dance and wait to be asked. Whether the place be good or bad, evening clothes of the party dress" variety are worn. In the cheap joints" there is lit tie sitting around. A new conner is fairly dragged upon the floor with some such challenge as--"Hey there, big boy, don't you want to dance" From that moment "big boy" is diz- zily led from one number to an- other. If he's trying to look like a "big shot" he losses his whole book of tickets to his partner after few dances, by way of reward. Back in the dimly-lighted corners are tables. It's in this twilight of the tables and during the moon light" dances that the dance hall girl earns her money, for the neckers and the petters-whether gangsters O.: mice boys'-must be tolerated. Here the dates are whispered back and forth, leading to such rendez- vous as led Virginia Brannen to her doom.
 Policewomen keep an eye on scores of places. Squads of them drift over the city.
 "But," as Mrs Mary Sullivan. head of New York's policewomen, ex- plained, What can they do? The managers are smart. The girls are smarter.
 "There are managers who try to operate decent places. And there
  can a policewoman discover what | goes on in whispered conversation. or what is said over the tables? All we can do is watch for breaches of city regulations and prevent rough stuff when we see it. Forged Birth Certificates "We send spotters to the places. But the managers soon get wise. Of course, there are any number of girls under age in the dance halls. Rut it's hard to prove it. We call the girls aside and they lie. Then we call the managers. They keep Q pile of birth certificates. Our own. opinion is that most of these are | forged. But the manager has the
 girls signature. and she is pro- | tected.
 "A year ago we eliminated the SO
 called closed dance-halls which
 were nothing but vice dens. We have had raids and we have cancelled l licenses,
 "Yet nothing anyone can do will prevent young criminals from using these places as hang outs. They are | places where no introductions are solicited; where strange girls can be net and dated up. All sorts of pet-
 ty crime grows out of meetings in
 many of the places. They start by
 stealing a car to take a girl for q
 ride. They hold up someone to get
 money for parties, and soon they're hardened criminals"