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Hi, and welcome again to Don't Know Beach About History, Short Histories of Long Beach, brought to you by the Long Beach Public Library.
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I'm Jeff Whalen, local history librarian here at the Billie Jean King Main Library, and today we're rewinding to 1916, when the seemingly innocuous issue of folk dancing in schools became highly controversial, sending the town into a moral panic.
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We're going to talk about the folk dancing freakout and also about Long Beach in general in the mid-19 teens.
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Joining me again today is Professional Librarian and International Man of Action, Peril is his bread, Danger His Butter.
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It's Josh Sanchez! What's up, Josh?
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I'm also suffering from dance fever, so I'm looking forward to this.
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You and your dancing.
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Um.
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Alright, so Long Beach historically has always been down for immoral panic.
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Like, for example, drinking.
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Like we've discussed before, Long Beach was already freaky about booze even way before Prohibition.
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We were a dry city before being a dry city was cool.
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And we've talked about rock and roll and its evil rhythms, how city fathers in the 1950s weren't too keen on their children getting corrupted by Elvis.
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Yeah.
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But there were also so many others too.
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Like people trying to close everything on Sundays, from hot dog stands to movie theaters.
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That one people were trying to do off and on for decades.
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Or like Long Beach getting in on the comic book panic of the 1950s.
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You know that one, Josh, where people were blaming comic books for juvenile delinquency?
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Yeah, I was one of those juvenile delinquents myself.
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And Ouija boards?
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Did you ever do a Ouija board, Josh?
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I'm too uh scared to know.
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I've seen that movie.
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When Ouija boards had a national popularity surge in 1919, the Long Beach YWCA got a few boards for their rec room, and boy oh boy, churches freaked out and said people shouldn't let their girls go to the YWCA.
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Basically, if there was some kind of moral or family values or religious question in the air, Long Beach was ready to freak out about it.
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And it wasn't like people didn't take notice, both locals and people outside of Long Beach.
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I came across a 1921 master's thesis from a student at Stanford University, which focused on the Long Beach School District.
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The author, after studying Long Beach for a couple of years, concluded.
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He said, Of all cities in California, the writer knows of no other that tends so strongly to a puritanical attitude.
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So far as its attitude on temperance is concerned, the writer considers its views commendable, as does the majority of the American people.
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But it is not in this regard alone that Long Beach takes the extreme moral position that has styled it California's Sunday school town.
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The writer says that Long Beach has been, quote, a church town in the full sense of the word from the early foundation until today.
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Certainly one doesn't know Long Beach until he understands it in this respect.
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That's actually super fascinating to me.
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Which part?
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All of that.
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That's crazy.
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Yeah, it's really true.
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It's a really steady trend through our history.
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A lot of businesses who definitely depended on Long Beach's good reputation as a fun vacation destination were not into it.
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A lot of businesses wanted to be able to serve drinks and hot dogs and show movies on Sundays.
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And Long Beach's growing reputation as a puritanical stronghold wasn't helping.
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Newspapers noted this pattern of Long Beachers freaking out about stuff.
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Back to Ouija boards for a second after the Ouija board flap died down a bit.
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The Daily Telegram editorial page said, Ask Ouija what will be Long Beach's next much ado about nothing.
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So with that context about Long Beach's historical approach to social issues, let's dig right into the folk dancing panic of 1916.
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You ready, Josh?
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Yes, I have my shovel and my dancing shoes.
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Alright, but before we do that, let's get a little context about Long Beach in 1916.
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My favorite part.
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Alright, Long Beach in 1916.
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Okay, so people talk about how Long Beach was the fastest growing city in the country at the time.
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And guess what?
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It's true! From a population of under 600 in 1890, Long Beach by 1916 had well over 40,000 people.
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On top of that, and this next thing might be a result of the fact that it was youngish people coming here, but Long Beach in 1916 also had the distinction of being the city with the lowest death rate in the whole United States.
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To be clear, everybody back then is dead now.
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But back then you'd never guess it, because Long Beach people were dying at the low, low yearly rate of 9 per thousand.
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That's about the national average now.
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But back then that was eye-popping, with eye-popping being one of the leading causes of death back then.
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The more you know.
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Now people just walked around with their eyes super wide about it, thinking about Long Beach's death rate.
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Moving on.
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Okay, Long Beach in 1916.
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Josh, have you heard the term jitney bus?
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Or just jitney, maybe?
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No.
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People in my social circle throw that word around, but I'm too afraid to ask what it actually means.
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Okay, so a jitney used to mean a nickel.
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Give me five jitneys for a quarter, people used to say.
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And jitney also used to mean Model T, that famous old car.
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And jitney also used to mean any car or bus, but usually a Model T that was used like an unlicensed cab or bus, and you'd give the driver a nickel and he'd drive you around.
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If you had a car, driving a jitney was a good way to make a little pocket change on the side.
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Now, supposedly Long Beach invented the practice and the term.
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I don't know about that, Josh.
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I see some earlier uses of the term in other parts of the country before I see it being used in Long Beach.
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But some people think there's a good case to make that this is where it all started in the 1914 range.
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In Long Beach, Jitney buses just steamrolled the streetcar competition in 1915 and 1916.
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A city ordinance was passed where they had to be licensed and insured and all that, and jitney buses kind of started the process, where the streetcars and your beloved red cars, Josh, were ultimately replaced by the beloved city bus system we enjoy today.
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Tragic.
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In other 1916 news, four local teenagers were arrested for going on a crime spree and stealing guns and motorcycles and bikes and cars and getting away with some$5,000 worth of loot.
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That's like$150,000 today.
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It was 16-year-old Frank Butz and his 14-year-old brother, Eugene Butts.
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No word about whether there was another brother, Seymour Butz.
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And Ernest King, who was 16, and Ernest's 13-year-old brother.
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After they got caught, the Butz boys were sent to the George Junior Republic in Chino, which was a therapeutic boarding school and community for at-risk teenagers now called Boys Republic.
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Steve McQueen went there.
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I know exactly where that is.
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You know where that is.
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I do.
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You didn't go there, though.
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There's a great shopping center with a J crew and a good coffee shop nearby.
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Oh, nice.
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Sure.
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Yeah, Steve McQueen went there.
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Anyways, the Butts Boys get sent there, but just like Steve McQueen and the great escape, they escape.
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And they steal a seven-passenger Studebaker with curtains in the windows, and they drive it to Long Beach and go to one of their friends' house, but somebody calls the fuzz, and there's a big car chase through downtown Long Beach.
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For 15 minutes, cops chase the Studebaker around and around until the boys lose the cops at Atlantic in 21st.
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According to the Long Beach Telegram, quote, the fugitives escaped because their car exceeded in both speed and power the police department jitney.
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Staying on cars.
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Josh, did you know they had electric cars back in the old days?
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I did.
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They did, and you did.
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In April 1916, a caravan of 35 electric cars from the Beardsley Electro Company in LA took a sightseeing spin from their LA showroom down to Long Beach.
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Here's what Ignition and Accessories magazine said about it.
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My favorite magazine.
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Ignition and Accessories?
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Yep.
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Especially the accessories part.
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These cars, driven by their owners and accompanied by over 100 guests, merrily spun over rolling hills and out beyond, on the broad county highways for which Southern California is so justly famous, through the rich agricultural section whose products are known in every land, past walnut orchards, orange groves, dairy farms, and alfalfa fields, and on roadways lined with blooming roses reflecting the radiant touch of nature's master hand, and down to the towering bluffs upon which has grown the beautiful city of Long Beach, overlooking a broad expanse of the quiet Pacific.
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Here a banquet was served at the Hotel Virginia to the guests by Volney Beardsley, after which a dip in the brainy deep was indulged in by young and old alike.
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Whimsical.
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For more information about the history of the electric car, please visit your local library.
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Or just look it up online.
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Yeah, whatever.
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Speaking of people enjoying their leisure time, Josh, if you wanted fully clothed people at the beach, Long Beach got you, bro.
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Any picture of the beach during this period backs that up.
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Men in full business suits and hats, just standing there, a sweating in the sun, sand getting in their shoes and their waistcoats and fob holes, women swimmers wearing stockings and high heels.
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Bring your horse down to the beach, or your car, it's fine.
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And speaking of the beach, the pike, that big year-round carnival amusement zone downtown, was hitting on all cylinders in 1916, brother.
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They had dance halls like the Majestic, and they had the big bathhouse called the Plunge.
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The plunge had heated saltwater pools, a big co-ed one and a smaller one for women only, and twenty-two hot tubs.
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It had four hundred and eighty-five private changing rooms and some five hundred bathing suits available to rent.
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Josh, would you rent a bathing suit?
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Absolutely not.
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They'd pump in clean, sand-free water from way out in the ocean and run it through these heated pipes and into the indoor pools of the plunge.
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I think the plunge part of it was a slide they had.
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And there were seats all around the upper deck where fully dressed and fully hatted people could watch the frolicking of the swimmers below.
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Though calling them swimmers might be overstating it a bit, since in all the pictures I've seen it looks like the water is maybe three feet deep.
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It's hard to say since people were shorter back then.
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But indoor salt water pools right at the beach were super popular, and there were ones like the plunge in Santa Monica and Redondo and elsewhere.
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Why would you come to the beach and then go swimming in a in a swimming pool of salt water?
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I guess because it's heated.
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I suppose I guess if you were um creatures.
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Creatures.
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I mean human creatures.
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More human creatures.
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But yeah, less aquatic creatures.
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Like jellyfish and stingray and shark.
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Sharks.
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And finally, 1916 was a great year in Long Beach for pushball.
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Josh, what's pushball?
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I would surmise that historians to this day still don't fully understand, and I can't say that I do either.
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Pushball is an old, not very popular game from back around the turn of the century.
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It was a fad that never really took off, like Orbit Soda or Repressed Memories.
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For pushball, you get a really big ball, maybe six or seven feet in diameter, and it should weigh about 50 or 75 pounds.
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And then you get a football field and 11 players on each side, and you try to push the ball into the other guy's end zone.
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You get five points for rolling the ball into the end zone, but you get eight points if you're able to lift or throw the ball over the end zone goalpost, which is seven feet high.
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Pushball fever came and went pretty quickly in Long Beach during the fall and winter of 1916, with the high point most assuredly being the pushball game between the Pauli High School football team and the Pasadena High School football team held during the halftime at the Rose Bowl.
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The pushball thing was kind of a late ad to the Rose Bowl, because actually the original halftime show was supposed to be a harmonica shred-off between Polly and Pasadena.
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As the Long Beach Press said, quote, a mouth organ contest between the harmonica societies of the two schools was first arranged for, but objection was made on the ground that the sound waves might not carry to the farthest corners of the bleachers.
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This wasn't at the Rose Bowl Stadium, by the way, that was built in 1922, this was at Tournament Park, which held 30,000 folks.
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As for the big pushbowl game, the two teams pushed to a thrilling, scoreless tie.
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Like I said, utterly incomprehensible.
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Okay, on to our actual topic.
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The folk dancing panic of 1916.
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Alright, let's go.
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But first, let's get some context.
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Schools.
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Like we were saying in the first part of the 20th century, Long Beach was the fastest growing city in the whole United States.
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Of America.
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Whoa.
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Long Beach had people coming out, it's nose.
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They couldn't build stuff fast enough for all these people.
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Houses, businesses, churches, and definitely schools.
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Classes had an average of 40 kids per and it was only getting worse.
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So in 1916, the city held a bond issue to fund some school additions and also to build two intermediate schools.
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Most people thought the bond issue would pass no problem.
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Because this was the progressive era.
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People were into all kinds of reforms, and improved education was definitely part of it.
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Progressive era thinking was that education and democracy were pretty much synonymous, so they were focusing on things like critical thinking, collaborative learning, social responsibility, hands-on learning, and social skills.
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And folk dancing was part of this.
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Now when I think of folk dancing in school, I think of square dancing and stuff like that.
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Did they make you square dance in school, Josh?
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Did you do see doe?
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I still have the scars from that, both mental and physical.
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It's a don't see doe see don't.
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Perfect.
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Did you enjoy it?
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No, I hated it.
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It was weird.
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Huh?
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Were you good at it?
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Um, yeah, I was.
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Yeah, you were good at it.
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So that kind of Western square dancing in schools came a bit later.
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The kind of folk dancing going on in long beach schools in 1916 was Maypole type stuff, and some traditional Swedish circle dances, and some German clapping exercises, and also some circle games that seem a bit like Duck Duck Goose, and then some stuff that seems like Follow the Leader or Simon Sass.
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Oh, they did Squirrel in the Nest, Cat and Mouse, Watch the Teacher, and others too.
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And for the most part, these were kindergartners, first and second graders, some third and fourth graders, basically Lil' Pumpkins coming out to be super darling and mega precious, and that was folk dance.
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So one of the reasons folk dances were big in schools during this time was because there were so many newly immigrated people in America, and schools wanted to make kids feel at home and share their family's traditions.
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So where was everybody from in Long Beach back then?
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According to the 1910 census, around 28% of Long Beachers were immigrants from other countries.
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Josh, care to guess which countries?
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Hmm.
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Canada?
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Canada at 23% is number two.
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Oh wow.
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Okay.
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Um, let's see.
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You said German, so how about Germany?
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Germany was number three at 12.6%.
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And what about like Sweden?
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They had Swedish uh folk dancing, but they're only at 2.7%.
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Okay.
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You're still looking for number one.
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Okay.
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Fiji?
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That's what I thought too.
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Yeah.
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But it's it's it's England.
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Oh.
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So everything was going great, everybody in town was loving folk dancing, the kids would perform the dances at PTA events and whatnot, and the city was just booming with new people everywhere.
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So they held that bond issue for more schoolrooms, like we were just talking about a minute ago, and people thought it would pass.
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Until February 1916, when some school kids gave a folk dancing show to the Atlantic Avenue Welfare Club, and a big Barney popped off between the grown-ups about the appropriateness of teaching folk dancing in school, with one side passionately warning that folk dancing was a gateway drug to regular dancing.
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This was just a hint of things to come, because the next month, the mega powerful consortium, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, came down hard, looking to abolish folk dancing in Long Beach schools altogether.
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Abolish?
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Yeah.
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Oh.
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Now the Women's Christian Temperance Union, or WCTU, or WIC2, as I assume cool people called it back then, is still around, though not nearly the big deal they used to be.
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The Women's Christian Temperance Union was a social reform-minded group of women formed in the late 1800s that worked for issues like women's right to vote, the prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of tobacco, raising the age of consent, which had been around 10 or 12 years old in most states when they first organized, and helping newly arrived immigrants get settled and Americanized.
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To modern ears, some of the things the WCTU pushed for, purity campaigns, as an example, can sound overly restrictive or regressive.
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But back in the day, the WCTU was a proto-feminist, even disruptive movement, in that they engaged millions of conservative traditional women in actions, marching in the street, lobbying politicians directly, running autonomous organizations completely free of male control, that can be described as feminist even if the women themselves didn't use that word.
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And the Women's Christian Temperance Union packed a pow-pow powerful punch.
00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.600
People listened to their views.
00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:04.400
So the Temperance Union distributed petitions about abolishing all dancing in Long Beach schools and appointed a special committee to investigate school dancing.
00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:10.000
I should mention that this was the local office of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, not the national one.
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:15.359
Once the WCTU got involved, lots of Long Beach churches did too.
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:34.559
Reverend Louis Bowman, pastor of the First Brethren Church, said, Why should we permit the devil to enter the public schools of our city and teach our boys and girls the first steps of dancing, the pastime that leads so many souls to ruin, when they will not permit our Bible, the word of the living God, to be taught in the schools?
00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:38.799
I will tell you, Satan is making a tremendous bid for our public school system.
00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:44.480
Reverend Bowman was one of the biggest voices in the anti-folk dancing movement in Long Beach.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:53.440
He gave a series of lectures called Folk Dancing in Public Schools, Satan's Increasing Bid for Our Boys and Girls, and took out big ads in the newspaper about it.
00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:57.279
Other churches joined First Brethren in the fight against folk dancing.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:02.559
The First Baptist Church, the First Methodist Church, the First Christian Church, and others.
00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:07.039
And guys from these churches were leaders in a group called the Ministerial Association.
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:19.279
And in March 1916, the Ministerial Association insisted on an executive conference with the school board at which they demanded the abolition of folk dancing in school, and the school board was like, whoa, what's going on?
00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:28.960
Organizations popped up with names like the Citizens League that threatened to torpedo the district's upcoming bond issue unless the schools agreed to 86 the folk dancing.
00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:36.559
The folk dancing issue was used to elevate dubious arguments about the school district's general immorality and incompetence on all fronts.
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:42.160
Abuse and ridicule were heaped upon the teachers, the curriculum, and the superintendent.
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:48.400
Now keep in mind, it's pretty clear in retrospect that most people in Long Beach supported folk dancing in school.
00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:52.559
For most, it was nice, or at worst, not that big of a deal.
00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:06.319
As spring was springing in 1916, and while groups like the Ministerial Association were ramping up their demand for the end to the satanic behavior, various folk dance performances by the town's Lil Pumpkins were still being held at various events in town.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:09.599
I'll read an excerpt from an LA Times story from March.
00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:23.920
At a recent exhibition at the high school by Miss Vinnie G's gymnasium class, where folk dancing is part of the physical culture program, about a thousand girls, teachers, and mothers witnessed the artistic interpretation of a program on the front lawn of the high school.
00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:30.559
The girls were encord, time and again, and the mothers present were unanimous in their warm commendation at the performance.
00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:37.039
The angels could not help but smile upon such dancing as that, is the way one mother expressed it.
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:37.759
Agreed.
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:49.200
Support in favor of school folk dancing came from women's groups like the E Bell Club and the Friday Morning Discussion Club, and from parent groups like the PTA and religious groups like the Congregational Church and St.
00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:50.799
Luke's Episcopal Church.
00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:59.039
And regular townsfolk wrote letters to the editor proclaiming the innocence of folk dancing, and I'll read one from local businessman Milton Doolittle.
00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.920
Do they still have people with names like that, Milton Doolittle?
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:02.960
Or is that just over?
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:04.000
Yeah, that's done.
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:05.119
We can't do that anymore.
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:05.680
Okay.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:17.279
Milton Doolittle wrote, For any person who can look on this graceful, innocent diversion of these school children and see in it anything improper or suggestive, I have only this to say.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:24.720
Buy a barrel of Dutch cleanser, take it home, and scour out first your body, and then your mind, and then your soul.
00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:35.920
And then, with a white soul, clean hands, and a pure heart, go back and look at those happy children again and be everlastingly ashamed of yourself for having been such a ridiculous prude.
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.240
He's doing something.
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.599
So in April, the school district held a referendum, non-binding.
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:50.160
They sent ballots to parents and just asked them if they were for or against folk dancing.
00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:54.400
The results were overwhelmingly pro-folk dancing, 70% to 30.
00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:09.839
So in light of this, the school said that folk dancing would continue for the rest of the school year, including getting the little pumpkins out there for the already scheduled May festivals, with participation optional, and the district promised to keep thinking about it and talking about it and listening about it and mulling it over.
00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.200
Now, you'd think that that would chill things out a bit.
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.200
But it totally didn't.
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:20.160
In fact, the Ministerial Association said, okay, bet, now it's on.
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:26.079
Calvary Presbyterian presented a sermon called The End of the World and addressed folk dancing in it.
00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:37.920
And good old Reverend Bowman gave his next sermon the catchy title, Must People of Intense Conviction on the Subject of Dancing be compelled to take their children out of the public schools of our city and place them in secular schools for moral safety?
00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:39.119
That was the title?
00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:40.000
That was the title.
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:40.799
Catchy.
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:46.000
They held a big old mass meeting at the municipal auditorium, and 3,000 people showed up.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.440
They got to hear speakers say all kinds of wacky stuff, like the school board was being run by a cult.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.000
Their main arguments were, quote, the folk dance is useless and unprofitable.
00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:58.960
It destroys the spirit of democracy in our schools.
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:01.200
It violates the belief of many parents.
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:04.799
And finally, the Lord does not want it in our schools.
00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:06.480
Time is a flat circle.
00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:18.319
They distributed cards at the event that read, quote, It is the conviction of the undersigned that dancing, folk dancing, and so-called folk games in our schools are educationally unprofitable and should be discontinued.
00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:21.920
And people were supposed to sign it, and more than half the audience did.
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.599
Then, in May, the bond issue came to the voters.
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:29.680
Now let me be clear: this bond issue had nothing on it about folk dancing.
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:40.079
It was about adding rooms to existing schools and building two new intermediate schools, all very needed due to overcrowding, and yet the whole folk dancing thing hung heavily over the proceedings.
00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:45.759
The Long Beach School Board had taken such a beating in the toxic fou-fara over folk dancing.
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:56.640
It started with the folk dancing criticisms and then expanded to brutal attacks on all things school board, that they were in a cult, that they were in league with Satan, that it left a bad taste in a lot of the public's mouths.
00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:03.920
So the bond failed 55% to 45, and the overcrowding continued, actually worsened since no improvements were made.
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.000
And the folk dancing matter was dropped.
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:06.640
Completely.
00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:13.039
The next year, folk dancing in schools continued just as it had before, and the residents of Long Beach were, one assumes, fine with it.
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:17.920
There were no more fiery sermons or alarming messages that Long Beach was sentencing their children to hell.
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:23.440
Now I did do some poking around and I found out that many of those kids actually did end up going to hell.
00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:25.759
So that's something to keep in mind.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:27.839
But it was mostly for tax stuff.
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:28.960
Yeah, right.
00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:31.279
That's where they get you.
00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:36.319
A school bond finally did pass in 1920, and much-needed classrooms were added.
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:41.279
Long Beach's first junior highs, Washington and Edison, both opened in 1921.
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:47.599
And folk dancing in Long Beach schools carried on for decades and is still offered to Lil Punkins to this day.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:52.319
And that's it, Josh.
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.519
That's the story of the folk dancing panic of 1916.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.880
What conclusions can we come to about this?
00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:00.079
What's your takeaway?
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:08.160
I think if you can leverage a moral panic to get out of a PE credit, you should absolutely take advantage of that.
00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:09.359
Yeah.
00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:10.799
Thank you.
00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:12.240
And that's it.
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:14.160
Thanks for joining us today, you guys.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.240
Josh, thank you for joining us today.
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:17.279
Always a pleasure.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:18.640
Right back at you.
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:19.759
All right, everybody.
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.279
We'll see you next time.
00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:22.079
Adios.
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.119
Bye.
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:15.759
Hi, and welcome again to Don't Know Beach About History, Short Histories of Long Beach, brought to you by the Long Beach Public Library.
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:32.719
I'm Jeff Whalen, local history librarian here at the Billie Jean King Main Library, and today we're rewinding to 1916, when the seemingly innocuous issue of folk dancing in schools became highly controversial, sending the town into a moral panic.
00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:38.960
We're going to talk about the folk dancing freakout and also about Long Beach in general in the mid-19 teens.
00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:46.880
Joining me again today is Professional Librarian and International Man of Action, Peril is his bread, Danger His Butter.
00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:49.439
It's Josh Sanchez! What's up, Josh?
00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.880
I'm also suffering from dance fever, so I'm looking forward to this.
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:54.799
You and your dancing.
00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:55.520
Um.
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.719
Alright, so Long Beach historically has always been down for immoral panic.
00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:02.320
Like, for example, drinking.
00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:07.760
Like we've discussed before, Long Beach was already freaky about booze even way before Prohibition.
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.040
We were a dry city before being a dry city was cool.
00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:19.040
And we've talked about rock and roll and its evil rhythms, how city fathers in the 1950s weren't too keen on their children getting corrupted by Elvis.
00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:19.519
Yeah.
00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.000
But there were also so many others too.
00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:27.040
Like people trying to close everything on Sundays, from hot dog stands to movie theaters.
00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:29.760
That one people were trying to do off and on for decades.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:33.439
Or like Long Beach getting in on the comic book panic of the 1950s.
00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:37.599
You know that one, Josh, where people were blaming comic books for juvenile delinquency?
00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.640
Yeah, I was one of those juvenile delinquents myself.
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:42.079
And Ouija boards?
00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:43.920
Did you ever do a Ouija board, Josh?
00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.959
I'm too uh scared to know.
00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:48.319
I've seen that movie.
00:01:48.480 --> 00:02:01.280
When Ouija boards had a national popularity surge in 1919, the Long Beach YWCA got a few boards for their rec room, and boy oh boy, churches freaked out and said people shouldn't let their girls go to the YWCA.
00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:09.840
Basically, if there was some kind of moral or family values or religious question in the air, Long Beach was ready to freak out about it.
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:15.120
And it wasn't like people didn't take notice, both locals and people outside of Long Beach.
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:23.039
I came across a 1921 master's thesis from a student at Stanford University, which focused on the Long Beach School District.
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.560
The author, after studying Long Beach for a couple of years, concluded.
00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:33.759
He said, Of all cities in California, the writer knows of no other that tends so strongly to a puritanical attitude.
00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:40.879
So far as its attitude on temperance is concerned, the writer considers its views commendable, as does the majority of the American people.
00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:48.000
But it is not in this regard alone that Long Beach takes the extreme moral position that has styled it California's Sunday school town.
00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:54.560
The writer says that Long Beach has been, quote, a church town in the full sense of the word from the early foundation until today.
00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:58.800
Certainly one doesn't know Long Beach until he understands it in this respect.
00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:00.560
That's actually super fascinating to me.
00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:01.199
Which part?
00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:01.680
All of that.
00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:02.319
That's crazy.
00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:03.520
Yeah, it's really true.
00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:06.800
It's a really steady trend through our history.
00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:17.120
A lot of businesses who definitely depended on Long Beach's good reputation as a fun vacation destination were not into it.
00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:21.840
A lot of businesses wanted to be able to serve drinks and hot dogs and show movies on Sundays.
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.319
And Long Beach's growing reputation as a puritanical stronghold wasn't helping.
00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:29.919
Newspapers noted this pattern of Long Beachers freaking out about stuff.
00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.680
Back to Ouija boards for a second after the Ouija board flap died down a bit.
00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:40.159
The Daily Telegram editorial page said, Ask Ouija what will be Long Beach's next much ado about nothing.
00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:47.919
So with that context about Long Beach's historical approach to social issues, let's dig right into the folk dancing panic of 1916.
00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:48.960
You ready, Josh?
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:51.360
Yes, I have my shovel and my dancing shoes.
00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:56.479
Alright, but before we do that, let's get a little context about Long Beach in 1916.
00:03:56.719 --> 00:03:57.439
My favorite part.
00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.159
Alright, Long Beach in 1916.
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.719
Okay, so people talk about how Long Beach was the fastest growing city in the country at the time.
00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:05.520
And guess what?
00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:12.960
It's true! From a population of under 600 in 1890, Long Beach by 1916 had well over 40,000 people.
00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:24.720
On top of that, and this next thing might be a result of the fact that it was youngish people coming here, but Long Beach in 1916 also had the distinction of being the city with the lowest death rate in the whole United States.
00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:27.600
To be clear, everybody back then is dead now.
00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:34.160
But back then you'd never guess it, because Long Beach people were dying at the low, low yearly rate of 9 per thousand.
00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.079
That's about the national average now.
00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:40.879
But back then that was eye-popping, with eye-popping being one of the leading causes of death back then.
00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:41.920
The more you know.
00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:46.879
Now people just walked around with their eyes super wide about it, thinking about Long Beach's death rate.
00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:50.000
Moving on.
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.000
Okay, Long Beach in 1916.
00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.480
Josh, have you heard the term jitney bus?
00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:55.680
Or just jitney, maybe?
00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:56.160
No.
00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.240
People in my social circle throw that word around, but I'm too afraid to ask what it actually means.
00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.560
Okay, so a jitney used to mean a nickel.
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:05.360
Give me five jitneys for a quarter, people used to say.
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.279
And jitney also used to mean Model T, that famous old car.
00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:18.720
And jitney also used to mean any car or bus, but usually a Model T that was used like an unlicensed cab or bus, and you'd give the driver a nickel and he'd drive you around.
00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:23.600
If you had a car, driving a jitney was a good way to make a little pocket change on the side.
00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:27.519
Now, supposedly Long Beach invented the practice and the term.
00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:29.120
I don't know about that, Josh.
00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:33.680
I see some earlier uses of the term in other parts of the country before I see it being used in Long Beach.
00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:38.720
But some people think there's a good case to make that this is where it all started in the 1914 range.
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:44.560
In Long Beach, Jitney buses just steamrolled the streetcar competition in 1915 and 1916.
00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:57.839
A city ordinance was passed where they had to be licensed and insured and all that, and jitney buses kind of started the process, where the streetcars and your beloved red cars, Josh, were ultimately replaced by the beloved city bus system we enjoy today.
00:05:58.160 --> 00:05:59.040
Tragic.
00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:11.040
In other 1916 news, four local teenagers were arrested for going on a crime spree and stealing guns and motorcycles and bikes and cars and getting away with some$5,000 worth of loot.
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.519
That's like$150,000 today.
00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:18.160
It was 16-year-old Frank Butz and his 14-year-old brother, Eugene Butts.
00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:22.000
No word about whether there was another brother, Seymour Butz.
00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:26.399
And Ernest King, who was 16, and Ernest's 13-year-old brother.
00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:36.399
After they got caught, the Butz boys were sent to the George Junior Republic in Chino, which was a therapeutic boarding school and community for at-risk teenagers now called Boys Republic.
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:37.439
Steve McQueen went there.
00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:38.399
I know exactly where that is.
00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:39.120
You know where that is.
00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:39.439
I do.
00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:40.480
You didn't go there, though.
00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.240
There's a great shopping center with a J crew and a good coffee shop nearby.
00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:45.199
Oh, nice.
00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:45.680
Sure.
00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:47.759
Yeah, Steve McQueen went there.
00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:53.439
Anyways, the Butts Boys get sent there, but just like Steve McQueen and the great escape, they escape.
00:06:53.519 --> 00:07:03.600
And they steal a seven-passenger Studebaker with curtains in the windows, and they drive it to Long Beach and go to one of their friends' house, but somebody calls the fuzz, and there's a big car chase through downtown Long Beach.
00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:09.759
For 15 minutes, cops chase the Studebaker around and around until the boys lose the cops at Atlantic in 21st.
00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:17.519
According to the Long Beach Telegram, quote, the fugitives escaped because their car exceeded in both speed and power the police department jitney.
00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:19.199
Staying on cars.
00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.240
Josh, did you know they had electric cars back in the old days?
00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:23.040
I did.
00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:24.560
They did, and you did.
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:34.480
In April 1916, a caravan of 35 electric cars from the Beardsley Electro Company in LA took a sightseeing spin from their LA showroom down to Long Beach.
00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:37.600
Here's what Ignition and Accessories magazine said about it.
00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:38.879
My favorite magazine.
00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:40.399
Ignition and Accessories?
00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:40.879
Yep.
00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:42.720
Especially the accessories part.
00:07:44.319 --> 00:08:17.519
These cars, driven by their owners and accompanied by over 100 guests, merrily spun over rolling hills and out beyond, on the broad county highways for which Southern California is so justly famous, through the rich agricultural section whose products are known in every land, past walnut orchards, orange groves, dairy farms, and alfalfa fields, and on roadways lined with blooming roses reflecting the radiant touch of nature's master hand, and down to the towering bluffs upon which has grown the beautiful city of Long Beach, overlooking a broad expanse of the quiet Pacific.
00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:26.639
Here a banquet was served at the Hotel Virginia to the guests by Volney Beardsley, after which a dip in the brainy deep was indulged in by young and old alike.
00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:27.680
Whimsical.
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.480
For more information about the history of the electric car, please visit your local library.
00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:34.240
Or just look it up online.
00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:35.759
Yeah, whatever.
00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:42.720
Speaking of people enjoying their leisure time, Josh, if you wanted fully clothed people at the beach, Long Beach got you, bro.
00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.440
Any picture of the beach during this period backs that up.
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:56.159
Men in full business suits and hats, just standing there, a sweating in the sun, sand getting in their shoes and their waistcoats and fob holes, women swimmers wearing stockings and high heels.
00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:59.519
Bring your horse down to the beach, or your car, it's fine.
00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:08.320
And speaking of the beach, the pike, that big year-round carnival amusement zone downtown, was hitting on all cylinders in 1916, brother.
00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:13.120
They had dance halls like the Majestic, and they had the big bathhouse called the Plunge.
00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:20.480
The plunge had heated saltwater pools, a big co-ed one and a smaller one for women only, and twenty-two hot tubs.
00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:26.399
It had four hundred and eighty-five private changing rooms and some five hundred bathing suits available to rent.
00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:28.399
Josh, would you rent a bathing suit?
00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:29.519
Absolutely not.
00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:37.120
They'd pump in clean, sand-free water from way out in the ocean and run it through these heated pipes and into the indoor pools of the plunge.
00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:40.799
I think the plunge part of it was a slide they had.
00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:47.600
And there were seats all around the upper deck where fully dressed and fully hatted people could watch the frolicking of the swimmers below.
00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:54.080
Though calling them swimmers might be overstating it a bit, since in all the pictures I've seen it looks like the water is maybe three feet deep.
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.799
It's hard to say since people were shorter back then.
00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:04.639
But indoor salt water pools right at the beach were super popular, and there were ones like the plunge in Santa Monica and Redondo and elsewhere.
00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.799
Why would you come to the beach and then go swimming in a in a swimming pool of salt water?
00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:09.759
I guess because it's heated.
00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.799
I suppose I guess if you were um creatures.
00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:13.519
Creatures.
00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:15.120
I mean human creatures.
00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:16.399
More human creatures.
00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:18.480
But yeah, less aquatic creatures.
00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:22.320
Like jellyfish and stingray and shark.
00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:23.039
Sharks.
00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:28.879
And finally, 1916 was a great year in Long Beach for pushball.
00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:30.720
Josh, what's pushball?
00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:37.440
I would surmise that historians to this day still don't fully understand, and I can't say that I do either.
00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:42.399
Pushball is an old, not very popular game from back around the turn of the century.
00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:46.960
It was a fad that never really took off, like Orbit Soda or Repressed Memories.
00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:54.320
For pushball, you get a really big ball, maybe six or seven feet in diameter, and it should weigh about 50 or 75 pounds.
00:10:54.480 --> 00:11:00.639
And then you get a football field and 11 players on each side, and you try to push the ball into the other guy's end zone.
00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:09.200
You get five points for rolling the ball into the end zone, but you get eight points if you're able to lift or throw the ball over the end zone goalpost, which is seven feet high.
00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:24.000
Pushball fever came and went pretty quickly in Long Beach during the fall and winter of 1916, with the high point most assuredly being the pushball game between the Pauli High School football team and the Pasadena High School football team held during the halftime at the Rose Bowl.
00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:33.519
The pushball thing was kind of a late ad to the Rose Bowl, because actually the original halftime show was supposed to be a harmonica shred-off between Polly and Pasadena.
00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:45.919
As the Long Beach Press said, quote, a mouth organ contest between the harmonica societies of the two schools was first arranged for, but objection was made on the ground that the sound waves might not carry to the farthest corners of the bleachers.
00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:53.440
This wasn't at the Rose Bowl Stadium, by the way, that was built in 1922, this was at Tournament Park, which held 30,000 folks.
00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:58.559
As for the big pushbowl game, the two teams pushed to a thrilling, scoreless tie.
00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:01.919
Like I said, utterly incomprehensible.
00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.159
Okay, on to our actual topic.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:09.200
The folk dancing panic of 1916.
00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:11.440
Alright, let's go.
00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.399
But first, let's get some context.
00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:15.759
Schools.
00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:21.919
Like we were saying in the first part of the 20th century, Long Beach was the fastest growing city in the whole United States.
00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:23.120
Of America.
00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:23.600
Whoa.
00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.080
Long Beach had people coming out, it's nose.
00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:29.039
They couldn't build stuff fast enough for all these people.
00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:32.799
Houses, businesses, churches, and definitely schools.
00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:37.120
Classes had an average of 40 kids per and it was only getting worse.
00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:44.240
So in 1916, the city held a bond issue to fund some school additions and also to build two intermediate schools.
00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:47.200
Most people thought the bond issue would pass no problem.
00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:49.039
Because this was the progressive era.
00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:53.919
People were into all kinds of reforms, and improved education was definitely part of it.
00:12:54.159 --> 00:13:06.480
Progressive era thinking was that education and democracy were pretty much synonymous, so they were focusing on things like critical thinking, collaborative learning, social responsibility, hands-on learning, and social skills.
00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.200
And folk dancing was part of this.
00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:13.360
Now when I think of folk dancing in school, I think of square dancing and stuff like that.
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:15.440
Did they make you square dance in school, Josh?
00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:16.639
Did you do see doe?
00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.000
I still have the scars from that, both mental and physical.
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.720
It's a don't see doe see don't.
00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:25.200
Perfect.
00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:27.519
Did you enjoy it?
00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:28.559
No, I hated it.
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:29.200
It was weird.
00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:29.519
Huh?
00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:30.879
Were you good at it?
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:32.960
Um, yeah, I was.
00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:34.480
Yeah, you were good at it.
00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.000
So that kind of Western square dancing in schools came a bit later.
00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:56.000
The kind of folk dancing going on in long beach schools in 1916 was Maypole type stuff, and some traditional Swedish circle dances, and some German clapping exercises, and also some circle games that seem a bit like Duck Duck Goose, and then some stuff that seems like Follow the Leader or Simon Sass.
00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:02.480
Oh, they did Squirrel in the Nest, Cat and Mouse, Watch the Teacher, and others too.
00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:13.039
And for the most part, these were kindergartners, first and second graders, some third and fourth graders, basically Lil' Pumpkins coming out to be super darling and mega precious, and that was folk dance.
00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:23.679
So one of the reasons folk dances were big in schools during this time was because there were so many newly immigrated people in America, and schools wanted to make kids feel at home and share their family's traditions.
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:26.480
So where was everybody from in Long Beach back then?
00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:32.000
According to the 1910 census, around 28% of Long Beachers were immigrants from other countries.
00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.000
Josh, care to guess which countries?
00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:34.879
Hmm.
00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:36.000
Canada?
00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.480
Canada at 23% is number two.
00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:39.440
Oh wow.
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:39.919
Okay.
00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:41.679
Um, let's see.
00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:44.080
You said German, so how about Germany?
00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:46.000
Germany was number three at 12.6%.
00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:47.679
And what about like Sweden?
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.120
They had Swedish uh folk dancing, but they're only at 2.7%.
00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:51.840
Okay.
00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.279
You're still looking for number one.
00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:53.679
Okay.
00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:54.320
Fiji?
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:55.679
That's what I thought too.
00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:56.000
Yeah.
00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:57.759
But it's it's it's England.
00:14:57.919 --> 00:14:58.159
Oh.
00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:11.200
So everything was going great, everybody in town was loving folk dancing, the kids would perform the dances at PTA events and whatnot, and the city was just booming with new people everywhere.
00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:16.960
So they held that bond issue for more schoolrooms, like we were just talking about a minute ago, and people thought it would pass.
00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:34.320
Until February 1916, when some school kids gave a folk dancing show to the Atlantic Avenue Welfare Club, and a big Barney popped off between the grown-ups about the appropriateness of teaching folk dancing in school, with one side passionately warning that folk dancing was a gateway drug to regular dancing.
00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:46.399
This was just a hint of things to come, because the next month, the mega powerful consortium, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, came down hard, looking to abolish folk dancing in Long Beach schools altogether.
00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:47.200
Abolish?
00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:48.159
Yeah.
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:48.720
Oh.
00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:59.600
Now the Women's Christian Temperance Union, or WCTU, or WIC2, as I assume cool people called it back then, is still around, though not nearly the big deal they used to be.
00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:20.080
The Women's Christian Temperance Union was a social reform-minded group of women formed in the late 1800s that worked for issues like women's right to vote, the prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of tobacco, raising the age of consent, which had been around 10 or 12 years old in most states when they first organized, and helping newly arrived immigrants get settled and Americanized.
00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:29.759
To modern ears, some of the things the WCTU pushed for, purity campaigns, as an example, can sound overly restrictive or regressive.
00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:49.440
But back in the day, the WCTU was a proto-feminist, even disruptive movement, in that they engaged millions of conservative traditional women in actions, marching in the street, lobbying politicians directly, running autonomous organizations completely free of male control, that can be described as feminist even if the women themselves didn't use that word.
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:53.600
And the Women's Christian Temperance Union packed a pow-pow powerful punch.
00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.600
People listened to their views.
00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:04.400
So the Temperance Union distributed petitions about abolishing all dancing in Long Beach schools and appointed a special committee to investigate school dancing.
00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:10.000
I should mention that this was the local office of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, not the national one.
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:15.359
Once the WCTU got involved, lots of Long Beach churches did too.
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:34.559
Reverend Louis Bowman, pastor of the First Brethren Church, said, Why should we permit the devil to enter the public schools of our city and teach our boys and girls the first steps of dancing, the pastime that leads so many souls to ruin, when they will not permit our Bible, the word of the living God, to be taught in the schools?
00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:38.799
I will tell you, Satan is making a tremendous bid for our public school system.
00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:44.480
Reverend Bowman was one of the biggest voices in the anti-folk dancing movement in Long Beach.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:53.440
He gave a series of lectures called Folk Dancing in Public Schools, Satan's Increasing Bid for Our Boys and Girls, and took out big ads in the newspaper about it.
00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:57.279
Other churches joined First Brethren in the fight against folk dancing.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:02.559
The First Baptist Church, the First Methodist Church, the First Christian Church, and others.
00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:07.039
And guys from these churches were leaders in a group called the Ministerial Association.
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:19.279
And in March 1916, the Ministerial Association insisted on an executive conference with the school board at which they demanded the abolition of folk dancing in school, and the school board was like, whoa, what's going on?
00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:28.960
Organizations popped up with names like the Citizens League that threatened to torpedo the district's upcoming bond issue unless the schools agreed to 86 the folk dancing.
00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:36.559
The folk dancing issue was used to elevate dubious arguments about the school district's general immorality and incompetence on all fronts.
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:42.160
Abuse and ridicule were heaped upon the teachers, the curriculum, and the superintendent.
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:48.400
Now keep in mind, it's pretty clear in retrospect that most people in Long Beach supported folk dancing in school.
00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:52.559
For most, it was nice, or at worst, not that big of a deal.
00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:06.319
As spring was springing in 1916, and while groups like the Ministerial Association were ramping up their demand for the end to the satanic behavior, various folk dance performances by the town's Lil Pumpkins were still being held at various events in town.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:09.599
I'll read an excerpt from an LA Times story from March.
00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:23.920
At a recent exhibition at the high school by Miss Vinnie G's gymnasium class, where folk dancing is part of the physical culture program, about a thousand girls, teachers, and mothers witnessed the artistic interpretation of a program on the front lawn of the high school.
00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:30.559
The girls were encord, time and again, and the mothers present were unanimous in their warm commendation at the performance.
00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:37.039
The angels could not help but smile upon such dancing as that, is the way one mother expressed it.
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:37.759
Agreed.
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:49.200
Support in favor of school folk dancing came from women's groups like the E Bell Club and the Friday Morning Discussion Club, and from parent groups like the PTA and religious groups like the Congregational Church and St.
00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:50.799
Luke's Episcopal Church.
00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:59.039
And regular townsfolk wrote letters to the editor proclaiming the innocence of folk dancing, and I'll read one from local businessman Milton Doolittle.
00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.920
Do they still have people with names like that, Milton Doolittle?
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:02.960
Or is that just over?
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:04.000
Yeah, that's done.
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:05.119
We can't do that anymore.
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:05.680
Okay.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:17.279
Milton Doolittle wrote, For any person who can look on this graceful, innocent diversion of these school children and see in it anything improper or suggestive, I have only this to say.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:24.720
Buy a barrel of Dutch cleanser, take it home, and scour out first your body, and then your mind, and then your soul.
00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:35.920
And then, with a white soul, clean hands, and a pure heart, go back and look at those happy children again and be everlastingly ashamed of yourself for having been such a ridiculous prude.
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.240
He's doing something.
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.599
So in April, the school district held a referendum, non-binding.
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:50.160
They sent ballots to parents and just asked them if they were for or against folk dancing.
00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:54.400
The results were overwhelmingly pro-folk dancing, 70% to 30.
00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:09.839
So in light of this, the school said that folk dancing would continue for the rest of the school year, including getting the little pumpkins out there for the already scheduled May festivals, with participation optional, and the district promised to keep thinking about it and talking about it and listening about it and mulling it over.
00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.200
Now, you'd think that that would chill things out a bit.
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.200
But it totally didn't.
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:20.160
In fact, the Ministerial Association said, okay, bet, now it's on.
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:26.079
Calvary Presbyterian presented a sermon called The End of the World and addressed folk dancing in it.
00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:37.920
And good old Reverend Bowman gave his next sermon the catchy title, Must People of Intense Conviction on the Subject of Dancing be compelled to take their children out of the public schools of our city and place them in secular schools for moral safety?
00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:39.119
That was the title?
00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:40.000
That was the title.
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:40.799
Catchy.
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:46.000
They held a big old mass meeting at the municipal auditorium, and 3,000 people showed up.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.440
They got to hear speakers say all kinds of wacky stuff, like the school board was being run by a cult.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.000
Their main arguments were, quote, the folk dance is useless and unprofitable.
00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:58.960
It destroys the spirit of democracy in our schools.
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:01.200
It violates the belief of many parents.
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:04.799
And finally, the Lord does not want it in our schools.
00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:06.480
Time is a flat circle.
00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:18.319
They distributed cards at the event that read, quote, It is the conviction of the undersigned that dancing, folk dancing, and so-called folk games in our schools are educationally unprofitable and should be discontinued.
00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:21.920
And people were supposed to sign it, and more than half the audience did.
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.599
Then, in May, the bond issue came to the voters.
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:29.680
Now let me be clear: this bond issue had nothing on it about folk dancing.
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:40.079
It was about adding rooms to existing schools and building two new intermediate schools, all very needed due to overcrowding, and yet the whole folk dancing thing hung heavily over the proceedings.
00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:45.759
The Long Beach School Board had taken such a beating in the toxic fou-fara over folk dancing.
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:56.640
It started with the folk dancing criticisms and then expanded to brutal attacks on all things school board, that they were in a cult, that they were in league with Satan, that it left a bad taste in a lot of the public's mouths.
00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:03.920
So the bond failed 55% to 45, and the overcrowding continued, actually worsened since no improvements were made.
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.000
And the folk dancing matter was dropped.
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:06.640
Completely.
00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:13.039
The next year, folk dancing in schools continued just as it had before, and the residents of Long Beach were, one assumes, fine with it.
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:17.920
There were no more fiery sermons or alarming messages that Long Beach was sentencing their children to hell.
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:23.440
Now I did do some poking around and I found out that many of those kids actually did end up going to hell.
00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:25.759
So that's something to keep in mind.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:27.839
But it was mostly for tax stuff.
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:28.960
Yeah, right.
00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:31.279
That's where they get you.
00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:36.319
A school bond finally did pass in 1920, and much-needed classrooms were added.
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:41.279
Long Beach's first junior highs, Washington and Edison, both opened in 1921.
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:47.599
And folk dancing in Long Beach schools carried on for decades and is still offered to Lil Punkins to this day.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:52.319
And that's it, Josh.
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.519
That's the story of the folk dancing panic of 1916.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.880
What conclusions can we come to about this?
00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:00.079
What's your takeaway?
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:08.160
I think if you can leverage a moral panic to get out of a PE credit, you should absolutely take advantage of that.
00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:09.359
Yeah.
00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:10.799
Thank you.
00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:12.240
And that's it.
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:14.160
Thanks for joining us today, you guys.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.240
Josh, thank you for joining us today.
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:17.279
Always a pleasure.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:18.640
Right back at you.
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:19.759
All right, everybody.
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.279
We'll see you next time.
00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:22.079
Adios.
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.119
Bye.
