As the womandraggedthe exhausted man drape over her shoulder , the assembled crowd in the auditorium screamed encouragement .
“ Do n’t let them get you , Eddie , ” they called .
Eddie Lopez , his face drooped in a mask of misery , did n’t look up . He could not do much more than appropriate himself to be dragged along by his partner , Mary Martin . forrader of them , another couple take the air around and around in circles , an emcee call the polo-neck - alike race from a mike . “ It ’ll be over before long , ” he said . “ Eddie ’s going fast . ”
He was correct . Lopez finally collapsed ; every cadre of his prone soundbox had used the last possible amount of energy . Desperate , Martin tried pulling him along .
Lopez and Martin were one of two finalist pair allow for in the Summit Beach Walkathon in Akron , Ohio , on December 12 , 1933 . The winner would get $ 1000 in cash , near the mean annual wage at the time , provide they could continue act for days on end with only abbreviated rest point . That money was a lifeline for many : the United States was mired in the Great Depression and people everywhere shinny with economical disaster . some 3000 spectators do to look out Summit Beach Walkathon , a scene that was being repeated in virtually every major city across the area .
Blinking back tears and ignoring her own exhaustion , Martin continued tug at Lopez ’s dispirited frame , leave him to get back on his metrical unit .
It was the 144th daytime of the competition .
Dance Fever
Many people had a mess of costless meter in the epoch between cosmos war and before the advent oftelevision . alive entertainment like vaudeville , euphony , and plays were popular . So were outlandish feats thatattemptedworld disk , like stuffing multitude into phone booths or balancing precariously on telephone poles .
Amid this violation step Alma Cummings . In April 1923 , 32 - year - old Cummingsdecidedto adjust a Earth phonograph record for consecutive terpsichore . At the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan , Cummings dodger - trotted without intermission with a total of six partners , each one discarded when they reached their physical limits . By the clock time she was done she hadearnedconsiderable press care as well as a yoke of shoes that were break all the way of life through . She had been dancing for 27 hours .
“ And I can go longer than that , ” Cummingssaid . “ If my shoes and stockings and partners had n’t worn out , I ’d be waltz yet . ”
Though Cummings was not the first dancing marathoner , she was likely a majorinfluenceon the dance endurance contest fad that swept the country . Over the next several weeks , people eager to get some fleeting fame of their own break the record . ( Cumming herselfreturnedto retake it at 50 hours . ) Just as quickly , competitions get down take form up tender dirty money for singles and couples who could trip the light fantastic toe the longest without interruption . masses were expect to wipe out , wash themselves , shave , and sip water , all while remain in apparent motion . Some impresario would tender break every hour to protract the events and give entrants a fortune to use the can ; others would assert contestants remain on their foot for 60 minutes at a time .
Audiences pay admission to watch — not out of any appreciation for saltation power but for the sheer endurance challenge . Any semblance of skill soon give way to a sort of glum shuffling . One cagey promoter for a dance endurance contest at Madison Square Gardenarrangedfor doctor images of the dancers to be published in a New York newspaper so they appear drawn and near - death . After days of pitiful attendance , spectators exhibit up in swarm .
The danger did n’t really need ornamentation . In North Tonawanda , New York , a man name Homer Morehouse , just 27 , was lead to a chair to rest during a break when he fall down over all in . The apparent cause was warmness nonstarter ; Morehouse had been dancing for 87 hour . An untold telephone number of contestants collapsed , fainted , or suffered from extreme sleep privation . Hallucinations were not uncommon .
Health concerns conduce to a kind of unasked pause : police force raids . In Los Angeles , California , copsstormedthe terpsichore level of one 1927 endurance contest , hale participants off after 20 hours of shuffling . Contestants screamed and resisted , believing they still had a chance at the pillage money .
Moral loss leader were also worried the competition might be prurient in nature , with contestantsembracingone another in front of an all - ages consultation . Never heed that many were clinging to consciousness rather than having a single raunchy thought .
Reverend Charles Koehler rail against the competition in Spokane , Washington , in 1931 . “ This is only the beginning , ” hesaid . “ People are plump to get banal of seeing just walk . Now they are operate to have bathing beauties and what next only God have it off . ”
Sometimes community appendage object to their seeming simplicity . Wroteone Green Bay , Wisconsin resident : “ Under no context can it become a threat to mental faculties where none subsist . ” dissident drop dead , the somebody added , “ would think no large release to the intellectual sprightliness and eudaemonia of the community . ”
promoter had their counter - arguments . Organizer Will Maylon insist the contests use dozens of people . They also engendered domestic paragon . Maylon pointed out that one married couple kiss each other respectable night at each rest period—24 times a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
Such debates were echoed throughout the nation . Major metropolis like Los Angeles and Boston passed laws or regulation prohibiting the grueling effect out of concern for entrants . But promotersfounda novel solution . Instead of phone them dancing marathons , they were dubbed walkathons , a brazen endeavour to circumvent the law that often worked .
By the thirties , the contests were no longer strictly amusement . For many , they became a despairing bid for selection .
Walk Hard
The 1929 pedigree market crash gave style to a X of financial disaster for Americans . In the 1930s , unemployment was hovering at 25 percent . Food and jobs were scarce . A walkathon wassomethingakin to a drawing ticket : It kick in destitute the great unwashed a prospect to win prize money — as much as $ 1000 ( tantamount to nearly $ 18,000 today ) , enough for months and months of victuals — as well as other perquisite . Entrants got aesculapian attending as well as up to 12 free meals daily to fire their effort . There was even free housing in the horse sense you remained indoors for the length of the contest and get a bed or cot to briefly rest .
For some , it was essentially a job , and there were even designations assigned to fledgling . Amateurs were just that : people off the street who wanted a chance at the money . professional entered contests on a regular footing , subsistingon the perks . They weredubbed“horses ” owing to their ability to sleep ( or at least rest ) while stand . They were also often commit the most cruel mandate , breathe as piddling as three minutes per minute . Other time , horses might be ringer , dispatchedby booster to outlast the amateurs so they would n’t have to give out the full cash booty .
horse were part of a subversive aspect to the walkathons . Promoters , sensing the audience ’s emotional investment in contestant , oftenmanipulatedthings to maximise the drama . match on the floor would “ burst up , ” only to be reunited subsequently ; others nurtured romances that led to wedding ceremonies mid - competition . Emcees might associate stories about entrants to eviscerate out sympathy . Participants might get a small-scale peak of $ 2 to pretend to faint for dramatic effect . It was not substantially different from professional hand-to-hand struggle , though walkathon participant had the more physically grueling task .
plugger also knew there was an element of sadism in spectators that had to be feed . When walkathon action at law run into a letup , contestant would be forced to sprint across the floor or move to high - tempo music . fail to carry on moving could leave in a sharp strike with a yardstick . couple might be chained or tie together and made to move in circles . Some might even be ordered into pulley of ice to further challenge their survival . When contestants ultimately and needs dangle to their knees , they would be roused with smelling salts or drenched with ice buckets . If their rest period was up , someone would knock down an air horn .
Many of the competition decease on for months . When some cities tried to curtail them by enacting a maximal eight - hour daily point of accumulation , promoters simply ushered consultation out when the time was up and then stated contestants werechoosingto uphold moving for the remaining 16 minute independent of the competition .
It paid off . A promoter mightearnas much as $ 50,000 to $ 70,000 inadmissionsover a period of sidereal day . At the height of their popularity , walkathons were think to be in almost every American city with a population of at least 50,000 mass .
The Finish Line
What finally curbed the walkathon was not human decency but an even more resounding human tragedy . The bombardment ofPearl Harborin 1941 and the United States ’ subsequent ledger entry intoWorld War IImade any kind of frivolity an second thought . With commonwealth in danger , there was simply no time to expend days , weeks , or months watching or competing in an endurance contest . The war itself was the endurance challenge .
The question remains : What did mass get out of seeing such extreme human suffering ? It for sure was n’t the activeness itself . As oneKansas City Starcolumnist luff out in 1932 , spectator couldwatchpeople take the air around town for free ; they could see wonderful saltation on phase .
For some , there was a genuine fear in see contestant push their physical limits , which could sometimes demonstrate gender equality . A slight cleaning woman could prevail over a man , as in the case of “ Mazie , ” whom theOakland Tribunedubbeda “ tab of a girl ” dance marathoner in Oakland who outlive “ two burly youth , ” slyboots - trotting for 98 hours , 14 minute , and 44 seconds .
Contestants like Mazie seemed to be the Florida key . Promoter Leo Seltzer told theTribunethat audience became emotionally bind to sure people . “ It ’s favorite that do it , ” he suppose . “ Half the populace is waiting to sympathize with someone . ” Once an attendant take someone to get behind , they would keep coming back , day after mean solar day , to cheer them on . comparing to innovative realness television system are probably apt : a walkathoner would likely find much in common with a contestant onSurvivor .
Eventually , the sunniness subside . In Akron , Ohio , Eddie Lopez and Mary Martinspenttheir remaining moment hoping to grab the triumph . But Lopez swoon , and Martin finally leave office , too . The contest had gone on for so long that the furtherance was by that tip in receivership and under the control of the county so it could pay creditors . Instead of $ 1000 , the winners would get just $ 100 . Lopez and Martin , due $ 500 for 2nd stead , would get nothing . As Lopez was carried off , the crowd boo .
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